FLOAT

US 1909 2c Lincoln 'Bluish Paper'

Maker
United States (USPOD), Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Year
1909
Rank
35 of 100
Identifier
Scott 369, 2c carmine on experimental bluish (rag-content) paper; ~4,000 printed; MNH single

US 1909 2c Lincoln 'Bluish Paper'

Price-guide value, not a sale: $320, dated 2015-01-01. This is not a sale. It is what the market was asking, and no transaction is recorded behind it.

What is it, and why is it in the FLOAT 100?

A scarce experimental-paper variety and a recognized key to the Washington-Franklin specialist collection.

Scott 369, 2c carmine on experimental bluish (rag-content) paper; ~4,000 printed; MNH single

What is the best-sourced number for it?

Figure
$320
Kind
Price-guide value, not a sale
Date
2015-01-01

A price-guide value is an editorial estimate, not a transaction. Guides lag the market and smooth over grade and condition. It is useful as a floor for how the trade thought about the object, and it should be checked against a realized sale before anything rests on it.

By reference price, US 1909 2c Lincoln 'Bluish Paper' is number 94 of 99 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 75 of those 99 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (35 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

How this is made

The figure
One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
Realized or not
A realized price is a completed sale. A market asking price and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
Why no grade ladder
Most FLOAT 100 entries are individual objects. There is one of this, so there is no population and no spread across grades to show.
Archive
2026-08-08

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