3c Sq - Vertical Vs Horizontal Paper - Oddness

Hello all

one of the things that I really enjoy about 3c studies is that I seem to always learn something new.

This 3c (I believe is a 41) perf 12 x 12.25

The curious thing is while ascertaining the weave I will check using a backlight for the 'dashes', then verify with a quick breath test. An interesting result is shown below that if I breathed on the front, it curled horizontal, breath on the back resulted in vertical.

Lesson learned for me, don't just rely on a quick breath test. Any thoughts?

Chris




seems horizontal



seems vertical



paper too smooth to assess weave



backlighting seems to confirm vertical dashes

I am working with the 5c Registered Letter stamps right now. They were printed at the same time period as the 3c Small Queen, 1875-93. These stamps were printed on Vertical and Horizontal weave paper. It is difficult to see the weave sometimes. But you can moisten the stamp to see the weave more clearly. The choices are to use simply water or watermark fluid. You can try this and see if this works for you.

You can also just drop the stamp onto the surface of water and it should curl quite a bit, in the direction of the weave.

But it actually seems as if you can just use your method of breathing on the stamps to determine whether it's a vertical or horizontal weave. Cool !