Hello All, I Picked Up A SC 113 And The Grill Isn't Visible. Alterations? Worn? Have A Look

From what I can tell there is paper adhered to the back from being torn off of its cover.

So I dont know how to soak but I read up and gave it a shot but I dont see anything on the back. Going to upload more pics below

Stamp is held up against light at various angles

I often lay stamp face down on table and lay a flashlight down on same table a few inches away and point the light at the stamp. A slight variation on Ckirby1's answer. I bet most would say expertisizing is the only way to know for sure of this is the variety without a grill. I favor PSE.

per the Scott catalogue:in order to be a without grill variety the stamp must have original gum and unhinged or lightly hinged. grills on this series were often very lightly impressed over the gum.

M_and_M writes "grills on this series were often very lightly impressed over the gum."

I'll need to see your reference on that as the stamps were grilled, gummed, and then perforated.

See, "Studies in Stamps--The United States Two Cent 1869" by Y. Souren, Stamps, March 14, 1949, "As the sheets were gummed by hand, fresh dippings of the gumming brush will gum the stamps slightly more thickly than usual. Sometimes the embossing breaks the paper to such an extent that a little of the gum is absorbed through the stamp onto the surface."

As for the stamp in question, I took the scanned image and filtered it to improve the paper relief. There is a distinct impression of a grill at the right edge as the following image shows.

Wow ah very nice! Thank you for the insightful feedback! I see it ! The sneaky grill!

According to Brookman, the grills were impressed after the gum was applied, which is why all examples without a grill must have OG. That fact also helps to spot regums.