R41d ??

This is the other stamp I received in mail yesterday. Total investment of both stamps was less than 7$. This is the thrill of the hunt for me. It is in terrible shape with a cut canx. Silk looked a bit dark to me, but have seen varying degrees of fiber color in first issue, and private die revenues.






Thanks for looking, and always value everyone's opinions.

Good to hear from you, glad I found this site. Concerning the experimental silk paper all you need to do is find stamps with the thicker white paper with relatively few silk fibers so they are not considered the silk paper variety. If no silk fibers are found and the paper is that of ex silk paper and you try to get a certificate, I know for sure from the APS, you will get a certificate stating old paper. Recently Michael Aldrich had a hor. strip of 3 and the right stamp had a cert. as ex silk and the other two old paper in case they are separated. To me the cert. should have stated the first two stamps were on ex silk like paper with no silk fibers obvious. Scott should also list this as well as the 1870 thick paper. If you get tired of the Aug. Eichele stamp, I will take it back anytime. There is two reasons I sold this stamp, and here are the picks of them. I did the same when I obtained this 12cent San Francisco-I put 3 nice others back in circulation. I'm glad I didn't start any later to collect Match Stamps-should have started earlier. Enjoy the picks.

That last picture just made my mouth water, thats a beauty!! Problem I am having with the e-silk, is I thought the silk was added to the old paper. Some e-silk have thicker paper, some thinner. EX Eureka match co. Only issued in old and ex-silk. That is not a thick paper for either version.

The Eichele is a keeper, if you have some other match stamps that you are interested in getting rid of, let me know. Maybe not a spare RO185a, but others, lol.(Not going to rob a bank). I wish I had started earlier too, prices are soaring. A great section of revenues to collect though. I have pretty much put the medicine on hold for awhile. I would like to get a few of the higher value matches filled before moving on to them.
It is good that you found this site too, as I did. Lots to learn and many extremely knowledgeable folks here. Hats off to all that have helped me and the countless others in need.

Experimental silk is not simply old paper with a few threads in it, it is a separate paper with it's own characteristics.

@ revcollector, I used the Eureka match stamp as example because the A & E papers are so close to each other that only distinguishing factor is the addition of silk. Paper is rather thin, but not white as other old papers are. The vermillion New york match has a much thicker old paper more closely resembling the first issue silks, and the E-Silk is same paper with silk in it. Other match stamps are known on thick and thin old papers. I have ordered some books to help with the paper dilemma, and will make some purchases of know paper types for reference copies. I am actually pretty good at seeing paper differences, but finding wrong paper types with many threads in it is confusing. That is why I asked about the rag content. Usually can tell difference from thin rag to silk. The 105e in other post is wrong paper type, but many blue threads embedded similar to silk. Lots of reading and comparison ahead.

Books are always helpful and important, but seeing lots of stamps is really the only way. There were multiple companies selling B&C paper, and the speed required due to the war and it's immediate aftermath meant that they just grabbed whatever was on top of the pile. And the idea of quality control was just a dream at the time. Since the stamps were always printed on an "as needed" basis, individual specific stamps do not always conform to the general description of any specific paper. For example, the black 4 cent Marsden (RS176a) is the thinnest hardest paper I know of for any M&M. It almost looks like an India paper it is so thin. No other M&M is quite like it. The point is that there is always going to be a range to all these papers, but that in general they have a certain look.