A Color Variety Question On GB 145

This is labeled as a GB Scott 145. My Scott catalog picture and the Color "Wonder Gauge" do not match to any of the three varieties listed in Scott. They are gray, A - deep gray black and B - slate gray. The A is the closest but still has more of a greenish tint than the color gauge. It is not close to gray on the color chart so the presumption is either A or B. I know the difficulty in color postings but would still appreciate your opinions.
Thanks for looking.
Paul

Opinion.
Grey.
Rubber Parcel Postmark.

The Wonder Gauge color names and colors are their own and do not match Scott nor Gibbons, which are also different from each other. It's only useful if you don't know what (say) ochre is, but you can get that from on online search.

From the scan it looks to be gray, what Gibbons calls grey-black for the basic type. If it has a dark greenish tint to the ink (I see some coloring to the paper, not the inked parts) then it's slate gray which is a Somerset House printing on rough paper. This does not appear to be that variety. I would say that if you see a very slight greenish tint to the gray, it's the basic stamp. The deep gray black should have none of that tint and to some looks to have a very slightly dark bluish tint.

Thanks for the responses guys!Guess I go with the 145 and no sub listings.
Thought I would scan the picture from the Scott catalog. This better illustrates my confusion.


The crummy scan is from my Scott catalog.

The real trick to sorting colors it to find a bunch of stamps and compare them to each other. The color guides are at best slightly correct, and the catalog listings can be hard to follow. Also keep in mind that stamps can be affected by a number of factors that change the perceived color - humidity, sunlight, chemicals, bad storage, etc. The stamps from King Edward VII's reign are now over 100 years old, so they have been subject to a lot of possible conditions over that time that might affect the color.

Keep in mind that most of the time catalog listed color changes are really different printings. So there could be other factors besides just the color to consider. I collect King George VI British Colony issues. There are some cases where there were more than 15 printings of the stamps from 1937 until the early 1950's, but only one or two listed colors. So you will see a range of paper and gum changes, paper thickness variations, perforation variations, and color changes. It is a lot easier if you know all the variations to expect. Don't expect to find any of this in your Scott or Gibbons catalog. They tend to just list the more basic issues. However, Gibbons tends to be more complete than Scott in the case of Great Britain and the colonies.

I like to work with unused stamps and place them on both black and later white paper as I make my decision about the color shade. I have twin spotlamps on my desk and it really helps me see the differences.

In some cases, I have had as many as 50 of the same stamp to compare, and when that is possible the color differences just jump out at you. Unfortunately that is not very possible these days, so you have to work with what you can find.

One other thing to consider - if there are two colors listed and one is very valuable. There is a good chance you have the less valuable one. So if you are not sure that can help you make your decision.

Don't ever expect color pictures in mass-produced catalogs to be exact. Further, take a look at listings online either by Scott# or Gibbons# (249, 249a) and see how many scans turn out green (and nobody bothered to check and correct it). Don't ever expect that genuinely issued stamps are being shown, either. Despite the conversion to color and pictures of actual stamps, Scott still shows a fair number of forgeries and reprints.