Paper Types Mentioned In Michel USA (Bank Note Stamps)

hello,

in the USA specialized by Michel (since years and also in the recent 2017 as part of the classic worldwide) there are two paper types mentioned which I know they exist and have heard about but they don't appear in Scott. So I wonder why.

first one: straw paper, in Michel only appearing for CBN 1c and 3c. I read somewhere that straw paper is only straw paper if there are many particles, and if it's on hard paper, as on soft paper it's been used often. Is all this true, and is it only interesting as collectible for the two denominations on hard paper (CBN)?

second: intermediate paper. we had this here at SCF as topic several times, but I would like to match it now with what I found in Michel. For the normal bank notes issue, only the 6c and 15c (CBN) are appearing as intermediate in Michel. Same question here, is this only relevant for these two denominations?

and summarizing question: why is all this not listed as paper types in Scott?

normally I don't use Michel for USA, as Scott is the way to go, but as I own it, I look into Michel from time to time.

Recently I was reading about the history of printing in US. It looks like the supply of raw materials for paper manufacturers was most of the time behind the demand, especially in the second half of the 19th Century. That was the main cause for the huge variation in composition over the years.
For example, Manila paper appeared because of a drastic shortage of cotton rags available. [Clearly reflected by the price increases of paper!]
Another example, many manufacturers did experiments with all sort of materials, from straw to bark and so on. Scott most likely sticks to the well-established paper types, because the record keeping of paper manufacturers (and of the printing houses, as a matter of facts) wouldn't allow establishing undoubtful correlations with stamp issues of the era.

Straw paper is a misnomer. Sometimes there are inclusions in the paper which look like straw, but these are mostly extraneous fiber elements. The variety for most part exhibits only a single inclusion, hardly justification for the listing IMO.

The intermediate paper is the 1878 variety that comes between the early and late banknote papers. It is generally identified by a noticeable degree of post-printing shrinkage.

thank you both. Yes, the straw paper does not really appear in literature or in auctions. But for this and also for the intermediate paper I wonder why there are these specific stamps where the paper is mentioned in Michel, and no others. So there has to be a reason that both papers only were used for the mentioned denominations.

But I guess Michel is just wrong about this. By the way I tried several times in the past to ask Michel directly such questions but never really got good answers. I think USA specialized is not their main interest.

I have to take issue with this characterization of the paper variety meant by the term "straw paper." The term was first applied to US stamps in 1915 by H.L. Wiley in reference to stamps on decidedly hard paper which showed "straw" colored flecks in the paper. He estimated that only about 10% of stamps showed these inclusions and he described the thickness characteristics of the paper, particle size, etc. Wiley insisted that single fiber examples should be treated with skepticism, and suggested that a bonafide exmple should show 15-25 distinct fibers per stamp.

Wiley was convinced that this was a distinctive paper type, and that is how it came to the attention of catalogers. However, in our time the analytical work of John Barwis has given us a better appreciation for what this phenomenon really is, and how it should be regarded. First in his exhibition study of the 3c green (in the 1990s up to 2000 or so) John showed various "types" of straw paper, e.g. thin and medium open-wove paper, and associated all these inclusions to contaminants in the pulping process. However, much more recently, in a paper published in the First International Symposium on Analytical Methods in Philately, in which he looked at the fiber structure, strength and thickness characteristics of stamp paper for the 3c green, he discarded the notion that these inclusions were to be identified with straw, and pointed out that their presence was not to be associated with an intentional aspect of paper manufacture. In short, that straw paper was not an intended paper type but arose incidentally in the normal process of manufacture.

Specialists will vary in the amount of attention they will give to the presence of these fiber specks, for whatever reason. And given the history of their observance, it is not surprising that the catalogs will do the same.

And a new segment of philately is established, fiber-speccing!
Don

Sure, and why not? Back in the 30s we had "fly specking." Can this be any worse?

"Fiber speccing" (or "specking") could be devoted to the detailed study of the characteristics of paper fibers, which are nothing more than specks to the naked eye anyway.

That works for me!