Frustration With Irish Watermarks

I recently purchased a set of MNH decimal currency issues SC 290 – 304 as an upgrade to my Ireland collection. They are supposed to have a watermark 262, an "e." It is pretty straightforward. Ireland watermarks are generally very easy to detect.

Checking my new acquisitions, I can't find a watermark on them. I first thought that I got a later decimal currency issue, SC 342 – 359 by mistake. There is only one problem. Some of the values are not the same in both issues. For example, SC 294 is 2 ½p and is only issued with a watermark 262. I can't find a watermark on those issues either.

I'm generally pretty good at teasing out a watermark. I've tried a black surface, tilting them at various angles to light and of course Ronsonol. Nothing shows up.

Has anyone else had this experience? Any suggestions?

I certainly can't fault the seller if I can't even find a watermark on the stamps that are issued only with a watermark. I'm stumped.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Dan

Dan ---After reading your posting ,I try to check out few from my stockbook and found like you did the watermarks are hard to find .

Floortrader,

Thank you for taking the time to check!

I regrouped and dug into my Hibernian and MacDonnel Whyte catalogs. This issue has a number of gum and paper variations. Some of them probably make it difficult to find a watermark. For example a "gs" variety is "medium thick, coated paper with a thick, shiny gum appearing almost like a lacquer. [From the Hibernian catalog]

It is interesting that the 1974 - 80 series without the watermark have some variations with fluorescent coated paper, unlike the earlier, watermarked issue.

Sure enough, they light up like a candle!

Goodie, more gum/paper varieties to collect!

Dan