Watermark On Prexy 832B

I recently acquired what I was told was an #832b, but am having difficulties seeing the watermark. I really don't know what I'm looking for so I could use some help. I'm familiar with US watermarks on the Washington/Franklins which are often times weak and incomplete, but don't know if I should expect the same with this item. Is the watermark a single line or double line watermark, or something entirely different? Is it common to see only a tiny piece of one of the USIR letters. Are they commonly off-center and are they horizontal in alignment on the stamp? Look forward to hearing from someone on this. Thanks.

The USIR watermark is very similar to the double-line USPS. Here is a normal 832 on top of a Special Tax Stamp printed on the USIR paper. You are correct that any 832b stamp may have a full letter or only small bits of the letters depending on how it fell on the paper.



(I do not know if the orientation should be horizontal or vertical,so I may have the stamp 90 degrees off, but I'm sure someone who knows will post shortly!)

Thank you, John. Based on your picture, there may be fragments of the letters just in the corners of an #832b. Makes reading the ones on W/Fs look like an easy task. I'll have to look closer now with this new info. Thanks a bunch.

The watermark on the 832b is often difficult to see.

John Becker,

How did you get the watermark to show so clearly?

Jack Kelley

Photo taken with a home-made light table. Fluorescent bulb underneath a sheet of frosted glass. Hand-held camera. The Special Tax Stamp is facing down to get the watermark to read correctly. Didn't worry about the exposure as much as I should have. The point was to show the relative size of a Prexie to the USIR letters and the potential ease or difficulty in seeing a watermark on any particular stamp.

http://www.stampsmarter.com/learnin...ermarks.html
Click on 'Pop-up Location Tool' (bottom right hand side) to use an interactive tool which allows you to see how little a watermark, as well as all the possible orientations, of US watermarks.
Don

Yes Don. I made one of those years ago I am going to try John's method with my Washington Franklins. Never had much luck finding much of anything there.

Jack Kelley

Watermarks on special tax stamps are usually among the easiest to see. They are great for teaching beginners.