1869 12c Scott 117 No Sign Of Grill

Stampnoob, Just as an FYI, the paper orientation on the re-issues was 90 degrees opposite from the regular issues resulting in re-issues being sightly taller and slightly narrower than the regular issues. Your stamp being so off center might make a comparison to a regularly issued copy difficult, but perhaps not impossible, if you should get another 117 with grill to check for a re-issue, if your sure there is no trace of a grill, and can rule out a pressed out grill. I doubt that it is a re-issue based on what I'm seeing.

I can't rule out pressed because I don't know enough to do that, but the stamp is very heavily embossed, even relative to others in the collection with strong grills, which I would think pressing would remove also. I know it does that with paper money, which I'm much more familiar with; I worked at PMG for a time.

The BBC series "Fake or fortune" series 14 episode 4 "Freud or fraud?" demonstrated the use of Reflectance Transformation Imaging to recover an erased signature and edition number on an engraving. The major use of RTI seems to be creating digital surrogates of objects, but it also can be used to enhance traces of erased writing.

The information's good, but the presenters are fake as ****. I watch it with the sound turned down and the subtitles on.

I found one of these 12 cent stamps in a schoolboy album (presumably soaked off a letter from America). Haven't got round yet to removing the old hinge remnants of two or three hinges.