3 Cent US Postage, Um, Why Is This Red?

*** Edited by Staff to clarify the topic title. Please put as much info in the title as you can, they are very important. ***

Has to be a color "changeling". No other answer if it is a genuine stamp which it appears to be.

These three cent Washington stamps come in a variety of shades among their flat, rotary, & offfset printings and are also very susceptable to light-fading and other environmental/chemical changes. Yours is within the range of what happens.

I have the exact same red 3 cent Washington stamp that was lightly glued into an old Scott stamp book. Bought a stamp collection at an estate sale. What is it worth.

Due to the damage which a color changeling is, the value is south of $0.05, perhaps south of $0.01 cents as well.

That said Golfer9:



You should ask such questions in a new thread you start. While the stamps may look the same to you there is a wide difference between a "stamp" and a "cover" (stamp in the mailing container) Here the item in the OP would be multiples of the value of yours, likely in the 5-10 cent range for being still on cover.

This is quite educational -- I wasn't aware of these "color changelings." On this particular stamp, though, the original violet color fades to blue in direct sunlight, as illustrated in the Stamp Smarter linked page:



What would cause violet to shift to a fairly vivid shade of red?