Chile: Stamp Identification

You can rule out the London print on blued paper. That red brown is quite distinct as it was the same as the early British penny red on blued paper. 

without actually seeing the stamp I think the print is less crisp and I incline to rose red #9

I think the original printers were Perkins Bacon with their new engine engraving as seen on the GB penny black and twopence blue etc .

A little late with this input I know but maybe this will simplify a little for others what is a frequent dilemma regarding early Chilean issues.

Between 1853 and 1865, there were 4 printers who produced 5 centavo stamps: Perkins Bacon in London, and Gillet, Desmadryl and Correos de Chile, all located in Santiago. For the moment (and may the God of Chilean philately have mercy on my soul), let’s forget the Gillet and Desmadryl printings.

Of the Perkins Bacon London printings, there were two; one in 1853 with Plate One (the first Chilean stamp), and the second in 1855, with Plate Two. It is easy to confuse these two issues but both have quite clear detail, mostly shades of browny-red and frequently on blued paper (producing some ivory heads).
 
However, when Correos de Santiago got their hands on both plates in 1857 to carry out their first printing, the type, viscosity and colour of the ink changed. This first issue and the later 1866 issue by the same printer would be difficult to distinguish if it wasn’t for the watermark; the 1857 stamps, which are referred to as “Estancos”, have a 9mm x 7mm “5” watermark. This “5” can be upright, upside-down, front on or inverted but never sideways. (Did I say never? Well, none have been found… yet.)

However, the “5” watermark in the 1866 printing is 12mm x 7mm with the same positions. This printing is simply referred to as the Second or Last Correos de Santiago printing.


(Sorry. Late night photography.) But you can see on this second Santiago printing how the 12mm "5" occupies 50% of the length of the stamp (not considering margins) whereas the "5" in Darkormex' stamp is more squat and occupies about 40% of the length of the stamp. As vikingeck correctly states, this would make darkormex stamp an "Estanco" or Scott #9 or Chile2006 Catalog #9b, watermark FA5 in position 2, Type A cancel.  

Just for reference, here are typical examples of a Correos de Santiago and a London printing so you can compare the two groups:
  


When differentiating between the two Correo Santiago printings, don't rely too much on the plate wear; both printings used Plates 1 and 2 and Plate 1 had already received much more wear than Plate 2 when Correos received them. Also, both plates were extensively cleaned as part of the second printings so many second printings are more well defined than first printings. It should be said that both printing used several different types of paper and ink and suffered from multiple cracks, retouches, and variations.


Basically, the Chilean Penny Red.   

Nice example, michael. No signs of ink and 4 margins.

I notice the watermark can read facing left as well as right. Do specialists pay attention to this occurrence?

In response to George (gstamps ):

If you look at the previous posts in this thread, you will find that vikingeck and may1964 have already answered your question:
If you have just been viewing TSF through "Recent Posts", you may want to consider trying "Recent Threads" instead, which would make it easier to see what info has already been posted in any given thread.  Personally, I find it a better way to view the Forum as a whole, as it often provides useful context and more information than just looking at individual posts on their own.

Thanks for your response, George (gstamps ).  To your questions:

Regarding why you have not received an answer to your original question, it could be related to members' using the "Recent Posts" function, but I don't know for sure.  Anyway, I almost always advise members to consider using the "Recent Threads" function instead, as I think it promotes active participation better.

The reason why I did not respond to your question about your ID of a possible Chile Sc1 is simply because I have no special expertise in stamps of Chile, and I was hoping that someone else with more experience would respond.  If you accept an answer from me, despite my lack of specific expertise, then I will say that I think you have presented your thought process very well, at least to me, your ID as Sc1 for the stamp in question seems reasonable.

Let's see if we can get a comment from anyone else:
Alex (vikingeck ), Darrin (darkormex ), Kim (khj ), Jerry (Jerry B ), Xavier (hrdoktorx ), Dave (DK ), michael, may1964 .... any opinions?

I guess not.

From another forum, in Filatelia Chilena Catalogo Especializado the watermark for this series is listed as being Upright Forward, Upright Reversed, Inverted Forward and Inverted Reversed. None is more rare than any other.