Is There An Introduction Book With Scans For US Classic Stamps - And Why Not?

Hello,

I have the Scott Specialized and the Micarelli book. I know the auctions websites like Siegel and of course Stampsmarter or Swedishtiger. But still I wonder if (and why not...) there is a printed book about US classic stamps (before 1940)? In our days it should be possible to print the stamps with their colors in a good quality. Mostly I would be interested in color comparison of the older stamps like 1851 or 1861, the rose and pink 3 Cents, or the brown 5 Cents, but also later the many shades of the 2 Cents with the triangle. So is there really no introduction book at all in US stamps with some scans as examples?

PS: Yes I know the book about the 1851 3 Cents, but it's then only this one, and it's also hard to get.

+1 stamperix

:-)

By the way I also know the Scott color guide, but this one isn't available anymore. I wanted to buy it from Scott and they told me they don't offer it anymore...

OK this seems to be something that could be popular...there is a guide (White), but it sold at ebay for 600 USD.
https://goscf.com/t/3803

*** Staff Edit If it's automatically removed, wouldn't common sense tell you we don't want it posted.***

Color pictures were discouraged for a long time by a US law that prohibited full size color stamp pictures. There are some books with enlarged color ones but not done to 2000s standards in print quality nor intended to show shades. And that law extends to issues back to the US Civil War, which are still valid for postage. Issues preceding the Civil War were made invalid to prevent Confederate post offices from selling or using their existing stamp stocks.

The book you might want is Encyclopedia of the Colors of United States Postage Stamps by R.H. White in 4 looseleaf volumes (1981). It covers issues up to and including the Washington-Franklins with carefully printed color pictures and explanatory text. It comes on light cardstock pages punched for 3-ring and 2-ring binders and it came as pages only or with binders. It was meticulously researched and the color is carefully printed to highest standards. It shows most of the major color varieties. It's the best you can get overall for earlier US stamps.

It is hard to find and quite expensive nowadays. It was originally sold mostly by subscription and wasn't cheap then. $600 for that ebay sale is something of a bargain to me.

The Scott color guide is just generic and has less shades than the Michel Farbenführer. Scott colors do not necessarily match color names used by US or other specialists, either.

The problems I see Stamperix is that the book would have to be printed on stamp paper....
then with the exact same colour matrix as the original issue stamp and variations or the best quality scans in true colour...is it possible?

Thank you both. Well of course I don't expect a 100% color proof quality as in graphics industry. I would not go to the judge if a color is just showing at 98% quality. So the White's book would be fine although it is old and the ink and paper have changed over the years, that's not the problem, but it is just very expensive. I just wonder why no one ever has made a book with good - not perfect - color scans of the older stamps. Often it is ok to see a shade to be able to imagine if a stamp you have in your hand goes into that direction. But now I understand that there was a law against it.

Perhaps someone uses the mentioned software and can have a look if the 3 Cents 1851 or 1861 and the 2 Cents with triangle are shown with their many shades?

There's many posts with useful scans here on the board. Did you happen to catch this one?
https://goscf.com/t/54501&SearchTerms=plum
We can always question colors from computer scans, but I think the color reproduction is pretty clear there.

Here's the 3c shades section from the US Philatelic Classics Society site:
http://www.uspcs.org/stamps-covers/...-11-and-11a/

The White book is not something left out in the sun to fade. The stamps intended to match their pictures have more fading problems. If Munsell numbers to describe shades have meaning to you, they are included in White. I seriously doubt my copy has any color degradation.

thank you hy-brasil, yes there are many discussions and site about color out there. I just like to have everything in one place. If it doesn't exist I will have to make my own link collection and maybe even print some pages with color management, as both my monitor and printer are calibrated. But perhaps any author or museum reads this and thinks about making a book.

stamperix, collecting images into one resource would be good way to learn US shades. Keep in mind when you blow up image sizes in print, you increase the white spaces between printed lines/engraved lines and change how colors appear to the eye. Not so much so with scans. Similarly, images printed smaller than life-size will appear to be stronger and darker in color.

For United States stamps, probably the best book ever made for color was the set by R.L. White in the 1970's/1980's. It is an expensive set as only 400 copies were made, but it is still the best to show the colors of U.S. stamps. I have a set and use it all the time. He also printed a companion book on the papers and gums of U.S. stamps which is very useful.

The problem is that color is subjective to each person's eyes and references. This is one of the reasons there are so many different terms used for color. An example is the confusing term "lake." This is a color used only in U.S. philately. If you were to go to the paint store and ask for a lake shade of paint, you would likely get some kind of blue color. For U.S. stamps, it's a deep red with purplish tints. Just one example.

Some use the Pantone color guide. This is a complex set of cards which run the entire rainbow and is not generally used. It will give you the greatest range of colors to choose from, but very few would know what you were talking about if you started talking Pantone numbers.

For a general idea, Scott catalogs probably provides as good a point of reference as any, for the price. Is it perfect? No. But the closer you get to perfection, the higher the price...

1. Printing a color guide is 2 to 3 times more expensive than a typical book.

2. Any printed color guide has a shelf life of less than 10 years or so (depending on environmental conditions).

3. There are no color standards from the past, no really knows what the fresh colors actually were when the stamps were first printed.

4. How we perceive colors is totally dependent upon ambient light conditions. So even if you had a 100% correct color guide it would not be accurate unless you also emulated and replicated the correct ambient light conditions.

These are some of the reasons no one wants to invest (and lose) a lot of money on color guides.
Don

Edit; 'color' is also an issue in the old car hobby. When you go to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a paint job the obvious desire is to try to paint it the 'original color'. But there simply is no way to know exactly what an original color really was. Old paint chips aren't accurate, old paint found on the car is not accurate, it basically comes down to a 'guessimate'. We can come close, but there is no definitive way to know for sure.

Hi Don,

all that is true, and that's why I don't need a 100% color guide, but what really would be nice is an introduction book, like "history of US stamps" showing the older US stamps in the most important color shades. Nothing perfect, just a book :). That wouldn't be a big money thing. Or I could imagine the major auction houses to print once in a year or decade their most popular auction results in a nice color catalogue. Or a museum would print their stamps into a catalogue. Nothing to find at all in terms of printed stamps. That's what is really missing. Just a pragmatic - not perfectionistic - approach to show the people what great stamps the US history has to show.

Hi!
"pragmatic"???
I am an engineer, I have no idea what it is like to have a pragmatic thought!
Don

:) - well indeed that's true as well, for engineers and for stamp collectors I guess.

For U.S. classic issues http://uspcs.org and http://arago.si.edu have sections that show actual stamps.