Ribbed Paper #158 3c Banknote

Here's something I haven't come across before. It's a Scott #158, which are super-common in general, but this one is on ribbed paper. Thought someone might be interested to see it.

Most of the Continental banknotes can be found on ribbed paper, if you look at enough of them. Nice find, can find them vertically ribbed as well.

I wouldn't mind seeing the stamp in true color. it is most likely a soft paper stamp and not a continental ribbed paper variety.

I just took the stamp out to look again. And there are clear horizontal lines. But the paper looks like soft paper for sure. I said 158 only based on Scott not mentioning ribbed paper on the 184. But is there a ribbed soft paper possibility?

Many soft paper stamps will exhibit a fine horizontal ribbing. Your stamp is a soft paper stamp. The 3c Continental on horizontally ribbed paper can actually be somewhat difficult to identify. The ribbing is not very visible and also probably only half as many ribs per inch as what you are showing. It isn't the same paper as the vertically ribbed paper, at least that's my opinion. Now the official stamps on horizontally ribbed paper is very similar to or the same as the vertically ribbed paper with the only difference being orientation.

OK, that sounds knowledgeable. I have a page full of 184s and another of 207s. None really look anything like this. But I'm willing to accept what you say. The used 158 ribbed catalogs for $10. No great loss - but thought I found something. Oh well. The album I'm working on is quite good - having a fun weekend even if this is a dud. :)

You can always put the stamp up to light and post a pic and see what others say.

I don't really have any doubt that it's soft paper at this point. Here's a guess. It is fully gummed. Maybe it is an original gum 184 with some kind of purple stain on it. Since the vast majority of stamps I'm looking at are used, I'm not used to seeing it that way. Something about the gum fooled my eye or somehow emphasizes the pattern... But in any case, as I said, it looks like soft paper. So given what you've said about the spacing of the ribs I don't really have any more to ask. I should have questioned my conclusion based on the paper looking nothing like a normal 158 at all.

I think the purple stain is a purple cancel. No idea why there is gum on the stamp.

Here are the backs of a horizontally ribbed 184 and an O1s.

So, Sinclair2010, or anyone, for my edification, would these two stamps be examples of ribbed paper? 1873 War Department--no subsequent 1879 printing on soft paper.

Thanks, all.

Burnside

O90 (15c War) is listed in my 2014 Scott Specialized as on ribbed paper, O91 is not listed as such. Either listing may have been added or removed in the last 6 years.
Very tough to photograph the ribbing. Need a light source at one edge (90* from ribbing) and the camera at the other edge, catch the shadows.

One of the hallmarks of ribbed paper is that the paper is rather opaque. Since both of the 24c War Dept. stamps are on a fairly thin and transparent paper, neither really have a chance.

IMO, only a singular example of ribbed paper has been posted in this thread, the #O1S special printing on horizontally ribbed paper.

sinclair said,


Why doesn't the 184 look ribbed? I could not find it listed in Scott but Scott does list such an item for 158.

Below is my only stamp on ribbed paper O57S:






Definitely hard to photograph. I used planar flash i.e., flash 90 degrees from camera axis or you can think of it as flash parallel to the plane of the stamp to try to add shadows to the ribs.

@Banknoteguy

For one thing, the ribbing on the supposed 184 does not appear to be present across the entire stamp. Things happen to stamps. Maybe something happened to this one. And the other thing is when we talk about ribbed paper, we are talking about very distinct stamps printed by the Continental Bank Note Co. Any talk about ribbed paper banknotes beyond that should at least come with some qualifiers. Also, I don't believe that just because you can see some ribbing on a stamp, you should çall it ribbed paper. If we did, almost every stamp would become a ribbed paper stamp!

I recently bought what I am fairly certain can be called an American Bank Note printing on hard paper. Amazingly enough, you could call it either horizontally or vertically ribbed paper because of the clear characteristics that are exhibited but I would never call it either.