France 1900 Color Check

I always wondered about the background color here. My Scott's says the color is supposed to be Orange with Pale Blue background. I definitely see Pale Blue on the top stamp, but the lower almost looks like an intense dark green. Is this lower a variation not shown in my catalog? I'm only missing the 2F Gray Violet and Yellow from this group and really like the series.

What Scott calls "pale blue", Y&T calls "green blue". For France+area, I would definitely go with Y&T over Scott.

Yes, there are 3 color varieties of this stamp. The one not listed in Scott is the orange and green. I should have all 3. I'll see if I can pull out my old Y&T album and scan the stamps for your reference.

So, both of these could be construed as the standard Green-Blue? Or is there two different colors listed in Y&T? Just wondering as I only have the Scott's and just purchased a Stanley Gibbons for the Commonwealth. Thanks in advance.

Just saw your reply. The reference copies would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I think it was green-blue and green. However, both these colors tend to vary quite a bit, and also subject to color change (especially on used stamps). I'm not good with blue-green shades, so I usually rely on the orange color varieties to distinguish.

Let me see if I can find/retrieve my Y&T album.

Scott France #126, gray violet and yellow (Y&T #122, violet and yellow)



Scott France #127, orange and pale blue (Y&T #145, orange and green-blue)
In my Y&T France specialty album, there are actually 2 spaces:


??orange and green


??red orange and green blue

Looking at these last 2 stamps again, I realize I only looked at the orange vs red orange when I picked them out to insert into this album many years ago, and pretty much disregarded the green vs green-blue because I'm bad with greens and blues. So maybe the 127s I put into the Y&T are not good color references. Sorry. Not sure where I put all my duplicate 127s.

My 2010 Y&T France catalog does not list any color shade varieties for Y&T #145 -- it only gives orange and green-blue for Y&T #145.

[EDIT: after looking at my two 127s again, I have decided that both are probably the same shade, not varieties. Sorry, I should have looked at my album first before I said I would post them for reference. ]

Yes, my second stamp is definitely closer to the "red orange and green blue" version. My first one, though, is definitely has a very pale blue background. Any difference in prices for these color varieties?

My 2010 Y&T Timbres de France Volume 1 does not list the orange color varieties, even though my Y&T album does. So I cannot give you a price comparison for the 2 color orange/green color varieties.

My Y&T France album is 1937 version (I bought it because I thought the album pages had a special "look" -- normally I put little emphasis on album page appearance and I didn't really collect France before then). This is one case in which album pages motivated me to focus on an area. The 1937 album is quite interesting, as it had lots of spaces for color varieties for most of the early issues, not all of which are listed in the Y&T Volume 1.

For the 2fr Y&T #145, even though it has 2 spots for the color varieties and describes the colors, the album page still prints "145" for both spots.

Maybe somebody has the more recent Maury catalog and can shed some light on the color varieties and pricing.

There is little difference in pricing. €0.6 vs €1.5 (orange/green vs dark orange/dark green).
No mention of blue at all which I think is just a weak print of green.
I have a few of ones like this.

Thanks, Anthony!

Is that price from Maury, or a more recent Y&T?

That was from 2011 Maury

KHJ----I believe those stamps were used over many years,and have different printings.......when I get home will see what shades I have and will post them.

Here are my shade difference ,not sure which shades are listed in French catalogs.Scott has only one shade.They were used/ printed 1900 to 1929.I believe they had a few printings ,but thats my opinion .

Floortrader,

Thanks, I think you covered the spectrum of colors on this issue, and thanks to the other contributors for their input.

Just picked up Scott 126 to complete the set (SG 307, Y&T 122). Unfortunately, someone decided it was too nice and had to pierce it in the middle. Nicely centered, anyway.