What Is The "B" Color For The German Empire, MI # 540yb Stamp?

In 2000 the color "b" was called "lilabraun / dunkel lilabraun"



Michel specialized changed the name of the color to "dunkel rotlichbraun / dunkelsiena" color that also appears in the certifications 2019 of the experts.





I have Michel color Guide ed.38 and I compared my stamp with the colors indicated in the catalog.
It is very different from the color "a" -dunkelrotlichkarmin / dunkelsiena.
It Is the color "b"?





I did not find in Michel specialized another German stamp from this period to compare it with the shade "a" and on sales sites I found the shade of my stamp and also on "germanstamp.net".
Is the name of the shade "a" wrong in the Michel specialized catalog or is the color "dunkelrotlichkarmin" proof wrong in the Color Catalog?

PostmasterGS, probably, would be the one to answer your question.

What was and is the colour of the 12 Pfennig stamp? That appears to be reddish carmine. Maybe the new catalogue indeed made an error and copied the text for the 12 Pf. to the listing for 540ya. Reddish carmine is a completely different colour from reddish brown.

The colors on the "a" and "b" are very similar. I think the Michel color for the "a" is incorrect, at least according to the color guide.

I don't have a "b" so I can't show my own scan's side-by-side, but here's a scan from an auction of an "a" (left) and a certified "b" (right, with margin) next to each other.

Michel does note that on the "b", the center color and the main color are almost identical.

You can also see many "b" copies for auction on Philasearch, and to my eye, they appear identical to the "a" color. When I buy one, it's going to have to be a certified copy, because I really can't see the difference.

Hi PostmasterGS,NSK,

I can't handle colors and especially their names in different languages.
As a collector of German stamps, the Michel Color Guide is essential in identifying colors.
There are shades that are still difficult for me to identify.
For the 12 pf stamp the recent color name is schwarzlichrosarot / dunkelsiena and corresponds perfectly with the one in the color catalog.



PostmasterGS- Thank you for the information about of "identical colours"
I took 2 pictures with the lens of my minimicroscope.
Due to the LED light, the color changes but I only watched the similarity of the 2 colors.
In the picture on the bottom left, the colors appear different but I can confirm that it is the same color (I think so).
The resemblance is better seen in the picture on the top left where the horizontal lines are approximately the same thickness as the vertical ones.
Another stamp from my collection of mysterious stamps ("a" or "b" colour?)

Thanks floortrader for posts.
These are the 2 colors (center and exterior) of the 540yb stamp. It looks very similar.



To look almost identical I think the exterior should be "schwarzlichrotlichbraun" (like your stamp on the right that has an extra shade of black that softens the reddish color)
Is the stamp certified for color "b"?

floortrader-The 12 pf stamps are (I think) 2 shades of the same color-schwarzlichrosarot.
The same stamp previously posted, looks different (I haven't photographed it in sunlight)

To answer your question , no.. it is not expertized ,

Yes, on my monitor I can see the delta in the software and algorithms that were used to generate the images.
Don