Emperor Napoleon III Die 1s? Any Thoughts On Colors

Happy Friday to all.

Still digging into some of my French stamps. Are these all Die 1? I realize that last stamp is probably in the wrong place, however wanted to get your thoughts. Would love to see a Die II example - it does not illustrate in my Scott - I will search here as well. Would be great to get opinions on the color variations - though I realize that is very hard to pin down. Thanks all - enjoying the process.

Allow me, madame.

From Yvert:



From Gibbons:



Your third stamp is Type II, I think.

I have found the shading on the neck easiest for figuring out I vs. II personally.

Re shades, depends how deep down the rabbit hole you'd like to go - there is a large range of shades and paper colours. Ran across a study that references more than 100 "nuances" (don't have a copy). Yvert specialized lists 14 for type I and 4 for type II.

I have a lot of hundreds of them with shades identified by the previous owner. I'll pick out a bunch and post later today.

~Greg

Eight, all die I, showing various shades.
Top row - blue on bluish, "strong blue" (bleu fonce), dark blue on bluish, even darker blue
Second row - milky blue, azure blue, milky blue on cream, blue on greenish (have my doubts about this ID)

This collection has many more shades identified in 300+ stamps - one reason I haven't tackled it yet!

Thank you gents! so so helpful. I was so focused on the "curl" and was not understanding the neck differences. Happy that #3 might be die II. Amazing all the color variations - Again thank you for sharing.

Here is the full page - I really like how it is coming along.

This is my opinion...
IDing colors on a 100+ year old used stamps without significant experience, standardized ambient lighting conditions, and an awesome color reference collection of that particular stamp is often titling at windmills.

I also do not buy into older published color designations unless I know exactly where they came from and the ambient lighting parameters used. (What good is a 100 year old catalog identification that was done under an oil lamp when I am using an LED light?) How many published works has anyone seen in this hobby which defined the ambient lighting they were working under at the time? Given that any colors we see are 100% the result of the ambient light waves bouncing off the surface of the stamp it seems kind of important. (If anyone does not buy int the importance of ambient lighting in how we see colors, then try IDing a stamp color in a pitch-dark room.)
Don

Added to this is your own perception. My approach is to recognise that, even if the listed shades etc are legitimate, I'm not very good at picking them. I have a go, for my own amusement and until it becomes an ordeal, but I shouldn't like to sell something on the basis of my differentiation unless it were blindingly obvious.