Is There A Good Way To Identify A 63B?

could you compare it to another stamp issue that is designated the dark blue colour in Scott specialized?
just thinking outside the box!

Here's my #63b on a cover



Close up

rlsny - I think the short answer to your question is that there is no easy way to be sure you have a dark blue 63b, without comparing it with a reference copy, side-by-side. Except for the other obvious answer which is to send it in to get certified - I understand the desire to be pretty sure it is genuine before sending it in though. I know this isn't a satisfying answer, but I think it is the right one. Having any of us scan our certified 63b and posting the scan here really doesn't help you too much. Even scanning it next to a 'normal' 63 won't help too much - even your 'normal' and our 'normal' may be different shades. If you are in a stamp club, or are close to one, perhaps you can find someone there with a 63b who would let you compare your's with it. Or, bite the bullet and send it off to the PF - in the end, that may be the most cost effective way of being sure. I really wish I had a better answer!

Honestly, some color differences can be determined by looking at different scans. Use Siegel Power Search and look at 243's compared to 243a's. You will see the difference. Look at 63b's in Power Search and even though the lots were scanned over a period of many years they all have the same duller indigo blue look. It is enough to know that the OP's stamp is too bright and too light to be a 63b. It just is. But send it off anyway. People do use photos as informative to make judgements as to whether or not to throw money at something to certify. You have to unless you have unlimited budget and will send everything off to the PF. That is reality.

Isn't there an app you can scan your stamp with and it shows a graph of its color make up? I thought I saw someone using it and and then after you got your graph of your stamp, you could compare it to a desired stamps graph to see if yours is a match or close to it.

There is the Image Color Summarizer. If anyone knows of another one, please let us know.

http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/color-summarizer/

I have one on Stamp Smarter https://stampsmarter.org/features/C...Extract.html but I dislike linking it since many users do not understand that they are analyzing an IMAGE and not the actual stamp. The color mapping you are getting is that of software, not the actual stamp in hand.
Don

Thanks for making that available and linking it, Don.

thanks Don that was it!

Since comparing these stamps digitally requires imaging them under identical conditions, I scanned a typical #63 beside what I assess to be a 63B at right. I then cut out and saved a well-inked rectangular area in front of Franklin's chin, and ran both cutouts through the Image Color Summarizer. Below are screen shots of the two color clusters and histograms that the app output.

Interesting Classic. Do you have a 2nd 63b to compare the 63b scans?

Caper, I don't think I have a second 63b.

rlsny, I'm using the Image Color Summarizer that I linked in my post above. From that link, look for the "provide your own image" link under the heading "get started already."

If you didn't notice, you can see what portion of the stamp I cut out under the heading "image cluster partitions" in the screen shots I posted (also posted below). I think it may be very helpful not to use the whole stamp or a part of the stamp with a cancel on it.

After messing around with the summarizer and different scans - I'm done. None of this is giving me any more sense of the answer. The actual stamp is significantly darker than the image and there is no doubt that it is darker than all the other 63s I could lay my hands on. At the same time it isn't indigo. So I'm sticking with my 35% 63b odds. The summarizer is cool, and it was interesting to learn about it. But as several have suggested the only real answer is to have a reference to compare.

I keep a bunch of cheap stamps around of different popular colors/shades/hues to help me ballpark these things. Still can drive one nuts (pecans to be exact).

This is actually a difficult one without a reference collection. The line between a 63 "deep blue" and a 63b "dark blue" is difficult to determine. I have a dozen certified deep blues where the former owner sent them in in hopes of a 63b. I have maybe 3 certified 63b. And even with them right in front of you, they are tricky.