Where To Find The Correct Equipment For Detecting Tagged US Stamps

UV Tools is an excellent company. I have bought several of their lamps, and they all have been great.
The last one I bought was a 13 watt lamp, which was at the time not available. They substituted a 16 watt unit in its place at no extra cost. That sort of service is stellar in my opinion!


Peter

The one you have with the clear opening is why you are not seeing the tagging. It should have a purple plastic/glass opening.

I have the same shortwave UV light that is pictured. It works well to determine if the stamp is tagged or not. Use the light only a few inches away from the stamp and in a darkened room for best results. I`ll use an AC powered unit when I want to determine the different kinds of tagging. The DC unit pictured is more difficult for determining course tagging, mottled tagging, etc.
There is no need for any colored cover (like purple) since the bulb is colored. However, my AC unit has a purple cover that slides back and forth to provide either SW or LW.

Petvet the purple lens is a filter and it you don't have it but have a clear one that is why you can't identify the tagging types you mentioned. Check the stampsmarter tagging DB. Almost all of the pictures were taken with the handheld unit I have. If you have a DC unit with a colored bulb (purple bulb), that is a LW unit. The bulbs used is the SW unit are clear germicidal bulbs that give off a broad spectrum of UV light. The purple lens filters the UV light to the SW frequency needed for US tagging.

The new lamp I got from Ultraviolet Tools works great. It takes 3 D batteries. Thanks for the advice.

Thanks for the report!

In my experience, constantly turning on and off of the lUV tools light will shorten the life - making it harder to start up. If you are doing a lot of stamps, just leave it for the session. Easier to replace batteries than getting a replacement bulb. It is not super easy to change.

I incorrectly stated that my unit is the same as the pictured. It isn't, but it is very close. Mine is a Lighthouse/Leuchtturm. My switch says UV 380 nm/ UV 254 nm and has quite a dark lens for the US tagging light, 254. It works in bright light if you hold it near the stamp.