My 1861 24c Shades, Including Proofs

I just added the last couple stamps/proofs to this page and thought I'd share. I love the color variety. All of the stamps have recent certs. None of the proofs have certs, but I have no question on their identity or genuineness. I love how the "Red Lilac" proof is a vibrant bright violet, and the "Red Lilac" stamp is a pale purplish-brown color. I wonder if it started out life much brighter?

I also think it is silly that 70/78 have different catalog numbers. . .take a look at the difference in shades between the 70 and 78 - there is basically no difference. The variety is is the minor catalog numbers.

For reference, the stamps/proofs are (from top left to bottom right): 78P4, 70P3, 70P4, 70, 70a, 70b, 70c, 70d, 78, 78a, 78b. This group is only missing 78c (Blackish Violet - $20K SCV), 99 (the F-grill that will look a lot like a 78), and 70TC6 (formerly #60 - Dark Violet).

Really nice. Thanks for sharing

What a phenomenal set. I can tell you took real care in assembling this collection. Congratulations! What's your next goal/step?

Thank you. I have lots of holes to fill with other issues. . .still need the 99 for this page.

Very nice page

Some of the color distinctions are VERY subtle, in my opinion. In a vacuum, I can see how many are frequently misidentified. You would have to have some sort of comparative reference when determining color, especially "lilac" vs. "red lilac" vs "brown lilac" on the stamps, as well as "steel blue" vs. "pale gray violet", and "grayish lilac" vs. "gray".

Great to see these shades grouped together. Very fine album page. Thanks for posting.

I can easily see splitting hairs on red lilac, grayish lilac and gray. Understanding that colors change or fade overtime, we have all seen examples of Scott 67 and 70 varieties where the principle colors are not evident. With 67b for example I have seen many examples called 67b where there is not a hint of olive in the stamp. If you have seen a true 67b or the same shade in a low denomination early Hungarian stamp, you never forget it. Same could be said for 70a and 70b. A true 70a does not require one to imagine the brown—it is there. The steel blue is a very distinctive shade that I believe was perfectly named. The lilacs or gray variants—much more difficult and less distinctive IMO.

Grays are some of the most susceptible hues to ambient lighting. Remember, you are not looking at the actual color of the stamp, you are looking at the ambient light which is being reflected off the stamp. (We are actually looking a scanned image which may or may not look anything like the actual stamps). For example, look at the left gray sample below, if you only viewed these samples under this first ambient light you would insist that they were the same color. But if you viewed only the right hand samples you would insist they were different colors. Stamps look different colors under different ambient lights.

Here is a digital emulation of the original scanned page under two different ambient lighting wavelengths.


I think the 'take away' is;
1. Viewing a scanned image online is dubious as far as color ID goes; the original scan is good in that a relative comparison can be made between the stamps but without a baseline we are pretty clueless. The high resolution original image had to be 'optimized' to be uploaded, so what we are really looking at is the quality of someone's software algorithm coding.
2. When judging stamp colors you should have a standard ambient lighting that you use over time
3. It can be very helpful to have multiple ambient lighting conditions to help you further understand how reflected lighting is impacting the color you are seeing
4. What are the ambient lighting used when a certification judges a stamp color?

Don

Can we get an example, Don, of them in the dark ... because that's where I usually operate on this issue!

I worked in the dark for a number of years because I refused to sit under fluorescent lights. In my office I would spin out the fluorescent bulbs and bring in few warm incandescent lights for my desks.

Fluorescent light ballasts are powered so that they generate a flicker around 60Hz. While we cannot see this flicker it is there and can give you headaches. This is especially true when we used to stare at the old CRT monitors all day long which interacted with the ambient fluorescent flicker. Folks used to think that I was loopy for using incandescent desk lamps but I got a lot less headaches!
Don

Most home lighting by default uses the "warm" (2700K) spectrum, which I absolutely cannot stand. It gives everything a brown/yellow hue. I also don't like the "cool" (9300K) spectrum as it makes things too blue. When I switched my house over to LED bulbs many years ago, I switched to "daylight" (5000K) LED bulbs throughout, which to me is the most natural lighting, and sits approximately in the middle of the color temperature spectrum, and doesn't skew to either end.

Not only do the LED bulbs use far less electricity than traditional bulbs, but in 5 years I've only have one bulb go bad... they last darned near forever compared to traditional light bulbs.

You can check for or correct color temperature by using a photography gray card and adjusting white balance.

Very interesting discussion. It strikes me that the above discussion above might be well above any of the experts from any of the 3 major expertizing services. Certainly, it is over my head.
Great comment caper.

Gorgeous display, Philzilla! Thanks for posting. Something else to aspire to...