A matter of color
In specialized stamp collecting, color changes are one of the most common and most collected types of varieties on stamps. There is however one BUT (and it is a big one…). Every human has a somewhat different ability to identify and perceive range of colors. Also the lighting used affects on how color is observed.
Below is a set of somewhat common 10 centimes Swiss definitive stamp (showing traintrack to Rochers de Naye) issued in 1949. The problem (or the fun) is that this stamp has plenty of color shades to offer for anyone seeking to specialize. For example I got two long stockbook rows of this stamp in various shades; in picture below are just the the extremes and a stamp with slight colorshade change to other extreme.
Swiss (Helvetia) postage stamps issued in 1949. The 10 centimes stamp shows train track to Rochers de Naye. Michel #531, cat. value 0.30€.
The first and last stamp are very easy to tell apart. These are the extremes. But what about the second and third stamp – they look pretty similar (especially on computer screen). Only a slight change of shade can be sensed. Some (with trained eye) notice the shade change easily, some will have huge difficulties on spotting the difference.
Cover of Michel stamp color guide
For common collector like me this is not such a big issue. If the stamp color/shade looks different in my eyes, then it’s suitable addition to my collection. But for dealers, exhibition philatelists, specialized collectors etc. stamp color is often a question of money and investments.
One of the most common tools of the trade are stamp color guides. In essence, a color guide is a reference tool that enables collectors to identify stamp colors matching those used in specific catalogue. But it is by no means perfect or complete guide to stamp colors. And it doesn’t take out the largest challenge – personal perception.
Thus I’m waiting eagerly what kind of technical toys the future holds for stamp collectors. Digital image scanners (in color calibrated PC enviroment) are a somewhat cheap solution, but they require lots of technical knowledge to provide full benefits. I know that there are also some handheld color measurement instruments, but these I believe out of price range of most common collectors.
What’s your take with the stamp colors?
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This is definitely not a “buying/selling message”, but you might like to know I have been working on a philatelic colour definer for two years. My truly international team have almost finalised our work, and I have already shown this to Stanley Gibbons. We basically work in 1100 Pantone shades, but for every catalogue who decides to market our Jocoder colour definer, we can offer them a software package with all colours conforming to their descriptions – difficult for SG as they only publish 200 colours in their colour samples, but Michel are fine with their over 1000 named colours. And if, for example, a French collector buys an Yvert catalogue colour definitions list, he (or she) can also purchase access to a Scott, or Unitrade or SG or any other catalogue provided that catalogues has signed-up with us and allowed us to produce their own master list for them.
Oh yes! And we also measure perforations from p9 to p18, allow stamp image to be measured to fractions of a mm, and assess centring accuracy in six quality groups from Superb to Extreme.
And collectors can scan, file and transmit all their stamps in high definition.
And, shortly, we shall add a UV shield for phosphor and flourescent lines
The Jocoder simply plugs into a USB port, and is ready to work after two simple steps on any PC. laptop, notebook or tablet – and soon, any modern mobile….
Watch this space…..
Brian Jordan
@Brian… So it’s basically a narrowscale handheld spectrophotometer (like this) with custom software?
Broadly speaking, yes. Except it has a moulded plastic stand to which it is fixed by a standard photographic tripod screw, a light shield to avoid ambient light interference and a lead to the usb plug. When working with the measuring devices the shield is not necessary, but accurate colour defining needs a very pure light source with carefully matched leds and no external light interference.
Designing the software and ensuring accuracy has been a long road….. Paler colours – the blue-tinted paper of early UK Queen Victoria 1d for example – have proved difficult. And the question of matching our master colours to a catalogue’s definitions has considerable historic problems. For example, Stanley Gibbons admit that they list two stamps as Ultramarine, but accept that they are actually different colours!
These problems for all catalogue producers, especially those that started their work in the early part of last century, are due to their early listings being created by experts on individual country’s stamps being commissioned to produce catalogue entries without standardisation of colour references, and these variations in colour description have simply been continuously repeated over time. However, the problem has now become so significant with colour variations in, for example, Sardinia 1855-1863 10c showing 13 listed alternatives with values ranging from, literally £8.50 to £850 or Malta Queen Victoria 1863-1881 halfpenny with 14 listed shades at values from £70 to £550.
It needs a dramatic event to bring about a change. We have suggested to catalogues that if they want to carry out corrections and re-name some listed colours correctly, they could, at their next re-print, add the new, accurate, colour description in brackets after the present historic description, then, on the next reprint, reverse these descriptions so the “correct” version becomes the entry and the old description follows in brackets, and only at the third reprint would the revised colour be used as a stand-alone description. A long process, but with an achievable result.
Nobody said it would be easy!
@Brian… True, a change would be definitely required in this matter. But I think similar ’standardization’ concepts should be applied on other areas as well. For example the fact that all major catalogs measure/notify perforations on different precision is a disgrace.
But I acknowledge such introductions would also set hell on loose. Getting rid of the old system is nearly impossible, and very likely the old & new would co-exist till eternity. I know some countries (such as Finland) have introduced widescale changes in how stamps are listed in specialized catalogs, and the fact how ’stubbornly’ the old definitions stick around is truly amazing. So I hope you understand when I say I’m very pessimistic for such a change to occur with big names.
Possibly the best idea would be if catalog publishers honestly rebuild their catalogs from the start, rechecking and redefining everything anew. But I hesitate anything as such would happen. Even the online catalogs (which have the greatest flexibility) seem to simply rely on copying old/existing definitions. Sigh.
I fully understand and agree with your pessimism. If it doesn’t take off for the philatelic world, then there’s always printers, interior designers, fashion and cosmetics. Plus, there’s 30 million registered philatelists (used as a generic, not continuing the collectors/philatelists discussions) in China. I’d be satisfied with just 0.5% of that market….
But my main aim is to scare the catalogues into at least considering the sort of overhaul you’re wisely suggesting. We’ll just have to see how it goes. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Will keep you posted on progress (if any).
Sorry! I’m back again. As I’m studying comments on stamp colours as much as I can on-line, almost immediately after I wrote the previous blog, I came across this, which you may all be aware of.
In her article “Color presents challenge for stamp collectors”, Kathleen Wunderly says “Color naming is an issue that required some sort of resolution prior to the publication of the first stamp catalog. I doubt that anyone now living knows the rationale for many of the choices.
Not surprisingly, catalog publishers today continue to use whatever names were decided by their predecessors, even though some names may be confusing. Trying to change to new color names would likely result in catalog color chaos.”
So, unsurprisingly, we have agreement from the USA, though as this article is in what appears to be a semi-in-house Linns/Scotts website, and as Scotts famously does not publish a color guide keyed to its catalog. I quote again from Kathleen’s article “… Scott publisher Stuart J. Morrissey said in a 1990 article that there were no plans to do so because it is simply not possible to produce an accurate color guide true to the exact colors of the stamps.
That rationale was reiterated in a Linn’s Question Corner in the March 11, 1996, issue. The article stated that Scott declines to issue a color guide because of “the general criticism of guides” such as the Gibbons guide and the Michel guide, namely, a lack of common descriptive color names among the various catalogs and lack of consistency between colors of the same name in different time periods.”
This one looks set to run and run…
@Brian… At least I recall reading that article from the Linns page. It’s definitely worth a read to anyone interested in subject.
BTW, here’s a bit more on the topic of stamp colors on my blog (not quite sure if you’ve seen it as it’s buried quite deep in the flow of conversions). It’s about challenges of adding color identification to stamp inventory programs.
Hi Keijo & Brian!
As a returnee to stamp collecting I have quickly realised just how hopeless my Stanley Gibbons colour chart is, and as someone who only speaks English I’m pretty well stuck with it.
I wish you the best of luck Brian with your project: I certainly will purchase the product when it’s released.
If it doesn’t work out I may have to take the plunge and attempt to learn German as the Michel with 1,000 colours sounds infinitely superior to the SG one.
Another project I would love to see undertaken (and would perticipate in) would be an international number guide that lists the SG, Scott, Yvert and Michel numbers, along with the numbers from the specialised main catalogue of each nation for every set issued; at the “Comprehensive” level.
As collectors buy and sell to each other across the globe it would be a major leap forward when viewing auctions and shops online.
(It would contain no pictures, just the name of the stamp/set, year of issue, perforations in decimal, not fractions and the real colour of each stamp, with a bracketed colour of how the stamp commonly looks in a faded condition)
Toby
@Toby… You are not the first (and likely not the last) to suggest such software. Technically speaking it would be a rather simple piece to create. But the problems arise with what catalog publishers do / don’t do, and how it affects software developers. Right now the road ahead is pretty blocked due to all sort of restrictions and limitations catalog publishers have placed (strict copyright practices, lack of open/low-cost APIs etc)
The best thing any stamp collector can do, is to give catalog publishers honest and straight feedback about the software and services you’d like to see come true. The more feedback they get, the better the changes of seeing some policy changes are.
Hi Keijo,
I would have thought the 4 main publishers wouldn’t mind as you would still need your preferred Catalogue for the visuals and all the specialist notes they provide.
I’d view it as an aid, it (either in published form or say pdf format) certainly couldn’t be construed as competition as it would essentially be a reference book to help collectors make purchases and conduct swaps, using their existing normal catalogues, surely?!
What are API’s btw?
@Toby… I’m sure a lot of collectors would be amazed while reading the copyrights statements catalogs hold. A common general census amongst all big names is that “fair private use” is allowed, but everything else (especially all kinds of computerized systems) require explicit permission / license from catalog publishers.
Re, API… API’s are a a tool / asset software developers use when working with external data sources maintained by third party. You can think of them as a bridge between different types of software, as they enable applications to exchange information with each other. For example if Michel / SG / Scott / Yvert provided public API’s, any programmer could use a simple programming instruction (such as getDetails(”GB”,1234)) to read all the details of specific stamp (in this case Great Britain, Mi#1234) from catalog publishers database. Or get information of how many stamps were issued each year. Or use the information from various sources to build crosscatalog references. Or something totally wicked/unexpected (I’d have a lot of ideas if I had unlimited access to publisher databases :lol) … These days pretty much every piece of software (as well as most web pages) do rely on various APIs.
Hello Keijo,
Very interesting notes… I fully agree that the perception of color change is very individual.
Brian … feasibility is not that far fetch. As the modern tech goes, it would be common. At present as we see majority people use computers,scanners etc.
Toby, I like your Idea of International Number guide…
Keijo, do you think that on your computer you gave ID as XXX-XX-XXXX-1234… and that relates to on other field or Cell (if Excel) as ref no to any of the published Catalog Code..?
cheers
kmu
@Tikithindi… It is the job of the API creator (in this catalog publisher) to define what kind of arguments / parameters the remote procedure (such as getDetails in my example) calls expect. It could be a catalog number (like in my example), but it could be essentially anything. For example Michel uses so called OMI (Original Michel Identifikator) in MichelSoft9; it is globally unique alphanumeric identifier that can be used to identify any Michel listed stamp.
That’s very disappointing to hear- regarding the publishers copyright. An international number reference book would by default make the hobby more accessable, help inform collectors, and wouldn’t cost any of them a single lost sale, on the contary, it may actually help promote sales.
Thanks for the explanation on API’s, I’m not computer savvie!
@ Tikithindi:Thanks for supporting the idea as well
@Toby… What can I say. The catalog publishers (/editors) are not very good with software /online development, nor building up services that collectors truly want. And I can’t blame them – it’s not what they were hired/paid/trained to do. They try to do / be so many things these days; but with pretty poor success I’d say… They should definitely hire / consult professionals (people like me) to fix things & create some form of revolution
I completely agree,
Upon taking up the hobby again I felt like I’d stepped into a time warp!
Just one thing that would show they are entering the modern world would be:
1) Stanley Gibbons realises it’s 200-colours Colour Chart must be seen as fairly feeble if Michel has one with 1,000 colours.
OR:
2) Michel realises that it’s colour chart is probably superior to the Stanley Gibbons one and decides to actually sell it printed in different languages like English, French, Chinese and Spanish (etc), rather than just “Nein, just German is fine!”
Good luck on being employed by any of them, the list of changes needed are endless
@Toby… If I recall properly, the latest edition of Michel FarbenFuhrer should be (partially) multi-lingual; and they are pushing some non-German catalogs each year as well So there’s at least some progress
But you can’t use the Michel colorchart for SG or any other catalog, as each catalog publisher uses their own unique color space (meaning that eg. mauve in Michel universe is slightly different than it is in SG universe, and Scott & Yvert have their own way of defining what mauve looks like as well)
@Keijo
Oh dear! That is really depressing to hear.
Then we really must wish Brian the best of luck in his attempt to get a standard set of colours!
Colours are so important, they really are the first ID point for a stamp that has colour varieties. Good to see Michel branching out a tad though.
They seem determined to try and complete with each other in every area, even the colours: an area they have no copyright over, and, if they cared for their customers, would collaborate to produce a universal colour chart, with profits shared by all and collectors left estatic! (If a lot poorer after buying the changed catalogues
)
If they got more sensible I’d probably choose Scott for N & S. America, SG for the UK & Commonwealth, Yvert for France & Colonies with Michel for Europe for starters, as well as specialised catalogues for all nations I have a greater interest in: Australia, India and Switzerland for me at the moment.
Do you have a thread about the problems of Colour ID’ing because of the catalogue publisher’s stubborness?
Nope. But I’ll see if I can come up with some sort of “wishlist for better stamp catalogs” topic later this summer / early autumn. I’ve got some ideas I’d like to see implemented in major catalogs some day…
I look forward to it!