What Are Your Thoughts On The Colour Of This Scott# 64 A25 Or Is It A Scott #104

Eh, centering could be better.



Yes, it's gorgeous.

NSK - I bought one of those for a dollar at a club auction.....havent used it since....

I bought mine decades ago from the Strand shop. I soon found out it is nice to have but otherwise useless. At the time, I think, it cost GBP 4.95.

Well I have finally bit the bullet, and I have sent the stamp off to The Royal Philatelic Society for their Expert Committee to assess.

I'll let you know how I get on, in a couple of months time, when I get the appraisal back.

Bernard

As sure as the sun rises in the East it is a 65 but please share the certificate when received.

Your stamp is still a Scott 65.

You seem to be overlooking chipg's posting of "Color Guide for Scott #64 and 65". This stamp was the workhorse stamp from 1861 to 1868, when the grilled versions were introduced. It paid the standard internal letter rate. Literally billions were printed over 7+ years with modest quality control of the color mostly done during wartime conditions. The above color guide shows 12 basic shades. Michael McClung's study lists 54 variants not including the pigeon bloods. (August 1993 issue of The Chronicle) These color chronologies have been created by collecting thousands of dated stamps/covers. The point being that any illustration in any catalog is one representative copy, which may or may not resemble your copy. The best color guide is to build your own with real stamps and ignore the printed guides.
I am not sure what you hope any certifying group to tell you. I am afraid you have wasted your money versus the market value of the stamp. If you are hoping for a pink shade of some sort, these were from the first printings and were quickly used up in the early fall of 1861 as wtcrowe noted. Your stamp has a "J" as one of the central date slugs, which is starting the month. The earliest your cancel can be is January 1862, which again reduces the odds. My advice, if you are going to pursue the various shades beyond the basic hole in most albums, then look for year-dated covers rather than loose singles.

Well John, the reason that I sent this stamp off, is because I believe that the paper is a hard white paper, with remnants of white crackly gum, and as wtcrowe pointed out, that it was not a Rose or a Pink. And compared to my other A25 stamp. this one does have sharper proof-like impressions and brighter colours. Therefore hoping that it maybe a 1875 Scott 104.

But clearly from my side of the pond, I could not identify this stamp with the same certainty that some of you have, and that is due to my lack of experience. Hence sending it off for appraisal.

I will however keep you all up to date by posting the result on here.

Thank you all for your input

Bernard

Bernard,
Thank you, bringing resolution to this thread is greatly appreciated (once you get the results).
Don

Bernard,


Having scrolled through ebay and the covers posted to Frajola's board, one of the hurdles to this hope will be that Baltimore replaced the double ring circle cancel by late 1865 and also appears to have discontinued blue ink about the same time.

Siegel:

What he actually said was,



Not a 64 or 64b, just an ordinary 65.

Well as promised I have the certificate from RPSL but I am none the wiser because they say the Colour is Brownish Red and yet on the Colour Guide for Scott #64 & 65 that was posted to this thread that Colour does not exist.

They also identify the stamp as a SG No 62, so not sure if this is equivalent to Scott #64 &65

However it has all been a great experience and the first time that I have had a stamp expertised, which cost the princely sum of £51.60 including VAT and Postage.

So thanks again for all of your help.

Warmest Regards
Bernard

The unmentionable site identifies SG62 as Scott 64b and remarks that where the colour is identified as Rose (Rose pink), SG calls it Brownish rose.



The same site identifies Scott 65 as SG53, and Scott 64 (without the b) as SG61.

Maybe one of the US people can comment on the implication.

The best source would be the original source ... if someone would post a scan directly from the SG catalog listing.

Warden, thank you for reporting back. This happens so seldom. It is refreshing!

NSK Thank you for the clarification of my stamp, so my next question is what is it worth? I only have a Scott Specialized catalogue from 2019, which says a used 64B stamp is $150.