US "Official Series"... How Can You Tell The Differences?

I am puzzled as to how to differentiate between some of the 1876 and 1879 Officials. How does one tel,for example, if its a O83 or O114?

Airbornebob,

The O83 was printed on hard thin paper while the O114 was printed on soft porous paper. The best way to tell is hold them both with tongs with a slight overlap between the two stamps and place them up to a good light source in the background. The O114 will not allow as much light to pass through it and will have a somewhat molted look to it. (you may see paper threads). The 083 will generally look much cleaner and allow more light to pass through it.

I hope that helps and with trying a few examples you will soon see the difference with a bit more ease.

BTW: Just from a view of the front of your stamp and some of the texture I see in the photo, I would guess yours is a O114 but the light test will tell the story.


Hobsun

ahhhh... I seee!! Thanks!

A good thing to do is look for values that only come on one paper; this will give you a good basic guide to start with. It is tricky at times, because some values also come on an "intermediate" paper, which is a slightly thicker version of the hard paper. It has some of the characteristics of the soft paper, but they are not as noticeable as they are on the soft paper. Officials are essentially Large Banknotes when it comes to the paper, if one knows them at all well then the officials become much easier.