How Would You Classify The Following Stamps?

Hello there! How would you classify these stamps according to Scott catalogue? I think the color of the right one is pinker and the lines on the shoulder/arm seems to be better defined or should I say continuous.

If there's anything harder to do than identifying the correct color of a stamp image on a computer screen, I can't think of it. Colors change in the process of scanning nd posting. Your "red" might be my "carmine" or "pink". A "color chart" is more likely to give you the most accurate answer, but really good color charts aren't cheap, unfortunately, due to all the work involved in printing all those color chips correctly.

To me, the right hand stamp does seem pinker, but maybe it's just slightly lighter red. The lines can be more clearly seen, and the ones on the right are much stronger, darker and clearly very different from the ones on the other stamp.

Also notice that the two upper triangles are different. The one on the left stamp has much lighter lines inside, but the one on the right stamp has lines that are the same as the lines outside the triangle. Also Washington's hair on one stamp has a few very dark lines in it that the other stamp doesn't have. These differences were done on purpose so different printings could be told apart from each other. The place to see these differences best is in the Scott Specialized Stamp Catalogue of U.S. Stamps. Even an old used copy will help you a great deal. And it's fun to do.

You have two different catalog numbers. Note there are two different types of shading in the upper triangles. Start with the design first, rather than color.

You should also acquaint yourself with the Stampsmarter site which can greatly assist in many of these points of identification. This particular matter of the differing traingles is covered at: http://stampsmarter.com/1847usa/189...ntifier.html

Edited to add: Specifically click on the "types of the two cent...". And then refer back to the chart....

Have fun exploring the triangles. I suspect they have gotten more than one of us hooked on collecting.

I'm one of those, too. Love the first bureau issues, especially the triangles on the 2C.

Thanks everybody for the helpful comments.

Hi Drew:
You mentioned "really good color charts". Do you have information where one is available? I did a google search as well as here and only came up with an out of print Scott reference that applied to what appears only four stamps and a reference to the Munsell System that quite honestly could not figure out where it was applicable to our hobby.
Thanks
Paul

There is no color standard for our hobby. Every catalog uses their own color names. There are standards like Pantone that the rest of the world uses but no one in this hobby uses them. 'Color Charts' suffer from the exact same issue as stamps, the colors change over time. Colorists and other color professionals update their color chart every year or two. You can buy color chips made from metal or plastic, these last a bit longer but they too change over time (replace every 5 years).

Posting scanned stamp color images, even if your scanner and monitor are calibrated, means nothing to the rest of us who are looking at the images on 'Lord Knows What' displays. It is like me taking a picture of my HD TV, posting the image here, and then asking everyone 'how good is the picture on my TV?'.
Don

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