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.