Question For Kg5collector

I need some help..i have two of what Scott calls Ceylon #209 side by side in a black 102 card..these are the 50 cent King george 5 stamps of 1912-1925....one of them IS the black and red color that is supposed to be..the other to me appears to be more brown violet than black...of course Scott does not mention this one...perhaps Gibbons or another British catalog does ?? Any help appreciated from KG5Collector or anyone else !!

Phil-

SG's British Empire makes no reference to a color variety for the 1912 series 50c (Scott 209). There is an inverted watermark that Scott Classic doesn't reference, with a significant premium.

Here is my Scott 209. (SG 314, for anyone that can doublecheck my catalogue work.)



The 1921 series 50c also is a one-color-variety affair, albeit both dies. That one would be a mult script CA watermark, versus a mult crown CA for the 1912. Both are chalk paper, so no help there.

Any chance one faded in soaking, being chalky paper? All I can think of.

Keeping it around might only confuse things...best to send it to me.

Collin
[edited to add one more hyphen.]

Hi Collin, as soon as I can get my scanner to send a scan under 90 kb I will scan the stamps here..life was so simple when I had the xp computer and the flat bed scanner...i have tried looking at the cannon manual and the windows 7 and can not get the two to work together except to make gigantic scans that SCF will not take !!

Phil-

I scan at max resolution. Then I use a free downloadable program called Irfanview to (i) crop exactly what I need (ii) set the dpi at 72 (iii) resize by pixel width/height, if necessary and (iv) save. It also ends up being my jpeg viewer. It will do the micro-rotation, inverting, flipping, etc. I'm sure I'm tapping 20% of its functionality, tops, and its not overly function-packed to start with.

Works for me. I'm sure there are a 1,001 other solutions out there. We need you back among the scanning.

Collin

i am going to try and send a scan..the color difference to me with the naked eye is very apparent..lets see how it comes accross !!

Oh Boy ! Collin can you do anything with them?,,i got this far but now could not send email from the scanner ! My son is coming over Tuesday to try and get me squared away !!

Phil-

All I can do is crop at the size it is...the raw information isn't there to do any manipulation.

I agree the left stamp has a violet cast. I'm looking forward to the bigger scan.

Collin

Phil-

How does this 209 compare to yours? Is yours still more violet than this one?

These were printed on chalk-surfaced paper, as many stamps issued in tropical and sub-tropical areas were. When soaked off paper, the surfacing can be washed off and colour variations can result.

SG lists only black and scarlet in either watermark.

CJD mine is perhaps a bit more violet..not as brown as yours !!

i think I have them small enough for SCF now..the one on the right is the black and red..on the left appears more violet brown !

Watch for fugitive inks on those early KGV "Imperium" issues. That was a security feature to prevent re-use.

David