Color Question On A R27B

Hi all

Maybe I'm going blind, but was looking at this one today, and in my stock book they looked brown mostly.

But after scanning it now appears to be like red brown.

OK, you color experts, I've always had trouble with red colors! When looking at them in normal light they really appear to be a light brown, but after scanning they appear to be red brown?

In my edition of the Scott Catalog it lists the color as red.

But wanted to get some opinions from members what you think about this color on this part perf R27B.

I cropped the image way close to get a good as I could color example.

Stampmaster

Many scanners have what is called a "red push", meaning they overaccentuate the red side of the color spectrum. This can be fixed through calibration or postprocessing. I find that a slight desturation filter in photoshop will keep it in check.

I don't think I am going too far out on a limb to describe most of the 5c stamps as various shades of claret.

The "red" stamps (one, five, twenty, twenty-five cents, one dollar) mostly all range from a very dull red to a very bright red to brown red; the one dollar can range all the way to almost an orange-red. By design they became brighter over time to help prevent cleaning the cancels and reusing the stamps.

Thank you sir revccollector, now it all makes logical sense.

Thanks to all for you efforts.

This stamp was just one stamp from a strip, did not include a scan of the strip as the whole strip was too long to really get a good look at the color in one stamp.

Again, revcollector, top drawer.

Cheers

Stampmaster

The Boston book lists two colors for R27b: dull red and lake red. Looks more dull red to me, but what do I know. I don't know how you tell the difference between all the subtle shades of red.

You are going to see a lot of variance in color shade on most of the 1st issue revenues, given (1) the quality control of the era, and (2) the fact that most were printed over the better part of a 10-year period.

For comparison, here are three R27b strips from my collection, each showing a considerably different color shade and impression. Admittedly, thery were scanned years apart, so they may not be 100% accurate, but relative color differences are still on target.

These inks were being mixed by hand in candlelight or daylight, the ink from the previous mixture would be mixed with a new batch, and red is somewhat volatile and oxidizes just as oranges and yellows do. After 140 years the best that can be said is that the first issue shades are all variable within each color.

Hi all

I made a small mistake.

In addition to Sir Revcollector, I wanted to thank everyone else, somehow my one finger typing and brain did not connect correctly.

Sorry for my oversight.

Stampmaster