Scott #205 5c Garfield Abnc

Question for the group concerning the differences in color shade on the 5c Garfield ABNC stamp scott# 205.

These stamps were all issued by The American Bank Note Company 1882. Flatplate? Why would there be three different shades?

Scott specialized lists the following shades.

Yellow brown
Brown
Gray brown

No difference in value. Very common

Interesting! Not really concerned about the value, more the rarity.
Please take a look at the last of the three I posted earlier, check out the dark field inside the 6 point star. There are white marks surrounding the "5".
And U.S. POSTAGE letters have a few light spots.
Here's a better scan.

Stamps of this period in general come in a myriad of different shades. Why?

Inks were generally mixed by hand and supplies of ingredients varied in quality. Generally if the color was "close" the printers were fine with it.

These stamps are now up to 135 years old and some of these inks have degraded in that time or chemically reacted as well and some of them are also prone to chemical reaction from environmental factors.

As for the third stamp, the white areas are caused by incomplete inking of the plate due to various causes. This is no big deal. If the printing was somewhat worse than this, on inspection, the whole printed sheet would probably have been thrown away.

Further, on the 10c National Bank Notes at least, the fine lines in the shield part can be partially gone to nearly completely missing. This is due to plate wear and is fairly common. So there is another reason for light spots on engraved stamps.

Seems funny that the inking the star would be incomplete when the rest of the stamp is very clear and crisp. That third stamp is crystal clear compared to the rest.

It is certainly interesting. Thanks everyone.

Bringing this thread back up - I am continuing to categorize my US stamps and this Garfield 5C was giving me a bit of color trouble. Seeing the variations above, can I assume I have a 205 versus a 216? - mine almost looks gray to me - not brown nor indigo. I also see some toning issues so looks like aging is a factor. Thanks all.

Mrita75

Have a Yellow Brown with a PF Cert for your review:

205 it is. Gracias! Very nice btw.