So how do we tell them apart, you ask? Not easy, but the surest way would be to plate these beauties. Not everyone is into plating and with the $700 plus cost of good Doc Chase's photos most people wouldn't/couldn't plate these stamps anyway. So, the best way to find out if you have indeed found a Orange Brown #10, you should either match it up with a known copy that has been plated, or get the oppinion of a collector that specializes in these. Don't trust a dealer to know, since most of them don't. I would quess that only about one out of 5 dealers have a vague idea if they have a #10 or not. Most likely only 1 out of 10 dealers actually know, and that includes only dealers of United States stamps.

A third way to detect if you have a #10, would be to look at the cancel date on the stamp, if it has one. Since most of the stamps, people used, at the time were bought one at a time as the need arised, the stamps that were in use were fairly current to the release dates. Orange Brown #10s were first released in July 1851, and the last of this color were printed in the late fall of that same year. So, few of these stamps have a cancel date of later than Jan./Feb. of 1852. This isn't by any means a good measure of this color variety, but if you have one that is dated in Apr. - June, you may not have a #10 at all. If the stamp in question is on a cover dated after Feb. or Mar. of 1852, you can just about rule out a use of the #10. This isn't always true, but you would have to have the stamp plated if you really feel it matches other known #10s in color.

Another way to detect these early Orange Brown stamps it to know cancels that were only current to the issues. The small Boston "Paid" killer is one of those cancels, but don't think that all of these Paid Killers are a good test. The larger ones were used for years. New York Bar cancel of 2, 3 and 4 bars between the Month and Day date were used only before Dec. 1852. This doesn't rule out the use of these during the later Brownish Carmines and Clarets of 1852, but it help narrow the time span down, to give you a possiblity to look for. Just make sure you go back and check it out against another OB that you know for sure.

The worst infraction a dealer can make is selling a stamp as a particlar type when in fact it isn't. This action will make a continued abuse of knowledge, since the collector will forever think he has what is known as a particular color when in fact he doesn't. This can cause a collector to be on the look out for more of these "Orange Browns" that are just a common Orange Red. Actually the collector will become startled at the number of "Orange Brown" stamps he acquires. When and by the time that "light blub" of ideas appears above his head that what he has isn't an Orange Brown at all, he may become completely disenchanted, with the whole idea of collecting colors. Heaven forbid.

So, in conclusion, if you are in the market for an Orange Brown, check out the color against a copy that is a known plated example, don't pay a lot of money for one unless you know for sure, and don't be too disapointed if it turns out to be a common #11. I know, since I have been there, and I am sometimes still fooled by these colors.

One other helpful hint. For your example copy, just buy something that will give you a good color. Don't worry about condition, and just make sure it has been plated.