Need Sources Of Updated Info For Brookmans.- Secret Marks

I keep telling myself that I need to continue reading through the Brookman books, but I can't seem to move past the 1869s. After reading your post, I realize why I need to continue on reading!

This is really helpful, Jeff. I have always hated the 15c Continental printings because of their inconsistency - and now I know why.

I look forward to reading more about these as you continue to share ...

It's absolutely fascinating Rileysan. There is so much great info that I'm not sure where to begin but I will put together a post on this very subject about the 15¢ Webster then if I'm feeling froggy maybe I'll tackle the 24¢ Winfield Scott! I see many hours of reading and hopefully a lot of intelligent conversation on the matters at hand too.

To elaborate a wee bit on my above post it is only speculated that a possible new die was made from National's old transfer roll. The thought being that the National's dies were of much better detail than Continentals work so that's one reason for the speculation plus, just through regular wear & tear on the plates from the ink, papers, wiping, etc... that parts of the design then didn't carry over properly enough to allow ink to properly get taken up by the paper. It's a bit difficult to attempt to describe something from this book because it's so to the point. I highly suggest reading it and you'll fastly understand my query for more recent info.

edit spelling and added text.

I bet kirk, Russ & essayk could add to this in a huge way? Are all you fellows out there still?

Jeff, Bill Weiss wrote an important book on the 15c banknote, so maybe he'll chime in. While I don't have a copy in front of me, I think Bill would tell you that the "V" mark mentioned in Brookman is not truly a "secret mark," but most likely plate wear. In a practical sense, that means that if the mark is prominently there, the stamp is almost certainly a Continental (Scott 163.) However, the lack of a mark doesn't necessarily mean it's a National Scott 152 (I'm assuming here that you can separate out the soft paper stamps which will be ABNCo Scott 189.)

In general, the more "yellow" it is, the more likely a National. The more "red," the more likely a Continental. But there are a lot of subtle shades in-between and even experts don't always agree on the ID of 152 vs. 163. The transitional paper makes it easy to sometimes mistake 163's for soft paper 189's. American 15c have a wide range of shades, but always soft paper.

A shade/color and paper reference set is imperative IMO for differentiating National vs. Continental 15c stamps. Again, Bill W. can give you a far more definitive answer on this. With a handful of basic reference stamps, I think you could get 95% of the 15c banknote ID's correct...

Everything Ken says is true and correct. And CD disk of my book is now available for half the price of the book, which is long out of print. Go to www.stampexpertizing.com to find a link to the available CDs. I personally chose the 15c to collect for several reasons, one of which was the fact that nothing definitive had been written about it since Brookman and to a lesser extent, DosPassos. I also liked the way cancels show so nicely. I found it to be a most attractive and interesting stamp. But my book (or CD) is very useful for anyone interested in that whole 1870-1890 period, as much of the production info on the 15c and types of existing material, is also true for the other values. There is a form on my website for ordering the CDs.

Thank you both. I'll have to get your ebook Mr. Weiss it looks like what I be needing and an interesting subject it is. I never really looked this deep into the secret marks before and I find it absolutely fascinating! I bought a #164P4 from Langs a few years ago just to see the marks first hand on that one but I'll have to look a little deeper on this Webster issue. Thank you.

https://goscf.com/t/23895&SearchTer...,Scott,proof