I'm Going To Attempt Plating This A10 #25-26

I'm hedging a bit by posting an image of the stamp here. My question here..., is this a type II. If it's not than I'm off on the wrong foot.

The web site http://www.stamps4collectors.com/in...cphotos.html has pics of nearly every plate position for type II.

I was looking at the right side upper inner frame line. It continues, strongly, past the rosette. I'm hoping this might be a tell.
Am I on the right track?

Your stamp does have very noticeable inner frame lines, so it is a Type II. It also has upper and lower outer frame lines. When these exist on a perforated example of this design, while being type II, it means that you have a #25A.

I am still a student of issues of this series, but it seems that having the upper right inner frame line extending past the rosette is nearly universal for every type and issue.

-Edit:

The U.S. Philatelic Classic Society is a wonderful non-profit organization that is chock full of great information. Amongst other things, they maintain an electronic library with many great books. Particularly, look here for "CHASE – U. S. 3ct 1851-1857, Carroll Chase, Revised 1942" : http://www.uspcs.org/resource-cente...nic-library/

Tip: go there, then right click the link to that book and choose "Save Link As", save it wherever you want on your computer, then open the file.

It's a long read, but will help you with plating and might be quicker than "brute forcing" the plating by trying visual comparison of each possibility. Regardless, you'll learn a heck of a lot about this series and will be able to plate other stamps of this series in an efficient analytical manner. This book will teach you almost everything that you need to plate any on this series, except that examples to compare to of every plate position don't exist in freely available images. Steven Ruecker's site is great. It contains many examples of many of the plates, however the rest are only accessible by purchasing photographic reprints from the Smithsonian at a significant cost. Even then, not all of the perforated plates are available.

That stamp is probably an 1854 impression from Plate 1L. What you have is an 11A with perfs added to fake a 25A.

Where the inner lines begin and end are indeed good plating aids. This stamp also has one line recut in the upper left triangle. It is an A relief stamp.

Sinclair, the financial motivation to fake a 25A from an 11A makes sense. Aside from great centering for a 25A, what makes you believe that the perforations are fake? Color? Re-cutting? Something that I'm oblivious to? The margins are very tight so that raises my alarm.

The appearance of the stamp and the odds tell me that the stamp was printed in 1854. Plate 1L was discontinued in early 1855. The stamp was printed at least two years before the first perforated stamps were issued. It is a guaranteed fake.

Ohh, never considered a fake! I will take the stamp off the page and post a pic of the back.

This stamp was hinged onto a page with 16 other perfed A10's. There is one other in the group that would be a type II. Funny how that one has perfs that look identical to these. That is the only one that has perfs that look identical to these...hmmm

These perfs do look to, "clean" is the word I would use. They are all flat topped and not pulled looking.




Here is the other suspect. Brothers in crime me thinks.

What exactly are the qualities of its appearance that makes you believe that it is an 1854 printing? Is it the re-cutting characteristics? Does it appear to be nearly impossible to be anything other than a Plate 1L printing? Your determination in your assessment that it is a fake is clear, but why you believe so is not clear.

stampcrow, that does look suspicious and could be what Sinclair noticed.

I had gone through all the pics of late plate 2 available on the site I linked. Didn't see anything that matched. I'm glad I checked back here at that point. Only wasted about an hour on this.

Well, nothing ventured nothing gained. In this case, the gain was eye and neck strain.

stampcrow, there is no question your second stamp is a faked 25A as well.

HDNAC, The stamp is a Plate 1L stamp. Identifying Plate 1L stamps is a very basic skill that the faker most likely did not possess. If he/she had known, they probably would have also known the impossibility of a perforated Plate 1L stamp. Plate 1L was used from late '51 to early '55. There is enough plate wear evident in the impression to rule out a '51-'53 printing but not enough for an 1855 printing. Impressions from 1855 show very pronounced plate wear, especially in certain positions. The color has a large red/rose component that has 1854 written all over it.

So, to recapitulate, the stamp exhibits characteristic Plate 1L recutting. No stamps from Plate 1L were ever issued perforated. The color and plate wear points to an 1854 printing. The stamp is a fake 25A. Easy stuff for a person that knows the 1851 3c stamps.

Somebody bought a Chase book on ebay for $30 dollars the other day. Hard to believe all of the knowledge contained in those pages can't bring a better price than that...

sinclair2010, thank you. These two will be properly labeled and tucked away in a stock book.

Sinclair, I thank you for elaborating your assessment. As I said before, I am very much a student of these stamps. I had thought that the characteristics of certain plates could also be found in a minority of examples on other plates. Your reply has solidified my understanding that certain plate attributes are shared only on a particular plate and cannot exist on others. Once again, I thank you for your clarification.