Color Help... Please!

Hello folks, (I hope this is the right area for this) I have been reading up on stamp color (I am new to stamps... 4 months) and I have a question. Firstly, after some investigation I thought what I wanted was the "Scotts Specialized Color Guides" which I bought for the stamps I had purchased and could not Id by color, ie #10 & #11. I am not bashing the book but it only addressed 3 or 4 different stamps I believe and whats worse is this...I have a Brookmans and the Scotts catalogue and they list 2 colors for this 3c stamp and this color guide gave me about a dozen to choose from and only one was one of the colors named in the catalogs. It took my color confusion and just added to it, no help at all. Maybe I am missing something. So I then decided, through listening too you nice folks, that since I cannot afford the $500 white books I would just get the Stanley Gibbons color key (unless someone has a better suggestion for me... I collect US). My ultimate question is this...is this SG key going to tell me weather my stamps are a #10 or a #11 or is it just going to confuse me or leave me in doubt. I hope I dont come off as negative, we all know color is a tough issue, I just want to know if I should even pursue the situation or stay away from certain stamps all together or send everything out or.....what??? haha Thank you very much in advance, Dave
PS a stamp professional whose services I recently rendered told me to get a US color stamp guide but Stanley Gibbons is English... right?

Hi issuarian, welcome.

Yes, Stanley Gobbons is from England (Great Britain) and is usually used for stamps of Britain and the British Commonwealth countries as far as I know. I don't have one myself, or any other colour fuide either. But I read a lot.

I know from having a concise catalog from SG about Great Briatin stamps that the colour names they use are different than those Scott's use or other non-English language catalogues.

Once you get one I think it is best if you stick with that one and don't go confusing the mix with different names and possibly shades.

There are some specialized books and posters sometimes for specific eras of stamps. There are guides on the web sometimes, but be careful as the screen colours can be different from one monitor to the next. Or the stamp looks different in different lights too.

The ideal thing is to compare your stamp in person to one that you know is a certain shade. When you have them side by side sometimes things seem so obvious.

Don't get confused. Stick with one system first until you know that and can see the differences between that and others.

issuarian. You have taken on one of the most difficult areas in stamp collecting. Seasoned collectors often fear to tread into color identification. But don't take my comments to be negative ... go for it! But expect it to be a long haul. Keep in mind that many early stamps have faded or changed color due to aging and no color guide will have an exact match for these.

Meanwhile, wait to see if others here may recommend a color guide for US stamps. Also, take a look at two websites that may be of help to you. www.usa1847.com and www.theswedishtiger.com

Marty

Thanks guys, I will wait and see who says what, I really would like to get something as sometimes even not knowing what the name of a color is, like Lake, it would be helpful just to know it was red. Dave

Hi Dave,

welcome to the forum.

Colours can have you pulling your hair out, so I suggest just taking it all in and learning as you go along. I have a SG Colour guide and it is just that, a guide.
Who is to say what is Red and what is lake. I once collected Egypt stamps and had great fun with colours.
Just to give two examples of what is in store for your Philatelic future.
The SG Stamp Colour Key [to give it it's proper title] lists a colour Claret and a colour Deep Claret. They are as different as Black and White ! And their Maroon is never Maroon.......

Also, and just to prove the point, Royal Mail [UK] recently issued sheet Machins which could be purchased in colour blocks, with the colour name in the margin. You will not find therse colours listed in the SG GB catalogue !

So you see, to each their own. I can almost guarantee that if I posted a scan of a colour here at the group and asked what colour it was, I would get a number of different answers. So it is with catalogues too.

You will soon learn that red is Bright Scarlet and Carmine-Lake and Deep rose Red are the same colour !

have fun, let me know if your hair starts to thin !

Londonbus1....just trying to be helpful

London remember trying to identify the colours of the "00p" machins - that was fun !

The banknote companies that produced our early stamps experienced quality control problems with colors that contained red. This was particularly true of the 3¢ 1851-1861 stamps. Experts have identified no fewer than 34 colors on imperforate stamps and 18 colors on perforated stamps. The orange brown colors used throughout 1851 were considered to be so distinctive by Dr. Chase that a separate Scott catalog number (#10) is assigned to them. All other catalog numbers are based on the nature of the frame lines that enclose the stamps and whether the stamps are imperforate or perforated.

I think your quickest route to colour is belonging
to a stamp club.
In ours, experienced collectors are always asking each other for opinions on stamps, and colour is one of them.

I picked up a 10 bob GB stamp this morning, which I will post here for an opinion.

The next route (if possible) is to compare multiples on a table,
shades and colour then become apparent.
(difficult of course with expensive rare stamps)

Comparing multiples helped me with India (from slate to grey)



By far the most diverse colour examples reside in the Australian
1d red, here is a "flow chart" for the colour red,
you can spot the nuance of colour change.




And I nicked this bit from the internet...
The only example known to me, described as "Pigeon Blood Pink"

Its funny, I am a dealer of everything on ebay, particularly pocket watches and diamonds but recently I took on an estate for a friend and this estate included a fairly large collection of stamps left behind by the owner who passed away. I have never taking a liking to anything I have sold on ebay and I have sold everything. For some reason I have gone crazy with the stamps, in four months I have probably crammed 2 years of time/knowledge as I have done little else in fact you might say I have been neglecting other areas of my life, haha. My point is that I have put a lot of all the helpful hints you have been talking about into use already in relation to color. I have had a bunch of the same Bermuda stamps and that made it easy to pick out the rare color stamps, I have paid for help a couple times, as I said I have crammed a lot into a short period and have processed MANY stamps, bought all the equipment/tools, books etc. This color book is the last piece in my toolbox or at least in my starter set. It really bugs me to have stamps that I cant identify, I have about 10 - #10 or #11 stamps and they all look slightly different...what do I do with them??? haha I want to pull my hair out! haha No seriously I am the type that really needs these details to be taken care of and the stamps put into their proper places, limbo doesnt cut it. I would imagine I would have to buy different color tools for certain different stamps as well as using the forum and the other things talked about but a general color key I am thinking is a must. Is this not a correct assumption?
Is there a difference between the $5 ebay color key and the $30? SG color key. I dont mind spending the extra money if it is going to be even a little more helpful. I found myself being pulled toward the White books before I even heard you folks talking about them, even at $500. I am a carpenter by trade and having the best tools is important for speed and accuracy and it was obvious the White books were where it was at. Time is money, Unfortunately for me, so all the time I fight with these colors could justify buying a good copy of those books. I simply must know which stamps I have!! haha I know speed and accuracy does not a good stamp collector make, I mean you are supposed to relax and enjoy but I guess I am not relaxed while being unsure of which stamps I have, Sorry for rambling. Dave

Excellent read issuarian. Thanks for sharing.

I think some if not many collectors are similar in that they wish to have things tidy and orderly and know what's what. It bugs me when I don't know and don't have the proper tools to do the job.

They promote stamp collecting as a relaxing hobby but it can be exciting and challenging at the same time. Everyone approaches it differently at different times also I think.

There is the chase and hunt of finding that illusive stamp or set or finding information or accumulating knowledge of a subject by collecting examples of and comparing and studying.

Also, it's nice to have someone on here who types as long a post as me!

Oh oh - Puzzler has competition. He is the only one here whose text takes up more memory than his images

The memory of my text burns an image in one's mind.

)Hopefully non scarring!)

The pen is mightier than the sword and all that.

Strange though, I always wanted to be a barbarian with a sword. I wonder where that came from?

haha sorry for being so long, I just thought it would help to give as much info as possible to get the proper help is all haha
Say, I have something I bet one of you guys would love to have, for free of course, I bought it thinking it was something else and have no use for it. This is the ebay auction number so you know what it is...apparently it makes all/any kind of page to attach stamps to!
320539686540 Let me know...I guess the first one to post here that they want it can have it. Dave

I would have thought someone could have used it, I will give it some more time and then post it elsewhere.

I believe that you will be very disappointed with attempting to use the Stanley-Gibbons color guide because it doesn't relate to the Scott catalog. The colors in that gauge do not equate name-wise to the same colors, by a different name, in the Scott catalog. The color guide I have found to be most helpful for Scott cataloging is called the "Wonder Color Gauge". Good luck in deciphering this very complex area of philately.

Thank you for that, I can tell that this is not going to be a cut and dry thing but I did at least want something to help me. I do appreciate everyone's input...