These look very different to me and I have no explanation. The back sides are identical in color. Is this an EFO? Or is there another explanation? Thanks! Chris of ccndd
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bobgggg President Cortlandt Stamp Club 27 Feb 2018 06:46:51pm
re: the same stamp?
SCOTT LISTS TWO TYPES 1283 AND 1283 B ..but its hard to tell if there is any color diff in the color catalog
The stamp on the left is Scott 1283B. The stamp on the right is Scott 1283. Both are listed in the Scott Catalog. The shadows and background of the original stamp, 1283, was lightened after people complained, so George was given a "shave". The new lighter "shaved" George was given a new Scott number, 1283B.
One is a redrawn stamp. The lighting might be throwing me off, but the one on the right is Scott 1283, the one on the left is the redrawn stamp (Scott 1283B). The redrawn has highlights and shadows softened.
Edit: Wow! Scooped by not one but TWO Stamporamans while typing a response. The crew's sharp tonight
As far as I can judge, both of the initially shown stamps are of the redrawn variety, but consider that this issue was printed in huge numbers. It is no wonder that there are variations in quality, maybe even of the paper and the ink. The plates (or cylinders) wear out, ink needs to be refilled ...
Chris of ccndd - In the past, I also have noticed the same thing you saw on your two mint examples of the redrawn "clean-shaven" five-cent Washington. There is a very white version and a blue version of this stamp. So today, I took out all 205 used copies of this stamp from my USA stockbook and laid them out on my desk. I could easily make up 10 used pairs that look like your mint pair. Below, I scanned 4 of those pairs. I think these are the extreme ends of the spectrum of this stamp, as the majority are somewhere in the middle. Chris, you could call this an oddity with this stamp, but I think there are plenty of both versions out there if you look, they printed millions of this stamp and the stamp catalogues do not mention these obvious differences, as Michael has stated on this board many times before. They are the same stamp, only different.
Well, we have a choice. We can be a slave to the catalogs, or we can collect whatever varieties that we want regardless of what the catalogs say. It's your collection. If you want to include it, then by all means do so.
I keep my oddball stamps in a separate stockbook. The catalog-listed stamps I keep in printed albums (Scott Specialty; Scott International; Steiner; Minkus (when there is no other choice like Equatorial Guinea).
