Great Britain Scott 40e? (Sg88?)

It's probably the standard Scott 40, SG 86, but thought I would ask some of the experts. This one "may" have a hairline in the upper right corner. I believe that only one is required to be this variety. What do you think?

I believe that hairlines are only in the lower corners, not the upper corners. Your stamp does not have them in the lower corners and so is almost certainly SG 86, or Scott 40

Is that true on all items from Great Britain described as having hairlines? Here is Scott 34b which clearly has a hairline in the upper corners.

The hairlines for the 4d occur in all four corners. Irrespective of where the hairlines should be on the 9d wmk emblems with small white corner letters, what your example has is not a hairline but weak printing area, probably plate wear. It is an example from plate 2, sg 86 (bistre) or 87 (straw).

The hairlines indicate that it is from plate 3, which was never issued. My old SG specialized for Victorian issues says only 27 were known, released along with the Imprimatur sheets (printers test samples, more or less) for the other plates. So, there also wouldn't be the white blotches found elsewhere in your stamp. The way it's described, it's implied there are hairlines across all corners. All the other values that have hairlines have them in all 4 corners and it indicates those are from specific plates, too.

Hairlines are also quite thin like NSK shows on his 4d.

Excellent information. Thanks everyone.

If only. But I only pointed out the hairlines.