Color Shades Of France Peace & Commerce 1-Cent

Scott only lists a few shades of the 1-cent Peace & Commerce stamp (Scott 86-87), but Maury lists a whole bunch. The Prussian Blue is the one that everyone looks for, but online images are all over the map.

I scanned 4 of the colors together on the same sheet and am trying to identify the two on the far right. The rightmost stamp is a dead ringer for most of the images I've seen of Prussian Blue, but my assumption is that it is someone's attempt at fakery, as the blue isn't consistent throughout the stamp; the surface just looks wrong.

Below the combined image are closeups of each individual stamp.

To me, looking at a scan as it appears on my screen, #3 looks closest to lilac blue. #4 looks a bit strange, but in any event I don't think it has the pop to be Prussian blue. You've probably seen this but for others who have not, here is one Siegel sold as Prussian blue several years back:

That's part of the danger in relying on images for color. They are so inconsistent.

All of the following are also from Siegel's archives as Scott #87:







Images from stampauctionnetwork:






Interestingly, they all have that mottled surface appearance, which I assumed was an indicator of monkeybusiness...

A bit late...just wanted to add:
In addition to the rather 'subjective' perception of colors, there are also other markers to look for in order to determine if you have a Prussian blue or not:




http://didier-galagain.monsite-oran...c5607cf7.pdf

Good luck!

revenue collector - it seems to me both your stamp number 3 and 4 in your OP are subtype IIA. Both have a rounded or weak LL corner and no shading on 'S' or middle streak on 'E' in 'POSTES', meaning they could potentially be the prussian blue. Number 4 is rather interesting - agree with you about the 'mottled' appearance. As far as I can judge from a monitor it can be either the #231;obalt blue or the prussian blue, and in either case it's nice find.