Color-Blind Collectors

I have been reading this newsgroup for over five years, and I have never seen this subject discussed. How do color-blind collectors distinguish stamps with identical design and denomination when the color is changed? How do they distinguish shades of the same color? I am thinking about total color blindness, i.e. those that see only grades of grey.

Tony

12/31/2003 5:04 PM

I have been reading this newsgroup for over five years, and I have never seen
this subject discussed. How do color-blind collectors distinguish stamps with
identical design and denomination when the color is changed? How do they
distinguish shades of the same color? I am thinking about total color
blindness, i.e. those that see only grades of grey.

Total color blindness is extremely rare, to the point that there may well be
no stamp collectors on the entire planet who suffer from it. Other types of
color blindness, however, must certainly cause problems for collectors. For
basic information about colorblindness, go to:
http://colorvisiontesting.com/color2.htm.

Bob Ingraham

A collector friend who is a member of our local Philatelic society solved this problem. He collects Scottish postal history. He has built up a nice collection of pre-stamp covers but is occasionally seen with a new cover asking fellow members if the Scottish 'Additional Halfpenny' mark is in black or green. He can not however play snooker.
H.N.Y.
Bob
"A.E. Gelat" wrote in message ...
I have been reading this newsgroup for over five years, and I have never seen this subject discussed. How do color-blind collectors distinguish stamps with identical design and denomination when the color is changed? How do they distinguish shades of the same color? I am thinking about total color blindness, i.e. those that see only grades of grey.

Tony

"A.E. Gelat" wrote in message ...
I have been reading this newsgroup for over five years, and I have never
seen this subject discussed. How do color-blind collectors distinguish
stamps with identical design and denomination when the color is changed?
How do they distinguish shades of the same color? I am thinking about
total color blindness, i.e. those that see only grades of grey.

Tony

A scanner or webcam and ColorPic? http://www.iconico.com/colorpic/

Obviously, much depends on the accuracy of your scanner and monitor,
but once "calibrated" most major colours should be determinable.

As to shades of the same colour -- how to _any_ of us get on? How do
you tell the difference between a shade and a fade? IIRC someone
saying here something like: "The facts that the catalogue lists two
shades of this stamp and that you have two stamps with different
shades do not mean that you really have the two different stamps."

Chris

Chris

While I'm not colour-blind, I do have difficulty telling shades apart (and
so do a lot of dealers but that's a different topic). I use my wife to
determine shade differences for me - an extremely expensive philatelic
accessory but nonetheless worthwhile! Alas, when asked if a particular
specimen is the 50c variety or the $100 variety, she almost invariably gets
it wrong :}

--
Cheers - John Mycroft
coryton_at_cobbsmill_dot_com

I am red-green colour blind but even that is a misnomer. What I really have is fewer optical receptors that distinguish the red colour than the other primary receptors. From close up I can see the difference in many things that I cannot from any distance. for example from 12 or so feet back the bright red berries in a mountain ash tree disappear.

As a result I can tell there are differences in stamps but may not come to the same conclusion as to it's colour as a non-colour blind person would (particularily the red derivative colours such as purple). As a consequence I must rely on my wife for many of the fine hues and shades.

Chameleon
"A.E. Gelat" wrote in message ...
I have been reading this newsgroup for over five years, and I have never seen this subject discussed. How do color-blind collectors distinguish stamps with identical design and denomination when the color is changed? How do they distinguish shades of the same color? I am thinking about total color blindness, i.e. those that see only grades of grey.

Tony