INS 101: Educate Yourselves on Color Names

By Caleb Thimell; posted March 11, 2005

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Here's an example of an insulator made by Brookfield that most collectors if you asked them the color would agree it is Yellow Olive. But look for this color in the books and you will see it listed as Olive Amber. True there are some amber streaks in this one and maybe the original piece submitted in the books had heavier streaks? At any rate, most agree that Olive Amber is a more brown tone like this McLaughlin: [id=114105575]. I don't bring this up to stir up controversy in the hobby but to educate newer collectors who are frequently confused by the names given to colors in the book. An even better example is comparing sapphire blue between different manufacturers. If you look thru the photo gallery you will see that a sapphire blue NEGM [id=86765114] (and there are variations of color intensities within manufacturers] [id=99356956] or Montreal [id=5685580] will often look a lot different than a sapphire blue Hemingray [id=87517208]. Or compare a Brookfield sapphire blue [id=98298772] with any other manufacturer's sapphire blue [id=70980182] and they sometimes have a cornflower blue influence to them. Here's an example of a CD 154 Zicme sapphire blue [id=109906956] and [id=109807280] and a deep sapphire blue in a Zicme spool [id=103464095] even though the book only lists peacock blue. My point is to encourage new collectors to educate themselves before you go out shopping! Hope I've helped a few friends out there.

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