

Although there are a great many named colors, the selection used by philatelists is limited to several dozen, modified by adjectives such as "dark", "light", "pale", "bright" and "deep". In general, collectors follow the stamp catalogs in matters of color nomenclature, even though the different catalogs are not consistent with each other.
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Forgers have also used chemicals to try to produce seeming rarities, although by now experts know how to identify these attempts. Examples include sulfuretting (often misnamed "oxidation"), a reaction involving lead that may turn a blue or green stamp to black, and the effects of salt water, famously seen in stamps of New South Wales recovered from the wreck of the Colombo. Some dramatic color variations occur as a result of chemical action such stamps are called color changelings.

Stamps of this type may be much lighter in color after being soaked. In addition, some countries have used water-soluble materials known as fugitive inks to prevent postage stamp reuse. Ultraviolet light is destructive to a great many pigments, and can cause considerable lightening. It can also happen randomly, if a printing plate is accidentally under-inked. Inks may also be diluted or applied more thinly, as for instance the World War I stamps of Germany and World War II stamps of the United Kingdom. Extreme variations may be considered color errors for instance, the 4c value of the US Columbian Issue of 1893 was normally printed in ultramarine, but a handful were printed in blue, a shade with distinctly more green these are worth in the US$10,000 range instead of the usual $10. In such cases, the shade provides information about when the stamp was made, and possibly even identify a particular printing. The printer may use a different ink in the early days, inks were made up in batches as needed, and were rarely consistent. Multicolored stamps appeared along with the development of color printing techniques they now account for the majority of modern stamps, although single-color designs are still common, more so for some countries than others.Ĭolor shades have several different causes. Stamps with two colors ("bi-colored") began to appear very early, although typically reserved for higher values, due to the added expense of multiple print runs. Switzerland used three colors in 1850 for its first stamps, then switched to a single-color design in 1854. A number of early stamps were printed in black on differently-colored papers the most famous example is the British Guiana 1c magenta. Nearly all stamps get their color from inks printed on white or light-colored paper the handful of exceptions include early issues of Natal consisting only of embossing on colored paper, some recent stamps embossed on gold foil or with foil blocking to achieve a metallic appearance, and the Uganda Cowries produced on a typewriter. Stamp colors are routinely described by color name rather with any sort of a numerical system like CMYK several color guides showing a selection of colors have been produced, but are not especially popular with collectors. In practice, the actual color of a stamp may vary, and while collectors will pay high prices for rare shades, it may not be easy to tell those apart from variations caused by age, light, chemicals, and other factors.

Different denominations of stamps have been printed in different colors since the very beginning as with their successors, postal clerks could distinguish the Penny Black and Two pence blue more quickly by color than by reading the value, and the practice generally continues today. The colors of postage stamps are at once obvious, and among the most difficult areas of philately. The four stamps issued in 1936 for the UK's Edward VIII include the three UPU standard colors of green, red, and blue.
