Cyprus 91 Color Check

I found these two items. Scotts describes as "Green and Dp Green" while SG 118 just says "Green". (My Album, though, says Green and Deep Green.)

Are these the same item?

I would say that this stamp has a very wide variation in appearance of used examples. This is likely due to the chalk paper.

I have quite a few and it is almost not an exaggeration to say that no two look the same.

I don't know how many times they were printed, but there was not another 1/2pi stamp until the Salamis Forum pictorial of December, 1934, so that stretch of time could have introduced shade variations. Guessing. In used stamps, I attribute most of the variation to the soaking of the chalk paper.

Interesting - I have even more of a variation for the 3/4 piastre stamp (Scott 92).

The Commonwealth Five Reigns Catalogue which covers from Queen Victoria to King George VI shows two color shades for this stamp. One is listed as Yellow-Green and the other as Deep Green. I would contend you have both options, but generally the Yellow-Green is not so yellow. The last publication of this catalog was 1980, so not too many collectors use it, or even know about it.

I would look at unused stamps first before making a final decision. The yellow one might just be washed out.

Thank you - I'm not familiar with that catalogue, but sounds worthwhile.

The Commonwealth Catalogue is a good resource if you are specializing in any of the older British Colonies and want something with more listings than Scott or Gibbons. Unfortunately it has not been published since 1980, so you can only find it as a used book. I see them on ebay from time to time.

I collect British Colonies from the West Indies, and use the Commonwealth Catalogue in addition to Gibbons to look for color shades. It does help explain some of the things you find - like your two colors of Cyprus. Other than Bridger & Kay (who published the catalog), no one else lists any stamps with CW numbers.

Thanks again - at the moment my old British colony collection is in general not very strong, but who knows what country will interest me next...

Wow. A 5-year old topic resurrected and great information added. This really shows the value of doing a search before starting a new topic. SCF is truly a wonderful place ...