If you can get your hands on a Unitrade Canada Specialized they show a really good side-by-side picture of a 15A and a 16. Those damn browns really are a SOB. if you want to be sure you might have to send it away to be certified. I have the 15A, but not the 16 and if I were in your shoes I'd assume the cheaper stamp and if I really was unsure ... send it away!
Edit: If you have not mixed up your left and right you are saying the one on the right might be #16. I believe they are pretty sure that #16 does not exist used. I would probably assume they are right and that your stamp is not #16. I am also not sure why someone would have a #1 certified, mint it only catalogs at $150 and you can usually find it for half of that. That always confuses me on E-Bay when I see very cheap stamps that have been certified - I thought the process cost at least $30.
Kindly help a guy with red-green color dificiency.
On the right is either a $120 Scott #15A or an "unissued" $8,000-16,000(!) #16.
My wife, who is not colorblind, without prompting, came up with "reddish brown," which is Scott's color for a 16. Scott (and the Unitrade catalog) calls 15A "violet brown." Neither is watermarked.
The APS-Certified Scott #1, on left, looks a lot more "violety" to us than the stamp on the right. These unenhanced scans do match the real things quite well.
Measuring the stamp image in question wasn't helpful: it fell between 21.75mm and 22mm; Unitrade says it should be 21.75mm on each side.
re: Newfoundland 15A or 16?
If you can get your hands on a Unitrade Canada Specialized they show a really good side-by-side picture of a 15A and a 16. Those damn browns really are a SOB. if you want to be sure you might have to send it away to be certified. I have the 15A, but not the 16 and if I were in your shoes I'd assume the cheaper stamp and if I really was unsure ... send it away!
Edit: If you have not mixed up your left and right you are saying the one on the right might be #16. I believe they are pretty sure that #16 does not exist used. I would probably assume they are right and that your stamp is not #16. I am also not sure why someone would have a #1 certified, mint it only catalogs at $150 and you can usually find it for half of that. That always confuses me on E-Bay when I see very cheap stamps that have been certified - I thought the process cost at least $30.