Scott 10A Or 11 A? Worth Removing Stamp From Piece?

Winston's post about plate wear on these plates was quite good and appropo.

Most, if not all of the initial / early plates in 1851 were not hardened. This caused them to wear quickly, and need rework.

This created different appearances.
This definitely has the Orange Brown look.

Awesome txstamp. Thought you were the Franklin 1c 1851 master. Obviously your talents extend to the 3c as well. LOL

Thanks. Much respect. Will soak it off and place in album

Followup:

top stamp left side is initial specimen (10a- thanks txstamp and others for nailing it down)

now placed next to comparable 11/11as

Richness of OB is more obvious when you scan next to multiple other 11s. (at least on my computer screen!) When asking color questions in future, such as Scott 1, Scott 10/11, pinks, etc, I think we should be placing specimen next to multiple others to compare. Color is just so difficult without comparisons unless you are a super specialist and seen thousands. Not here to get into discussion re: image processing and different screens, scanners, etc.

by the way, green cancel in lower row is fake (imho)

Just think I should have posted initially next to other 11s and this 10a would be easier to see. Because it was on a piece and I had to soak it off, it did not cross my mind initially.

I've owned thousands of the 3-cent imperforates, and confirming colors using posted images has always been problematic.

The second stamp in the top row could be a #10a as well, based on color and impression clarity. If you post a larger image of that stamp, it could be easily plated and confirmed as a #10a since it has a guide dot at top, indicating a top row position.

None of the cancels in the bottom row look either green or fake to me. Some cancels can look greenish if the cancel ink was oily.

I don't see a green cancel in the bottom row either.
I see 3 black and 2 blue.
Standard disclaimer about scans & color.

Much thanks classic coins.
I noticed that second stamp top left could be 10a as well. It's actually a nice stamp with 4 margins. (Sound). Unfortunately cancel is kind of a downer. I'll need to take a better look and get in in the scanner later this week
4th stamp on bottom row from left has this crayon like cancel that looks green to me but perhaps it's just black.
I just have never seen a cancel like that before

Thank you for posting the plating info, txstamp. Yes, rgstamp, posting a blow-up of the #2 Top stamp might payoff for you. I also like #2 Bottom with the Baltimore (???) cds - not as an OB, but simply as a richly colored, nicely margined #11. Shade determination from a scan is nearly impossible. 'Sub-shade' determination probably IS impossible. I just find #2 Bottom pretty - won't venture a guess as to its shade.

Cancel colors can sometimes end up different from the 'intended' color - sometimes by fading, alteration, or 'quality' of strike. To me, this cancel (ETA #4 Bottom) looks like an indistinct black Boston large PAID (or similar PAID) strike, rotated on its side. Sometimes lightly struck black cancels can almost look like a weird shade of green - almost like the black ink has a hint of green that only comes out when lightly struck. It may also be an illusion of the cancel color and the stamp color fooling the eye. I have seen plenty of blue cancels on yellow covers (and only very slightly on the stamp, so mostly on the envelope) being sold as green cancels. Again, that may be due to a certain shade and lightness-of-strike of the blue cancel. Also, things change over 160+ years. Few of the cancel colors were standardized in this era of postage stamps - we all know there are blue and green and red cancellations, but there are untold numbers of SHADES of green, or blue, or red. When you KNOW you see a green cancel, it is. If you THINK you see a green cancel, look again. Then AGAIN. I do anyway. I bet we could line up a few 1000 stamps from this era, by cancel shade, and create a 'rainbow'. In a rainbow, where does blue end and blue-green begin? Where does blue-green end and green begin??? I am willing to bet that the 'span' of green is larger for sellers than it is for buyers. I know it is for me, as a buyer. I've walked away from so many stamps sold with a 'green' cancel I can't even count them.

Is it true that, in Japanese, they don't have separate words for blue and green?

rgstamp, You're welcome.




When you scan the second stamp in the top row for plating, getting the sides of the stamp as close to vertical as possible will be helpful to our plating effort.