The 1840 Two Pence Blue

Nice stamp
.
Looks red to me, and closest to London I  cancellation (from SG Volume 1 Queen Victoria)

at best maybe  a close guess!

REL1948 The blue stamp and the red cancel make a very attractive combination..

rather a late contribution to this 'blue' discussion -the attached shows another example from 1840 with the orangey/red shade of cancellation, although my stamp isn't in the same league of substantial margins as the above two stamps, but it's my only example which came recently in amongst an auction purchase. I've avoided using Picasa but despite this the 'blue' varies in the two pix I've taken, though it's not the colour that interests me with this stamp. Rather I'd be interested in people's comments regarding the A - A corner letters - does the A indicate or suggest this might be from an early plate/die, and does the letter tell us the position on the sheet. Many thanks for any and all opinions.
Well - attachments obviously not working for me - possibly disapproves of my absence - no matter, it may be un-necessary - both lower corner letters are upper case A.

thanks Rob - sorry for late reply. Appreciate the explanation of stamp/letter positioning on the sheet - thanks - am sure this has been explained previously - grateful for the reminder. I'm aware of the plate Nos. showing - especially on the perf. stamps - they're seen commonly and with my X10 loupe it's easy to spot them. My blue lacks this form of plate id - presumably all imperfs. lack the plate No. in the trellis decoration, down each side of the stamp. It's Sunday so my turn for domestic chores - when finished I'll try again to post a picture, and we'll go from there. thanks again - just off out now to find an example of a red with 77 on it.         P.S.    As you can see, have now uploaded image - the system works.   thanks. 

just to add a little to vikingeck's very informative post re the matter of ink used for the obliterations/'chops' in the very early years of the blacks and blues - some additional information which may be of interest appears in J.H. Barron and John Simons (Editors) Part 1 of the RPS publication 'The Stamps of Great Britain', dated 1934. A slightly convoluted production which began with an original work by Dr. Herbert Munk published by the German firm of Paul Kohl, in Chemnitz. The information published by Munk appears to have been supplied in the 1920s by J. B. Seymour and ""Dr. Munk prepared these sections with his assistance."" - both men were F.R.P.S.L.
Anyway, to the point ...... Speaking of what we call a 'Maltese Cross', the book reads .............. ""The earliest record of this obliteration appears in a notice issued by the secretary of the Post Office on the 25th of April, 1840, to postmasters, who were instructed to use a red composition consisting of a mixture of red printer's ink and linseed oil. There were variations in the inks employed, and examples can be found in orange-red, vermilion, scarlet, carmine, magenta, red-brown, purple-brown, and violet"". Sometimes the obliteration is found in the colour of the date stamp, viz. blue, yellow, and green; these, however, are scarce. The so-called white cancellation is probably a chemical change""
It may well be that the inclusion of linseed oil has an adverse effect on some of the colours, but perhaps this isn't apparent until some years down the line, which is why Gibbons lists less variations in the ink colour.
The Oxford/serial comma gets a look in here - twice - I thought it was a modern affectation - obviously going strong in 1934.

It continues ................. ""The black obliterating ink, which was ordinary printers ink, much diluted, was experimentally tried in the London District Post at the end of August 1840. It's use on the black stamps was officially considered objectionable, but much safer; it did not, however, come into general use until February 1841. The red cross is scarce on the penny black plate 10, and rare on plate 11, and is seldom found on the penny red of 1841. Blue crosses mainly come from Truro (Cornwall) and Preston (Lancashire) - bracketed counties are all my own work.

The 1840 2d. blue ceased at the end of August that year, but I think restarted in March the following year - either the black plate 10 or 11 is the rare one or perhaps they're both v. scarce - how it compares with the rarity of red plate 77 I'm unsure.

Why black ink on the 1d. black was considered 'much safer' I've no idea  -  I wouldn't have thought black on black was very sensible?

Hello.

What's the shade?

Is it "SG4 Deep Full Blue"?

Hello, rod222. Thanks for your opinion! The stamp is genuine.

Here is the closest I have used, since 2008
Gibbons # 4

Note how the paper, and Her Majesty's visage, has an overall "blue" colouration?
That's how I was judging my "possibles"