The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-01-22
A FEW WORDS

IN lEe pursuit OF the fascinating pits
of paper and any one who delves into
the intricacies of Philately is apt to
emerge with the question, Who says
this doesn't require science?
We will first glance at the two-cent
issue of 1890. This stamp was printed
in carmine, but comes in many shades,
the most prominent one being dull
lake.
| These two colors are the only ones
listed by stamp dealers, but any one
| interested in shades may get together
quite number of them.
| The next variety came in 1894, when,
either by mistake or design, the stamps
appeared for a short time only with
small white caps, or bars, over the fig
ure of value.
There are three varieties of these,
the cap over left two, caps over both
tWos, and cap over right two only, the
latter being quite scarce and will at
some future time be held for high
premium.
This stamp (without bars) also
comes unperforated and is rare in this
condition.
They are hardly worth anything, how
ever, unless they are in unsevered
blocks or pairs, as it is the only way
of proving that they are genuinely I'M
perforated.
Now, these stamps were all printed
by the American Bank Note company,
but in 1894, just after the caps appear
ed, Uncle Sam thought he would try
his hand at 1t, and the bureau of en-
craving and printing took our two
cent stamp and put triangle in each
upper corner of it.
This rather improved upon the origi-
nal design, and at the same time made
a distinguishing mark for the new
printers, although as it turned out they
needed no distinguishing mark what
ever, for the stamps now appeared in
all shades of carmine and red; the gum
was very poor and turned brittle, max
ing the stamp curl up and crack, and
even the paper they were printed upon
came in several degrees of thickness
and hardness.
So, for the genuine stamp crank art
list or whatever he may be, this is a
field with hardly any limitations.
The most pronounced varieties are
Icarmine, which gradually merges to-
ward pink and finally we see it in a
beautiful rose color, which is the scare
est of the shades.
The gum is a sort of disappearing ar
ticle on the genuine rose, and on ar
unused full gummed' specimen hard
ly any trace Of the gum remains.
Now we have triangle II, which diff
fers from triangle r in the lines
tr;o iob 1xyl,i
er, the red lines being much thinner
within triangle IT, than in triangle
l." Next comes triangle III" and
last.
The red cross lines found on "trian.
gle T., and which are also found, but
much thinner, on triangle IL, are
I wholly obliterated on triangle III"
All of these stamps come in various
shades, but for ordinary collectors (not
artists the three varieties mentioned
above are all that need be collected.
In 1895 the three varieties in question
were watermarked U. S. P. G. Omitted
States Postal Service) in horizonta
rows, the letters being repeated severa
times across the sheet
This ends the varieties of this par
ticular stamp We will now glance
back to the year 1870, when the old ia
miliar three-cent green came into ex
istence. Printed by the National Banl
Note company in 1870, the three-cen
green was embossed, or grilled, on tht
back the enclosing measuring Skill!
millimeters.
This stamp also comes embossed
IS1sx101a, which is considered variety
In 1872 it appeared without emboss
ing by the same company.
In 1878 the Continental Bank Note
company took our three-cent green anC
placed a distinguishing mark on it
which consisted of the lawer part o
the tail of the left ribbon being heavil,
shaded, whereas it is not shaded at al
in the previous issues. 1t is claimed
by some that this stamp comes un
perforated, hut the perforating ma
chine was exceedingly cratic in thos
days, as I have seen specimens will
very wide margins that could hav
been made into unperforated raritie
by few clips of the shears.
This stamp also comes on ribbed pa
per, and is not particularly common il
this condition.
In 1919 the American Ioduh MOI
company took the stamp and printe,
L it on soft, spongy paper. The staml
now appears in bright vermillion col
or. and as that can hardly be termed
shade of green we must leave it.
The entire 1851 issue of varieties wa
gotten out in a great hurry to suppl,
the postoffices throughout the country
They were in such a hurry, in fact
that although the engraver had no
completely finished the plates, the
were rushed through, the postoffice
We're supplied and then they went t
work and retouched all the plates.
These early impressions are now al
most unattainable. Then the retouch
ed stamps made a new set, and the en-
tire series were embossed a few ney
values being added, bringing the Sc
up to eleven varieties, and in 1875 tn
entire series was reissued without EN-
bossing,
Some of them We're printed on lai
paper, and three or more of them wer
embossed all over
The three-cent stamp was embosse,
with five different sized grills, and wa
also printed in scarlet, red, rose, pinl
and red-brown.
Altogether the series of eight stamp
developed into about sixty legitimat
varieties.
How many more varieties time an,