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Scott 63 Colors, Inking Problem, Secret? Mark

 
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Posted 02/16/2019   01:34 am  Show Profile Bookmark this topic Add Burnside Bob to your friends list Get a Link to this Message
I bought a remainder collection some time ago that had two Scott #63's of different shades and papers. What colors are these?

The first two images show the two stamps side by side, front then back. The third image shows the bottom left corner of the stamp on whiter paper and my next questions refer to this third image.

Why are there white areas where the field should have been blue--particularly under the "U", which looks like it is sitting on a pillow, but also under and inside the "O" of "ONE"?

And looking under the "N" of "ONE" there appears to be a micro sized "S". What is that about?

TIA for your expertise!

Burnside



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Posted 02/16/2019   09:51 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add AJ Valente to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
If coming from a background of 20th century stamps one must be apprised that at some point both papers and inks revert to earlier forms.

In the 20th century the papers are all wood-pulp. In the mid-19th century the papers are all cotton rag.

Inks used in the 20th century are aniline, whilst the inks of the mid-19th century were mineral-based.

It takes years of study to get a handle on things. Begin with the fundamentals, specifically flat plate printing.

The presses used for this 1-cent stamp were steam powered, and actions happened so quickly it's hard to say what exactly occurred.

I suggest in this case some paper shavings or debris had lain on the plate or paper during printing, then later flaked-off creating the blank spots.
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Posted 02/16/2019   3:03 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add Burnside Bob to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
AJ, thank you for your input.

Scott Specialized lists the following colors for this issue: blue, light blue, bright blue, dark blue, and ultramarine. There have been several color studies sold by Siegel, only one of which has a .pdf showing all stamps, available here: https://siegelauctions.com/2018/1195/pdf/109.pdf

My lighter, brighter blue stamp doesn't match any of these colors in this study, but is closest to the stamp labeled 'ultramarine' and quite different from 'bright blue'. The caveat is that the person assigning colors in this study was a collector, not an expertizer, so the depth of his knowledge re color shades/nomenclature is unknown.

As for paper, Scott Specialized comments the following "These stamps (1875 resissues) can be distinguished from the 1861-66 issue by the brighter colors, the sharper proof-like impressions and the paper which is very white instead of yellowish." Scott Specialized 2015 page 29.

Now do I think this is an 1875 reissue? No--horribly mis-perfed.

My theory is that the "pillow" under the "U" and the white spots in the shaded areas of "O" in "ONE" occurred because there wasn't enough ink on the plate to fill these areas with solid color.

So, your thoughts about the correct color shades of these stamps? The micro "S" under the "ONE"?



Burnside








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Posted 02/17/2019   07:56 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add ClassicPhilatelist to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Hi Bob,
What you're seeing isn't at all unusual for this issue. (The term for these extensive and minimally repeatable variations is known as "fly speking" in philately).
This issue I think I can find something different in every example even if I had 100's of them. I'm attaching 3 examples similar to your findings.




In this example the O is almost squre. Note the C has numerous blue specks in it, and is so closed it's almost an O as well. Lots of ink transfer issues in this strike.



In this example, the O is wider at the inside of the inner oval at left. There is a heavy "blue" area around the E in the same place as you "s". lots of specs in the blue shadowing of the C, but the C is cleaner and more distinctive then the previous example.



Lastly, this example, the upper left of the N in One appears as almost a big gash the blue line is so heavy. The base of the E is wide, the base of the N also almost blends into the leg of the N.

I looked at 30 examples of 63 that I have on hand at the moment, and two of them have that similar "s" that you see, but this is just a pattern your brain is grabbing as recognizable. It doesn't specifically repeat, and is more an attempt for your head to rationalize something that it is seeing.

As for the shades, from what I see in your photos, there is nothing remarkable about the shades. There two specific variation (the 63a - Ultramarine and the 63b - Dark Blue), neither of which these two are. The paper types are also identical, one is just toned more than the other. (Left paper is toned, it happens over exposure of decades to variation in temperature and humidity. Proper storage can reduce that deterioration, so the one at right was probably stored better and/or in a more suitable climate over the decades then the one on the left.

I also compared these to the Bill Weiss reference collection color variations that I have, (as I acquired Bill's reference collection before he passed away on 21st November 2015). Color again, from what I can see in these images, are common variations of shades for typical 63.

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Posted 02/17/2019   08:56 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add AJ Valente to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Burnside Bob writes "he white spots in the shaded areas of "O" in "ONE" occurred because there wasn't enough ink on the plate to fill these areas with solid color."

A common misconception. There is plenty of ink to go around. Printing is a continuous process where the recesses retain a certain amount of ink in-between printings.

There is a condition among initial printing of a new plate where the ink may not have built-up sufficiently or completely. In this case the printing appears pale, the so-called "pale early" printings, and there are numerous examples of this. I would entertain the thought that some early "pulls" may possess a "pox" or condition similar to that under consideration here, but those sheets are generally in the category of printer's waste.

Now take a closer look at the anomalies on your stamp. See the irregular patterns around the edges? Ink is fluid and does not leave jagged edges as this. Rather, some slip of tissue or other such debris was caught-up in the printing, then flaked away sometime after leaving the irregular patch behind.
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Posted 02/17/2019   11:37 am  Show Profile Check sinclair2010's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add sinclair2010 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Lots of yarn being made here, as usual. Despite that, and even though one does exist, a good explanation for the white spots has not been brought forth. The white spots are caused by a dry print, a fairly common condition on 19th century stamps. The thing about dry prints is they frequently and disproportionately affect the most heavily inked areas of the design. Furthermore, each occurrence will present itself with a fairly similar pattern specific to each design, be it a 1c 1861, 1857, or a 3c 1851 stamp. This is why you can start searching through #63's and find stamps with nearly identical white spots.

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Posted 02/18/2019   12:54 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add Burnside Bob to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Sinclair2010 wrote: " a good explanation for the white spots has not been brought forth. The white spots are caused by a dry print, a fairly common condition on 19th century stamps. The thing about dry prints is they frequently and disproportionately affect the most heavily inked areas of the design. Furthermore, each occurrence will present itself with a fairly similar pattern specific to each design, be it a 1c 1861, 1857, or a 3c 1851 stamp. This is why you can start searching through #63's and find stamps with nearly identical white spots."

Thanks for this comment, Sinclair. That is pretty much my thinking. To go along with that, the paper is thinner, harder, whiter, and less porous. The impression is sharper--the lathe lines in the oval, for example, are much clearer, as shown below.

I wanted to solicit your expert opinions rather than wash around with my half baked ideas--so I held back because putting out my opinion might 'poison the well'. I think the brighter stamp is is a dry plate early impression made when a press was switched to the one cent plate. Going along with this idea is the lack of background color on the paper--just think of Post Office Officials for example--use of a harder whiter paper, the sharpness of the strike, and lack of full ink.

If I'm correct, the press would have been run slowly, resulting in a sharp impression. If a harder paper was available, this would be used preferentially as an impression on hard paper would make it easier to verify correct adjustment of the platen, plate, etc.

Since every sheet of paper had to be accounted for, if the impression was good, the printed sheet was put in the "out" pile and it was "full steam ahead".

But that is my theory. And my response here a good example of 'confirmation bias'.

FWIW, none of my scans have been color corrected or enhanced.

Thanks, all, for your input.


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Posted 02/18/2019   5:09 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add AJ Valente to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
I have an ugly cover that I should have discarded years ago but couldn't because it is such a good/bad example of dry print that is rare in and off itself.

Intaglio printing is not really understood by most collectors.

It is called a wet process, and that is because each sheet is dampened prior to printing. Why is that? Do you know why the sheets are dampened?

When the ink contacts the paper it cannot flow anywhere because the paper is already saturated. So, the ink just says on the surface. This is why intaglio produces such fine impressions.

If the paper is not sufficiently dampened the ink simply flows into the paper wherever it wants, generally travelling outside the boundaries of the recesses it came from. As the ink no longer remains on the surface the image becomes flat and muddy.

Some call it a "muddy printing," but this is also known as a "dry printing."


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Posted 02/18/2019   5:20 pm  Show Profile Check sinclair2010's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add sinclair2010 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
I disagree with quite a bit of what you are saying, AJ. I will say more when I have the chance, which will be later tonight.
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Posted 02/18/2019   8:04 pm  Show Profile Check sinclair2010's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add sinclair2010 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
In intaglio printing the paper is wetted for two reasons: 1. It makes the paper pliable enough to be forced into the recesses of the plate so that the ink can be picked up and 2. It actually helps the ink stick to the paper.

Never, at least intentionally, was the paper actually "saturated" with water. That would cause the ink to be repelled by the water resulting in defects similar to dry prints. James H. Baxter, in his book Printing Postage Stamps by Line Engraving, mentions that white spots can be created in a dry print situation because the paper is not forced into the recesses of the plate and does not pick up the ink. He goes on to talk about another form of dry print where the ink is picked up yet does not adhere to the paper and is peeled off in subsequent handling of the printed sheet. I think this is the more common form of dry print that we see.

Has anybody ever noticed that if you let your house plants get too dry the water doesn't like to sink in? I think the same thing happens in a dry print. Probably a surface tension thing...
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Edited by sinclair2010 - 02/18/2019 8:05 pm
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Posted 02/18/2019   8:43 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add rogdcam to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Gamma equals force divided by length.
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Posted 02/23/2019   05:24 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add AJ Valente to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
20th century printing aside.

Baker, Cathleen, From the Hand to the Machine, 181

"If there were no apprentices to handle the paper once production began, the printer had to dry the ink on his hands before touching the paper, both before and after printing. Rather than washing his hands every time, he used talc or chalk that was absorbed by the ink, making it dry and less likely to transfer to the paper. Interesting, curators, collectors, and conservators have long observed that, on many intaglio printings, there are white spots dotting the surface of a discolored paper. One explanation for this may be that, when the printer clapped his hands to remove excess powder, a fine mist of it may have fallen on the damp paper, where it may have functioned as a local alkaline reserve. . . . "
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Edited by AJ Valente - 02/23/2019 05:44 am
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Posted 02/23/2019   09:48 am  Show Profile Check sinclair2010's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add sinclair2010 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
I haven't observed such a phenomenon but my my assumption is that this would be most likely observed from the back of a stamp and has nothing to do with the white spots we are talking about here.
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