Help With Possibly Fake Or F Grill

I'm new at identifying grills and I thought I was beginning to understand. Until now. This just looks like lines to me. Maybe fake? If not fake, then an F? I'm almost positive I count 17 down but across I'm getting around 10-11. Should I remove it from the cover? Thanks in advance!

the 3 cent F grill (94) is the most common grilled stamp. No one is going to fake a used one, and there is no reason to think that it was not used in period anyway.

I did not say that I thought it was a fake f grill. I think it maybe an f grill but it doesn't look like my other f grills. So, I was asking if anyone thought it might be a fake grill.


I just realized how terrible my scans are. I'll upload a couple more pictures.

the cancel looks green on my screen, probably it's blue?
hard to tell the difference between blue-green and green-blue, how do you all decide in such cases?

A significant number of the green cancels on ebay are really blue cancels struck on paper that has a yellow component. Another group are unstable ultramarines that can take on a greenish cast... Taunton, MA is the most common.

thank you, indeed that's what I thought, too. What do you do to get sure about the color if it's really between green and blue, which magnification is helpful?

The color of the cancel is always based on what it looks like on the stamp, never on the envelope.

thank you - yes, a good hint, though in this case it appears a bit green also on the stamp. So what is the next step in alayzing the color of the cancel, magnification to see any green spots?

I don't think it has any green. I think it may have been my scanners auto color correction. This stamp is being very difficult to get a decent scan.

I don't think it has any green. I think it may have been my scanners auto color correction. This stamp is being very difficult to get a decent scan.

Is this Taunton MA cover cancellation that blue one that looks olive green?

Chase mentions that Taunton used green but he says it was more often greenish-blue or greenish-grey than real green. He also mentions shortly after that ultramarine can change to an "unsatisfactory greenish color".

The stamp is much more interesting and you actually outbid me on that cover or group, don't remember now which it was. The images were not great and I didn't have time to properly investigate. It is one of the double frame line posistions from Plate 11. I am pretty sure it is position 90R11i. Could you post a good image of the stamp?

I merely cropped the image and darkened it a bit for clarity. Picked this one up just the end of last week and I was the lone bidder at under $10. You're probably thinking of a different stamp/cover.

Wish I had a way to plate these perfed stamps.

90R11i. Almost certainly an 1859 usage. It must have been a bunch that I forgot to to bid on. I immediately recognized the stamp. It happens too often. I will have an item in my watchlist, get busy, and totally forget to enter bids!

Edit: For the second time in a row I have typed in the wrong plate. It is a Plate 11 stamp!