Another Scott 252 Type III?

I know this keeps coming up, but I am inexperienced. Plus, my copy is on cover and the bullseye obliterator strike makes the effort to distinguish between types III and IV troublesome. The curved right side of the "T" is an indication of Type III, but the ear and some of the other indicators are inked to some degree.

Can I get opinions from some of you who've had more experience in distinguishing between types III and IV? Thank you!

I believe the first occurrence of type IV is in 1899 so with an 1897 postmark I think you are safe at type III.

Type III, Scott #252 or #267, depending on if it has a watermark or not.

Scott 267 was issued in May of 1895. Scott 252, issued in March of 1895, are often a pale carmine. There is no reason to believe that the stamp has much of a chance to be the unwatermarked Scott 252 variety. The earliest carmine and pink type IV stamps first appeared in November 1897, too late for this cover.

I guess we'll never know for sure about the presence of a watermark. I won't remove the stamp from the cover (as ratty as that cover is) and my only means of checking is to view the stamp through the open end of the envelope in front of my Solux light. I can detect no evidence of a watermark, but it's not exactly an ideal method of checking for it! So, all I have to go on are the stamp design indicators.

Sorry Cfphoto, I'm confused. Why would the stamp not have much of a chance of being 252 when the were issued 2 months apart?

The carmine shade of the stamp on the cover is typical of a 267. Most unwatermarked 252 examples a pale carmine shade. The unwatermarked variety was current for only two months. The watermarked 267 had been current for a year and a half before the cover was cancelled. Unused stamps in the 19th Century were typically used soon after purchase. By mid-1897 few unwatermarked stamps would have remained.

Ah, I was too stuck on the issue date. Should have looked up the 80,000,000 252's printed vs. 7.5 billion 267's. #128514;

Color presentation is always a problem online because of monitor calibration and other issues. I don't have comparable examples of the 252s or 267s, but I do have large quantities of the 220s. So I placed this Paul TN cover with another cover that is clearly red along with several of the carmine 220s on a sheet and scanned them all in one pass. I then rearranged the 220s in Photoshop to move them up closer to the covers and then copied and dragged one of the 220s so it is directly adjacent to the two stamps on the covers.

I know there are multiple 220 color shades, and I suppose the same is true for the 252s and 267s. Given all of that, would you describe the Paul TN example as red or carmine? My eyesight isn't what it used to be and it looks to me like it could go either way. What do you think?

(By the way, I noticed after creating this image that one of the 220s looks more like a 219D!)

Im new and looking for this G.W 1894 Scott. Is this one worth $30?



***Fraudulent link removed***

Thanks for your help.

I would say so. The 252 MNH which it appears to be from the link you provided, is not well centered (it's not CV of $275 as the listing suggest, because the centering is not VF, rather it's very poor centering, and not enough of a perf shift to qualify as such). The CV for MNH of a 252 in the centering of "Good" is $75. So a $30 offering for an otherwise MNH stamp of this type is reasonable.

BUT... you should post this in its own thread, not tack it onto someone elses question about the 252...