Show Your US 1861 Perforated Stamps

stallzer - In case you weren't aware, your bottom 24c stamp is the "Scratch Under A" variety.

It has a Scott catalog listing, I believe under 70, 78, and probably other numbers for the stamp.

I "think" this link below will not be behind a paywall since its an old Chronicle article.
August 1991, Whole Number 151.
Article: Discovery of a New Plate Variety on the 1867 Grilled Issue:
"Scratch under 'A' of 'POSTAGE'" on the 24¢ "F" Grill, Scott No. 99
Author(s): Jerome S. Wagshal

https://chronicle.uspcs.org/pdf/Chr...51/17821.pdf

I have trained my eye to look for these through the years. I have not found many, although I have discovered a few. Now yours. They aren't super common.

Thanks for that Txstamp. I have never heard of it and never noticed it.

Interesting article. Wonder if the case is scarcity or lack of study, or both.

My guess is both -- however, I have casually looked for them, and they aren't terribly easy to find, so you have a nice variety, regardless.

Finally got to sit down with a catalog (I use Scott Specialized 2017) hoping to identify those 3 and figured the "scratch under A" would determine whether it was a 70 or 78. Both Scott 70 Red Lilac and Scott 78 Lilac (no other shades) have listings for the scratch.......

No value assigned but they acknowledge it's existence.

A page from my 1861 series collection. I love every design in this series. Seeing these colors together on a page is eye popping beauty to me!

Wowza, that is a beautiful page. There are some shades there I have never seen. Saving this page for future reference. Despite what people say about colors on computer screens, seeing them all together like that is very helpful.

Gorgeous stamps. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you ZebraMan and NicholasC!

It definitely helps to put shades side-by-side. Here's a page from my off-cover reference collection for US#65 & A25 shades.

All are US#65 unless indicated otherwise
Green dot = has certificate naming the color shade
Yellow dot = recognized expert shade opinion
Month & Year = from McClung Chronicle table

Seems a crime to reduce a 34mb scan to 300kb, but you get the idea.



I have other cert'd shades on cover, but if you want to see them objectively, best to scan together and compare.

Wow, LB522! This is a real treat for the eyes! This must have took you a lot of time to get all these stamps variations!

Here's a neat cover I got recently with a Cambridgeport cancel (S & E GE-P 33) on a Scott 65. The cover has an interesting detail where you can see it took 22 days to go from Boston to Cambridgeport. The year is a little smudged but definitely somewhere in the 1860's.

Eighteen perforation-wide straddle margin #65. Anyone have a wider one?

Scott 65 Brownish Carmine

Work.n.Progress

One of my purchases recently was this nice 65 with a Ridgefield CT cancel in a dealer's miscellaneous cancels book, listed in Skinner and Eno as LS-R 17. I had a hard time identifying it at first because I was thinking it was an E or W, but eventually realized it was an R.