Is There A Thick Paper Variety For First Series Revenues

came across a block of 4 of R33c in a glassine which had notes
"r33c used block of 4 thick paper variety 1987 from frank bach"

don't know if he is meaning the frank bachenhiemer sp? I see advertised. I have never met or dealt with him.

Is there such a thing as thick paper on first issue revenues. if so where can I read up on them.

thank you for your time and assistance.
colonel

Some stamps do come on a very thick paper, such as the $3 Charter Party. I do not recall any articles about them, however.

I believe there is some mention of the thick papers in The Boston Book.

I've seen some examples of the 50-cent (one of the ultramarines?) that was printed on almost a card stock weight.

I occasionally see some ebay sellers describing a first issue revenue as "thick paper." Based on the images (which I realize is an extremely poor way to assess such a thing) and some of the sellers' other listings, I seriously doubt that they are the thick papers that Bart and Dan are talking about.

Thick paper is indeed listed for many first issue revenues in the Boston book. Whereas I've found many many silks over the last few years, I've rarely run into the thick papers. They seem to be very few and far between. I have a couple of examples of the $3 Charter. Tomorrow I'll check on others I have. I believe I have an R15 too.

From the Boston Book (emphasis added):

There are, for this issue, four distinct and easily recognizable papers, viz., thin, medium, thick and silk. The first is hard, brittle, sometimes almost transparent, and generally of a yellowish or grayish appearance. The second is of various degrees of thickness, always very soft and white, and often quite porous. In this work it will be understood to embrace all varieties not included under either of the other headings.

The third, or thick variety, is often very white, hard, and rather brittle. In fact it is so thick as to be almost a thin bristol-board. The fourth is self-explanatory, it being merely a rather soft, thick paper, closely resembling the second, or medium variety, as described above, into the composition of which a few scattering silk fibres have been introduced. These fibres are very easily overlooked, as, as a general rule, they are very minute and widely scattered, so that often a stamp will show but a single fibre.

Thank you for the guidance. Got a copy of the boston revenue book now. Will have many hours of enjoyment this winter. the block of 4 of r33c I have is of white paper and I can the the stamp from behind. will scan tonight when home. Once again I really appreciate the people on this site. Wish a few of you were in the New England area.

Thanks Colonel

Bart (revcollector) is fairly close; he lives in NYC.

If I am reading the Boston Book correctly, the only paper type prior to Sept. 1869 was the old paper type (i.e. the thin type). The other 3 types of paper (medium, thick, and silk) only came along after September 1869.

Is this correct?

Paper was purchased from at least 3 different vendors for the first issues, so all of these terms, thin, soft, etc have a fairly wide range. In addition, there is at least some correlation between the color of the stamps and the exact thickness of the paper at times. For example, all the imperf and part perf blue value stamps are on extremely thin hard white paper, so thin that the design will show through even when placed face down. However the imperf and part perf red values generally come on a somewhat thicker paper, and the green stamps are often in between. Whether this was intentional or just a coincidence is unknown to me. The $200 imperf comes on a paper that is almost like parchment, very different from any other paper.
That's why paper is only one characteristic of telling the imperf and part perf stamps.

Interesting. I evaluate papers by look and feel, so I went back into my collection to measure paper thickness. You need to be careful where you measure if you only have an engineer's micrometer like I have. Here are my results: thin papers (hard, somewhat transparent) generally measured .0027 -.0032 What I call medium papers (lack of a weave, opaque, softer than thin paper, sometimes with brown or gold wood/straw fibers) generally measured .0035-.004 Silk papers measured .0035-.004, and here are the measurements of what I have identified as "thick" paper. R15c: .005, R22c: .00475, R24c: .0045, R33c: .0042, R44c: .00525, R55c: .00475, R85c: .0045. Give or take .0002. Part of the feel of the "thick" papers is their stiffness. The paper is much more stiff compared to the medium papers which are much more soft.

oh - and all the "thick" papers in my collection are later state bright inks, and when a readable date cancel is present it's 1870-1

Somewhere amongst all the piles of unprocessed revenues I have lying around there's an envelope of some "thick" almost bristol board/cardboard thick and rigid examples. I should measure their thickness. If memory serves, they were all 50-cent ultramarines, I forget which one. Again, very late printings.

Ah, thank you very much Randall! I was going to ask about the possibility of quantifying the thicknesses. I hate when we discuss things in subjective language like 'thick' and 'thin'. Good job.
Don

Dan - please do. I'm only assuming mine are thick papers. But maybe they are really thick medium papers. It would be interesting to find out what your thickest papers measure.

No problem Don. When are we doing lunch again?