What! There's Different Paper!

Just when I thought I was getting a handle on things I found out I have to watch out for different kinds of paper

Backtrack a bit. I won my first scott's catalogue on ebay; 2007 vol 6 So to Z. Anyway I had a great time going thru the stamps from Togo and have about half of them hinged or mounted in the pages I made up for that country. It went rather smothely I thought and I was able to determine the scott's number for about 275 out 300 of the ones I had. Pretty good for an amateur.

So last night I pulled out the stamps I have for Switzerland. Well!!
Come to find out there's not only differences in colour shade and perforations but I have to figure out what paper is what???

For example One of the early sets(late 1800's) had 3 different printings 2 were on granite paper and one on white paper. All were perf 11 1/2.

I read up on the what granite paper was and it stated that they added linen or coloured paper fibers to the paper making process back then. Now I'm no paper expert but I assume that white paper wasn't like it is now. When looking closely to what I thought were scott's # 76 I could see the fibres on the back of the stamp.

Is there a sure fire way to figure out paper type?

As far as colour variation goes, my husband is a photographer and has an extensive colour wheel. Would these colours conincide whith the ones mentioned for stamps in the scott's calalogues or should I get one specific to stamp.

PS I'll post the Swiss stamps when I get home if it helps.

Diane, I have bad news for you...Canada also uses different types of paper when issuing stamps...it just gets deeper and deeper !!

Dianne,

I don't know what kind of color gauge your husband has, but you might need something stamp specific. Find a stamp with 2 color varieties in your catalog and see if you can find them on the color wheel.

To me, stamp colors have been very subjectively determined. They will differ between Scott and Minkus albums for the same stamps. For example, I was working on Netherlands in my collection a few nights ago. The stamps came from a Minkus collection, still on pages. Minkus had the colors for the stamp's varieties as blue green and ultramarine. My Scott album had them as gray blue and violet blue. The Scott colors were on the Wonder Color Gauge I have, but that isn't always the case. It works well enough, but when you're going down to something like pigeon blood (how subjective can you be -- how much pigeon blood have you seen) a Scott Color Gauge would probably be needed.

Thanks Modern who

That's kind of what I figured. I imagine I can get a scott's colour gauge at any big stamp shop? I am working with scott's catalogues and making my own pages.

Dianne (Still a bit confused)

Modern_who let me know if I can help with the Netherlands filling in spaces....

Dianne,

You might possibly, but I checked Subway Stamp Shop's catalog, a fairly large stamp supply catalog, and they only have the G&K Wonder Color Gauge, the Gibbons' Stamp Color Key (UK Gibbons catalog) and Michal Color Guide (Germany). I wonder if Scott still makes one.

Phil,

Thanks for the offer. I might do that.

Modern_who I have a lot of used stamps from 1992 to present of the Netherlands..mostly the minimum value..some semi postals a little higher..they are swapping material for me..i stopped collecting the Netherlands in 1992 when their PTT started flooding the market with 500,000 first day covers of each issue in a country of 15 million ! before that they had some value..they killed the goose !!

Phil, thanks, but I guess they are too recent. When I began collecting again, I decided to go only as far as 1973. That was the year I decided to quit collecting and it seemed like more than enough to work with. With British Commonwealth, I do go beyond that if the material happens to present itself in an auction lot, but I don't go looking for it.

Thanks Modern_who

I'll start searching

Dianne

ok guys I think I have the colour thing staightened out but what about paper type I'm still not sure how to tell graphite paper from white especiall if it was produced in the late 19th century. Anybody have any surefire tricks or know of a book that explains paper used in printing stamps.

Dianne

Modern who,

Did anyone ask the pigeon for a sample of his blood?

Dianne, not only are there different types of paper, used for stamps, I believe that the U.S. Americana Series, are printed with different types of Gum.

One type, is a glossy gum, and the second type is a dried, powdery
gum.

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Should have taken up rock collecting

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It wouldn't have helped Dianne. I'm told there are hundreds of kinds of rock also!