Reporting new color varieties

People constantly report color differences they see among certificates for sale on the web. Some of those differences are real. Some aren't.

Let's say I have a "steel blue" certificate listed in the database, but you find a red certificate for sale. You have definitely discovered a new variety.

That is not where the problem is.

The problem is with minor variants.

Now, let's say I have a "steel blue" variety listed, and you report a "greenish blue" variety from something you find on the web.

I may not add a new listing.

Why not?

There are several reasons. But, first and foremost, NEVER trust the colors you see on the web. NEVER.

I will repeat that for emphasis. NEVER trust the colors you see on the web.

I admit, you may find web images that actually represent true colors of certificates. If you do, then it is a happy accident. There are simply too many variables to assume the color you see is the same color you would see in real life.

Here are some of the major variables...

Monitors -- Except for high-priced monitors used by imaging professionals, monitors are never properly calibrated. Color calibration equipment is still expensive and color calibration drifts with the age of electronics.

I have two identical monitors, side by side, bought at the same time. They do not always deliver the same colors.

Scanners -- Imaging professionals use high-priced scanning equipment and they calibrate them. The rest of us use low-price scanners that we never calibrate. Every scanner creates color bias and that bias changes as bulbs age.

Cameras -- Same thing here. If someone has posted an image to the web that came from a hand-held camera, then colors have a minimal chance of being accurate. Flourescent lighting makes images look green. Sometimes a wacky pink. Incandescent lights will give images an overly "warm," orangeish cast. Most amateur images of certificates you see on the web are so terribly underexposed that it is sometimes hard to tell what original colors are.

Paper color -- Paper generally ages toward a brownish-yellow hue. Some papers start out as blue, gray, and occasionally yellow. Either way, if the paper of a certificate is any color other than white, then you cannot trust your description of color.

Underprint color -- Many certificates carry green, pink, and tan underprints. The presence of underprints affects the ability to disciminate more important colors.

Variability among certificates -- Never assume that certificates of the same design were printed on the same press, at the same time, with the same ink. A stack of nearly identical certificates will always show variability. I have two P&LE certificates that are only a few serial numbers apart. Yet their colors are noticeably different. That is why I describe them simply as "green."

Color "blindness" -- Only a tiny percentage of people are truly color blind. But, somewhere around 0.4 to 1% of females have an impaired ability to see a full range of colors accurately. Men are significantly worse off. Published research suggests that 7% of men have a decreased ability to discriminate in the red/green part of the spectrum. Estimates of impairment range as high as 10%, depending on the definition of impairment.

Age of the collector's eyes -- With all due respect to typical certificate collectors (myself included), age affects detection, perception, and description of "color."

Color terminology -- Descriptions of colors like blue, green, brown, and red are easy. When we try to agree on terms like maroon, tan, steel, etc., etc., etc., we are opening a pandora's box of disagreement.

Custom inks -- American Bank Note company went to great lengths to make it hard to copy the colors of inks it used in security printing. In fact, it created its own inks precisely for that purpose. Those colors were purposely difficult to recreate. They are, in my estimation, even harder to describe.

Life is too short to "nit pick" or argue about colors -- If you feel strongly about the color of a certificate you OWN, I will almost always change colors. If you see a different color in a picture, well ... that's a different matter.