Color Deficiency And Stamp Collecting

I see we got a lot of experts here on the subject of color . This battle over shades on a stamp was fought over 125 years old by Philippe Von Ferrary and the established Philatelic Community of Paris ,France . This fight went on for years . It was the establish British stamp dealers who started listing stamps as different shades . As price list
contain these sub colors then they became popular , than stamp catalogs follow suit .

"I agree .....that the stamp color nuances are mostly silly " is a posting here that I disagree with .You can push your view further and say perforations and different watermarks are silly . Those shades mostly show up due to different printings or even adding the right color ink into a ink tank on the printing machine that was not completely cleaned . A lot of shades come about due to various reasons .
So I will collect them .

I wish Ferrary would have wrote more. There was a guy who really knew his stuff (or knew someone that did.) He knew that dealers could take advantage of him but couldn't pass up the chance that a variety could "be real."

@Floortrader I was getting at that but I took the long way around. If a majority of collectors didn't care about the colors, they wouldn't have the value they do. Or, can a few people create value just by saying it has value? I don't think that is how it works...

My color perception is the same as it has always been, fwiw. I remember struggling to read some road signs when driving in the dark when I was in college; red has always looked black to me at a steep angle...

If you have ten people chasing after 5 stamps, it is relatively scarcer than a unique stamp no one wants. There are few "shades"collectors. But the expensive shades are few and, usually, not announced. And some are somewhat iconic.

The difference is that perforations and watermarks are intentional while different color hues/shades are mostly unintentional with subtle changes/ differences due to the complexity of ink compositions and the impact of environmental conditions (color perception by mixers, lighting conditions, even time and temperature)




Examples of just this abound and we live with them daily. Have you heard the term "influencers"?

Dealers back in the day would assign added value to a subtle color difference and people like Scott would become the "influencer" by lending gravitas by creating a catalog space for that item. Collectors than needed it in order to have "completion".

I really didnt know; that is why I asked, but I can see I have exhausted the patience of some on this thread.

Going back to the beginning, and can't get the quote to work.

So here is the question: is a color deficiency deadly to stamp collecting, in the conventional sense, or are there work-arounds?

The workaround seems to be to affect that it doesn't matter... and don't try to put any money into collecting the color shades. Not altogether a pleasing answer, but still good to find out.

Are there countries or time periods that would matter less?
Maybe this question is irrelevant; if the color differences are unplanned they could happen for any country. More proof that I have more right to ask questions than answer them at this point.

Interesting question! The thought of a color-blind painter just popped into my mind..................

@Nells250 my grandma might have had some color blindness. She made an afghan for me that was white, blue, and orange. I thought it was the coolest, but mom said later she didnt realize she was putting orange and blue together...

@rogdcam I guess it was careless for me not to think about trends of the last 10-20 years, as you implied.

This, certainly, is true. However, it does not always work in one direction. Also, there are examples to the contrary.

The GB Wildings definitives had several intentional changes: 2d, 4d, and 6d values. The 2d made it to the mainstream collections. The others, frequently, are ignored.

Whereas shades have been listed in catalogues, "specialised" collectors go much further and use specialised catalogues to meet their objectives. Mainstream catalogues list fewer shades and, indeed, tend to instigate a search for completion.

Philately is such a wide area to consider. One solution may be to find a facet of philately which better matches the abilities and conditions which present themselves.

I have a friend who is color blind, he finds great satisfaction in the single-color U.S. transportation coil series. He has found an area to enjoy rather than to be frustrated by.

@John Becker, this is true, there are some series that are only one color. I do like the idea of a color guide though. It could level the playing field for me vs having to give up on some areas of collecting, as long as sums of money aren't at stake...