Few Questions About Imperial Russia Stamps.

I do not have a specialized Russian catalog, and Scott is not the best reference for classic stamps.

Stamps below are both Scott # 26 based on Horizontally Laid paper. Based on Scott the background color is red as on the left stamp. The stamp on the right looks more like salmon. Is there any listed shades of this issue in specialized catalog, or this is simply a faded stamp.






This pair are both Scott #42 based on HL paper. Most of the stamps of this design look like stamp on the left. The stamp on the right looks like have background recut. The lines around the eagle are much thicker, and broken in many places. Again my Scott is quite about it.




This is going to be a tough one. Notice a green overprint at the very bottom of this Scott #19. Any ideas?, part of the cancel, revenue, local, commercial?

My 2009 Michel lists the first stamp as No.24 with "Tone", so yes, shades but no separate catalogue numbers.

The second stamp lists as two shades, 41a as "blau" (blue), & 41b as "hellblau" (light blue).

The third stamp is going to be a bit of fun. The letters I see are the Russian "K C C H" which translate into the English "K S S N". Good luck!

From SG (albeit an old one):

2k listed as SG30, black and rose, but with shades (not itemised), which suggests a range;
10k listed as SG56, indigo blue, with a 56a, blue, which seems to match your pair.

Which is very similar to YeaPolska's Michel.

There also seems to be something before the K and after the H on the 1k!

Geoff

I think "bright blue" would be a better translation than "light blue" for "hellblau" unless Michel is using "hell" in its own idiosyncratic sense. I can see how someone could associate "light" and "hell" -- in terms of lighter being more full of light, brighter. But in English colors, light blue usually means paler blue rather than more shining, more bright, more full of light. It's a curious phenomenon that I had heretofore never considered. Light blue in English takes on overtones from "light" meaning weighing less, so lighter blue is less blue, not more blue. Bright carries the meaning of more, more intense, brighter.

My gloss may simply reflect the peculiarities of Scott nomenclature, where "bright" is often used for shades, with the "intense" meaning, and "pale" is used for less intense. I have not looked at color charts with English nomenclature. Scott calls the main color for 42 "dark blue" while SG calls that "indigo," which permits the variant to be just "blue"--so Michel's "blau" = dark blue/indigo and Michel's "hellblau" = blue (SG,not listed in Scott)--the variation is between a standard blue (hellblau, bright blue) and a darker blue or indigo, rather than between a standard blue and a light blue. For that reason, I'd think bright blue the best translation for hellblau.

But what this points up is that not only do color charts vary one from the other but the terminology is wildly variant. Indigo is not often used by Scott and when it is used, it is used for a very dark blue, almost black; I'm guessing, from this example, that SG uses it more frequently and for more straightforward blues.

Is language complicated or what?

That's a fine lesson in english color terminology, interesting and frustrating. Thanks for sharing.

You also have the color lightfastness, I don't know if you can use it for stamps, but in Oil or Acrylicic painting we use it to know how permanent a color is. When they print stamps they use cheap pigment that change color with years ( a least in the past) , yellow and oranges are good example.

German "hellblau" is usually translated as "light blue" and similarly for other colours but "hell" can meet "bright" as in "helles Blau".

The straight-line mark looks to me to include the letters "KSCH" so maybe it's German (Baltic?) or Dutch but not Cyrillic.