Flouresence On Canadian Stamps

i am quite new to the world of flouresence on stamps .
when trying to determine if a stamp has F or NF etc I see that in the unitrade they give stamps numbers to go by for examples. my question is do I look and compare the face of the stamp or the back of the stamp.

Compare the face side.

- stamporator -

so I looked at the stamp and the one that unitrade listed for an example to go by and I cant see any difference on the face even though one is suppose to be F and the other NF. however the back side is a different story. the one thats suppose to be F is bright and the other is flat. I just cannot see a difference looking at the face even though there is suppose to be a difference. I think maybe I shouldnt worry about what the flouresence is/could be /should be/ or might be :)

Twitch, that sounds strange. Can you see fluorescence on any other stamp that you have?

Peter

peter I have two scott 453 15 cent stamp. one is dull and the other lights up like a xmas tree under uv light. that is the only stamp I can see any flouresence in. that in itself seems odd because of all the stamps I have that is the only one that lights up like that so far
maybe it something I dont understand about all this flouresence thing

Twitch, only thing I can think off seems a bit crazy. Most stamps ( at least here in the States ) that are fluorescent have the tagging applied after the printing. All of that takes place in one run of the press, so a stamp could not be tagged on the backside by mistake, like feeding the paper in backwards.
Do you know, or can you find out how your particular stamp was tagged? If the taggant was applied after the printing and as a separate press run it is possible that the backside of the stamp is tagged.

Peter

peter I put the stamp under the uv in a really dark room and I dont see any tagging. I have 3. the other stamps from the same time frame(1964) do not show anything either

OK, I got another question. Not to pester you, but trying to help figure out where the trouble lies!
What kind of UV light do you have? Is it a short wave or a long wave light? If you don't know, you can tell by looking at the bulb. PLEASE DO NOT LOOK INTO THE LIGHT WHEN ON!
If the bulb is clear you have a short wave light. If the color of the bulb is a deep purple or almost black in appearance it is a long wave bulb.

Peter

your not pestering :) I use the long wave for viewing the tagging on canadian stamps.it shows the tagging and florescent paper on all my other stamps.
now I think these may not be tagged because they are frm 1962 and I think tagging started around then. some were tagged and some were not

OK, I think you've got it! Check with the Unitrade, they should indicate somewhere when tagging started!

Peter

you know I have not looked at these stamps since 1986.now that I lots of time im finding all sorts of thing