(10¢) Automobile Scott #2905 Date Sizes

Scott lists 3 sizes for the 10¢ Auto.

2905 (10¢) Automobile (1995) WA, blk 1995 sm date, 1.9mm, S111
2905a (10¢) Automobile (1995) WA, blk 1995 medium date, 2mm S222
2905b (10¢) Automobile (1995) WA, blk 1995 large date, 2.1mm S333

I have 3 samples but do not know plate number. The left most and center seem to measure 1.9mm (used Gimp) and the right measures 2.1 so looks like I have 2 small dates and 1 large date.

Visual per one dealer
2905 - 9's close together
2905a - 9's spaced apart
2905b - 1 left of B

The dealer visual guide seems to confirm.



PNC3 web site does not mention a third variety.

Does anyone have an image of all 3 together and how are people measuring something with a 0.1 mm difference? As I said I used Gimp which has a special measure tool.

As I recall, it took some time before Scott recognized three date sizes. Originally, only two were listed. I have PS5s of all three, making an extremely difficult measurement unnecessary. On S111, the first 1 of 1995 appears under BULK ... on S222 & S333, the first 1 of 1995 appears to the left of the B in BULK. On both S111 & S222, the 9s appear close together ... on S333, the 9s appear further apart. I may have scans of these together ... if I do, I'll post them later today. Also, the date on S333 appears to be just a bit further below the B in BULK than the other two. If these date characteristics are true of all 2905s, then your photo shows two S111s followed by an S333.
Added: While I could not locate a scan of these on my computer, I did find that ebay seller tbrstamps has such a scan. Something I noticed on his scan of the three varieties together is that the 1995 gradually appears a bit lower below the B in BULK as the plate number increases. My PS5s seem to confirm this fact. His scan also confirms my observations above about the location of the initial 1 and the closeness of the 9s.
Scan of my 3 strips with S111 on top, S333 on bottom:



Added: I could be wrong, but I think Bardo's medium date is actually another small date. I enlarged his scan and could find no difference in the date sizes. The 2905a date is about 6% wider than the 2905 date. The 2905b date is about 9.5% wider than the 2905 date.

This is the description from Bardo's web site. Of course, I accept Scott may not measure the same way I did either.

Since the plates follow the variety, your scan with plate numbers would be great. I would also want to send an image to PNC3.

Angore,

Visually comparing your image with the one from Bardo, I would agree that you have two small date and one large date, but not the medium date. The visual cues seem pretty obvious, that I wouldn't need to actually measure anything to identify them.

Basil

JLLebbert,

Thank you. This makes it easy but then I did not have the plate number strips for these.

Folks, the plate used to print the black year is different than the one used to print the brownish Bulk, so any variation in registration )color shift) will cause the year to be in a different position relative to the Bulk (left-right and up-down) and can NOT be used to ID which year size you have.

When they first listed the 3 versions I looked at mine (plate strips) and really struggled to see the difference. I'm not entirely convince the S222 year is any wider than the S111 date.

eyeonwall: Thanks for the info, it explains much. Initially, Scott did not recognize the S222 as a separate variety. Clearly the S333 date is wider than the S111 date. When the date size difference first appeared in Scott, S222 & S333 were grouped together as large dates (the S222 date is closer in size to S333 than S111). One could easily make a case that it should have been left that way. The only way I know to distinguish the 3 varieties without plate numbers is to scan them together and use computer software to enlarge the images to the point that the small differences can be measured.

Based upon the above, the "medium date" is more about location than date size. Using Gimp, I measured them and the middle one was 1.9 or 2.0 so it may be slightly longer but hard to measure. The other ones are 1.9 and 2.0mm.