France 53B/French Colonies 19 Types A7-A6 Ceres Identification Help

Trying to determine which there are. The center pair is yellow green with white paper and the outer stamps are green with bluish paper.
1. The yellow green pair doesn't have a variety listed in scott France or French Colonies
2. The 2 green blue paper stamps have the same type A & B characteristics Scott 41 lists, but they are not type A8 stamps.
So I am confused. Do you experts want to give it a shot.

Nice stamps French colonies all off them. You'lll need Maury of Yvert for shades. Seems like the pair is from another printing than the other singles....reprint?

The cancellation on the left stamp (called 'muet lozenge') is typical for French Colonies issues, and were not used in mainland France.

French Colonies from Maury:

17 vert clair sur azuré (1874)
17a vert-jaune sur azuré (1873)
17b vert-jaune s verdâtre (1875) (ie on greenish)
17c vert sur bleuté (1872) (ie bluish)
17d vert sur blanchâtre (1876) (ie on white-ish)
17e papier filigrané (1876)

Bonne chance!

In the first scan, the stamps of the pair measure a bit shorter than the others.

The four bottom shading lines on the neck don't all touch the hair, but it is a lighter print than the others.

Good info GeoffHa - so maybe no re-print but a later printing?

I agree with you hy-brasil. Tremendous differences between the printings anyway. Were the plates touched up - or replaced alltogether? The shading on the chin/neck on the left stamp is almost as heavy as for the Bordeaux printings - whilst the pair has clearly defined dots. As far as I recall the colonial stamps were printed using the same plates as the matching perforated stamps of France, however at a later stage when the plates were more worn. But my memory may serve me wrong.


Another interesting feature is that the left stamp in the pair appears on my screen almost as having partially fond-ligne (lined background), most visible to the left of Ceres nose. If it is not listed in Maury it is probably not significant as a variety - I still find it peculiar.

Thanks everyone for your input. All your comments were informative and helpful!