Plate Blocks

I've been mulling over my plate blocks. Don't want to buy a special album for them, don't want to leave blanks in my album where there is only room for a single. I was thinking of breaking them up into singles, then using the rest as postage. These range from the 1940's to 1980's.........

But I just can't do it. Never mind the higher value; the ones I'm talking about have CV of face plus a few cents. It's just wrong to break up the PB.

So, I'll be inserting blank pages into my new Mystic album and mount them. Maybe I'll collect used ones for the spaces provided on the original album pages.

For modern issues (Post 1940) there really is no premium for plate blocks and any dealer will tell you to break them down. The one thing I do recommend is if you do break them down, at least keep a plate single as these are highly collectible. I leave all my plate blocks from the 1940's intact as they are now 70+ years old.

You can always put them in a stockbook.

Try the Plate Number Single Society for collectors who only care about the plate number selvage on ONE stamp rather than a block or 4 (or more):

http://www.apnss.org/

I've notice that in stamps from 1930 to 1950, some collect on plate blocks of 4 and in other cases in plate blocks of 6 stamps.
Why is this difference?...Rotary vs. Flat Plate printing? or Wet vs Dry printing?

You guessed it - rotary vs. flat plate printing, which by tradition, "requires" a symmetrical (6) plate block.

Most are due to the position of the plate number in the selvage. Many earlier stamps had the plate number in the center of the selvage and to give the plate block a "balanced" look, it required a plate block of 6 (and is priced that way in the catalog).

Fast forward to about 1930 or so and most plate numbers were relocated to either of the four corners of the selvage, which meant that a plate block of 4 would do.

Although that is the generally accepted reason for the change from plate blocks of 6 to 4, there are some exceptions.

For example, some early stamps had more selvage markings such as arrows, stars or multiple plate numbers (on bi-colored stamps) that required 6 or even 8 stamps to make up a collectible plate block.

Then you fast forward to the 1960s when multiple colors and plate numbers were used and you had to collect 6, 8, 10, 12 ... up to 20 stamps to make a complete plate block (or plate strip, as the term came into use).

With today's self adhesives and with multiple images being part of the same issue, nothing less than a full pane of stamps will typically do since a representative example of each face different stamp from that issue is typically required.

This is part of the very reason why plate block collecting has lost favor with many modern day collectors.

I have a large plate number block collection. I intend to get vario pages to put them in.

There's always glassine envelopes/cabinets.

Although I still have lots of pb's, I did exchange a lot of them for singles at face value with a fellow collector.

Thank you for the explanation.
Certainly when stamps began to be printed in various colors, collecting plate blocks became into a bleeding of money.
Too many stamps...and "pane" mounts.

Well, I decided to swap them for singles. I really like having the spaces filled in my album with MNH, and the other fella likes his plate number blocks. Also I really like having all my stamps in one location (a set of albums), not some in envelopes, some in a stock book, etc.

I actually ordered the Minkus albums for Plate Blocks which they apparently have to specially print as there is so little demand for the last few years. The albums are probably more expensive then the blocks within them but since I have my plate block collection just about complete (except for pre-1930s) and have stopped buying new stamps, I wanted to complete the set for some future person. Hopefully that will be my grandchildren's grandchildren. Maybe by then these things will be worth something. For now it's just silliness.