Rotary Die Crack? & Flat Plate Crack?

I have never came across a stamp with a possible crack until now. Does this like a possible crack in the die of a rotary?

That is a nice example of a "gripper crack". The rotary plates were secured to the drum with grippers that engaged into recesses cut into the back side of the plates. As the plates flexed during use the cracks would emerge. Your example is a late stage crack thst is well defined.

Thanks Russ, I would have never knew it was called gripper crack. Do you know how sever these could be? Are there examples with the crack stretching across the entire design?

Gripper cracks from the 340 subject drums used for early coils are not known to extend much further inboard than your example. These crack may extent outboard to the edge of the design and a few wxamples are known with the crack slightly into the margin.

In the last stage of development they will grow wider and may develop "lightning bolt" branches. You example is from position 1 on the plate. Examples are also known in positions 17, 154 and 170. Cracks in positions 1 and 17 form from the top while cracks in positions 154 and 170 form from the bottom.

That's an increadable wealth of knowledge you just passed on. Thanks Russ! One other thing, did get position 1 from the line printed on the perforation?

The first vertical row will have the joint line to the left. Since the gripper cracks are only found on the first and last horizontal rows and the crack is on the top it must be position 1.

More valuable knowledge from Russ......

https://goscf.com/t/15988

I believe I found another cracked plate. I located 2- spider cracks on the cheek and neck of the bottom left stamp. Booklet pane of 6, Scott# 501b.I can't really tell if these are the only two spider cracks, but they are there. Looking for help on this again since I can't even locate any info for cracked plate on the booklet panes of 6. Has anyone else?

Acknowledgement: Stamp Collector June 2000

This is awesome info! Thank you Russ and rod!

Nice article, thanks for sharing Rod.

It's amazing what you can find in you collection when you start looping and scanning stamps. I have found both cracked plates posted on this thread attempting to locate a double transfer in my collection. Maybe I need to start looking for more cracked plates just to find the double transfer stamp I'm looking for

I am not au fait with the term "double transfer"
that may be a US term.

I use stanley gibbons, and we look for "re-entries"
that may assist you, if you go looking
for examples on the internet ?

There was an SCF member who posted a re entry on a Revenue "bank" issue,

here is the most famous Australian re entry, the WA Swan....