Good luck Vic!! My wife and I spent hundreds of hours, and I'm not exaggerating, on those darn things. The colour variations were really bad - the many different ways to say the word "RED"!! And, as you point out, single and double lined USPS watermarks - or no watermark at all. Sometimes the single line watermark seemed to miss the stamp entirely or just barely touched an edge. The only thing we didn't have to worry about was tagging!!! I have always assumed we did them right since my wife had infinite patience, I do not! I did check a few and didn't see a problem. Have fun!!!
"For some weird reason I decided to start sorting through 100's of stamps of the Washington/Franklin series"
My Harris Liberty album has about 12 pages of these monsters. Would I ever hate to have to figure out these stamps now!! Occasionally I can afford to pick up one I need and after checking the stamp out briefly thankfully the sellers have them correct, I hope!!!
For some weird reason I decided to start sorting through 100's of stamps of the Washington/Franklin series, they have been in stockbooks, old albums, loose in envelopes and generally skulking around for a number of years.
Started with the one and two cents, should probably have had myself committed then. Am now progressing through the higher values which do seem somewhat easier (relatively speaking).
Sorted by perfs first, then by printing process, though the offsets are a bit difficult, especially on used stamps with heavy postmarks. Next I have tried to identify the watermarks, double line shows up quite clearly, single line much harder as often only part of a letter is visible.
The "Easy Way" US stamp identifier makes life a lot simpler in deciding the Scott number. Have not started into the various "types" within some of the values, probably easier on mint stamps, but a lot more difficult on old, used, worn and postmarked ones.
Hopefully in about 5 years time I will have managed to get them onto album pages in possibly the correct places and order.
Still gives me something to do when I'm not cutting grass, weeding, doing laundry, shopping or watching the raindrops on the windows and in the puddles.
Another fun day almost over.
re: Washington/Franklins
Good luck Vic!! My wife and I spent hundreds of hours, and I'm not exaggerating, on those darn things. The colour variations were really bad - the many different ways to say the word "RED"!! And, as you point out, single and double lined USPS watermarks - or no watermark at all. Sometimes the single line watermark seemed to miss the stamp entirely or just barely touched an edge. The only thing we didn't have to worry about was tagging!!! I have always assumed we did them right since my wife had infinite patience, I do not! I did check a few and didn't see a problem. Have fun!!!
re: Washington/Franklins
"For some weird reason I decided to start sorting through 100's of stamps of the Washington/Franklin series"
re: Washington/Franklins
My Harris Liberty album has about 12 pages of these monsters. Would I ever hate to have to figure out these stamps now!! Occasionally I can afford to pick up one I need and after checking the stamp out briefly thankfully the sellers have them correct, I hope!!!