Process for Identifying Washington Franklin Stamps

I have three identifier tables for these issues, but still, I have a process I use to go through these stamps and identify them.

1. Sort the stamps into piles:

• Franklin stamps with "ONE" in the denomination
• Washington stamps with "TWO" in the denomination
• Washington stamps with 1 in the denomination
• Washington stamps with 2 in the denomination
• Up to 11 piles of the other Washington denominations
• Further break the 5 cent Washington into Blue or Carmine piles
• Up to 11 piles of the vertical format Franklin denominations
• Up to 3 piles for the horizontal format Franklin denominations
• $2 Orange Red
• $2 Red
• $5 Green

2. For each pile, pick out the coils and imperforate stamps and set them aside

3. Identify stamps pile by pile, starting with the stamps that could be on our first table:

Step 1: ONE, TWO and 8 cent to $1 Washingtons

The fully-perforated stamps that can only be on this table are the "ONE" and "TWO" stamps, and the 8 cent to $1 Washington stamps. Now, you're going to identify these piles largely by checking the watermark.

The only exceptions are that the TWO cent Washington could be perf 11, so check for that.

And, all these stamps could be the bluish paper. This is highly unlikely, but to check these first look for either a bluish or grayish tint to the back side of the paper. It can help to do this on an orange paper to help pop out that color. Compare the stamp to other, non-bluish stamps. Apparently, they look quite different side-by-side. If you still think you might have a bluish paper stamp, get an expert to look at it.

Step 2: 3 cent to 7 cent Washingtons on this first table

Now we are going to look at the Washington stamps that could be on either the first or second tables. Those are the 3 cent through 7 cent stamps, although the 7 cent can't be on this table, it's still worth dealing with them in this step.

First, check and sort them by perforations.

For all the perf. 12 stamps, check the watermark and you're done.

Now you are done with this first table. You can move on confidently that all the fully perforated stamps are on the next table:

There are three differences across the stamps on this table. First, there is the watermark. The first five columns have a watermark. The last six columns don't have a watermark. The second difference is the perforation. These stamps are perforated 12 1/2, 12, 11, 10, and even 10x11 or 11x10. Finally, the stamps use three different printing methods: Flat plate printing, offset printing, and rotary press printing.

Unfortunately, in most cases, you need two of these features to tell which stamp you have. You can check them in any order, but I like to check the watermark first.

Step 3: Going through the fully perforated piles with page 2

Note, when I say fully perforated, there is a chance that one edge or a corner will be unperforated. Those probably come from booklets and should be checked on this page.

Check the watermark and the perforation. Compare that to the table.

For the unwatermarked stamps, check the printing type. As a reminder:

    Flat plate: Engraved, so image shows up by rubbing foil over it

    Offset: Smooth, so no image with the foil test

    Rotary: Engraved like flat plate, but 1/2 mm taller or wider

Finally, with the 2 cent and 3 cent Washingtons, you might need to check the type of the stamp. For that, you need reference images. The Scott catalog has these, as do a number of great on-line sources. I've created a post with links to some of the ones I use.

That should do it with the second table. We can move on to the coil and imperforate stamps.

Step 4: Check the coils and imperforate stamps

You should have everything you need to go through these piles. Do the same thing you did with the other piles of stamps.

Great Sites for Identifying Washington Franklin Stamp Types

Scott list 9 types for the 2 cent Washington stamps. There are another 4 types for the 3 cent Washington issue. When you get to identifying these stamps, you're going to have to have a good reference to these types.  The Scott catalog does a decent job of explaining the difference between the types, but it helps to have other examples of what they are talking about.

Rather than recreate what other people have done so well, let me point you to some websites I use:

The Swedish Tiger -- run by Roger Kirby:

    Go here to start identifying US stamps by image

    Go here for the 2 cent Washington types

    Go here for the 3 cent Washington types

Stamp Smarter, -- run by Don Denman, which hosts the 1847 USA Project pages:

    Go here for a general Washington/Franklin identifier

    Go here for the 2 cent Washington Flat Plate and Rotary types

    Go here for the 2 cent Washington Offset types

    Go here for the 3 cent Washington Flat Plate and Rotary types

    Go here for the 3 cent Washington Offset types

Kenmore Stamp Company pages:

    Go here for the 2 cent Washington Flat Plate and Rotary types

    Go here for the 2 cent Washington Offset types

    Go here for the 3 cent Washington types

US Washington/Franklin Stamp Issues

There's nothing about identifying these stamps that is easy, but I've created these three tables to help. I've got a YouTube video on Ken's Stamp Collection that breaks these all down.

I'm adding some space here so the larger images are fully visible.

This first table is for the Washington/Franklin series that spell out "ONE" and "TWO" for the denomination of the first two stamps. The rest of these stamps are distinguished by being--largely--perf. 12 or featuring Washington instead of Franklin. The one odd perf. 11 stamp is the TWO cent Washington:

This second table is for the Washington/Franklin series that use "1" and "2" for the denomination of the first two stamps. Just the first column in this table is perf. 12, but that shouldn't cause an identification problem. The first two stamps in that column use "1" and "2" for the denomination. The all the higher value stamps use Franklin's bust. The only potentially confusing stamp is the 7 cent Washington, but that's easy too, since there is no 7 cent Washington stamp in the previous issues.

Finally, this third table lists the coil and imperforate versions of these stamps.

Ken's Advice on Selling a Stamp Collection

I have gotten a few viewers asking me for help on selling a stamp collection. I'm putting my advice, limited as it may be, here so I don't have to type it each time I get asked.

By the way, I don't buy stamp collections through this channel, so I can't help you that way.

As for how to sell stamps or a stamp collection: I'm afraid I have never sold a postage stamp, so I have zero experience with this. I know that some dealers will make offers on whole collections. I'd anticipate getting ten percent or less of the catalog value if you go that way. People also have success using eBay and Hipstamp to sell individual stamps and sets. Except for rarities, expect to get on the order of ten percent of catalog. If you do have rarities, consider reaching out to a stamp auction house. Comment to this post if you want to add to this advice.

My German Stamp Collection Summary Page

I'm just putting in a little blank space here to push this image down on the page.

That should be enough.

Distinguishing German AM Post Printings

There are three printings of the AM post stamps, which can be really hard to tell apart. The Scott catalog is not very helpful in this regard. I found this public domain image on the German Wikipedia page that makes identifying these printings rather easy.

The stamp on the left is the British/London printing. Scott lists these as the b-versions of the Germany catalog numbers: 3N2b through 3N8b. They were the second printing, and are easily distinguished by the smaller perforations - roughly perf. 14. There is a little circle on this image highlighting another printing difference. For some stamps, the lines on frame are a series of dots. But, this is not needed to positively identify these London printings.

The other two stamps both have perfs. of approximately 11. There's enough overlap, that the perforations are not a good way to distinguish the printings. Scott lists some color differences between the stamps, but I find those to be too subtle to trust for positive identification. Fortunately, there is a very easy way to tell them apart.

The stamp on the right is the Braunschweig, German printing--the third and final printing. Those stamps have more detail in the scrollwork. You can see white areas in the blue boxes on the image. That extra detail is not included in either the American printing or the British printing.

Finally, by process of elimination, the center stamp is the Washington D.C. printing from the US. It is actually the first printing, although Scott lists these with a-versions of the catalog numbers: 3N2a through 3N13a.

The German printing came last, but has more values in the series. Scott gave them the major catalog numbers--3N1 through 3N20--probably because it includes all the stamps in the series. It made the numbering easier, but not nearly as clear as I'd prefer.

Here's my table of these issues:

German Post WWII Administration Zone Map

The base of this map come from Wikimedia and was listed as public domain. I added in the shading to show the different Administrative zones. You have my permission to use this map with my shadings.