Plate Varieties

I gave this thread one common name as there are many plate varieties in U.S. stamps and to the very few it may be an interesting topic,Also this being the first American classic study I've done it may seem a bit boring,I really don't know how many of you are interested in plate varieties and there variations and if there are some of you that it may interest I can keep this tread posted from time to time with what I find among my collection.This variety I found on a 1920 cover is a # 405 B 6 tied with what I think is a #498 (the Relief B 6 is a 1912-14 regular issue S.L.Watermark).There are horizontal lines numbered from top to bottom that lead in to the left and right border,On K 8 the right hand edge (where the lines meet the border)show small gaps or missing sections of line to border and this is what gives this variation it's designation Had to edit due to the stamp being a B 6 instead of a K 8

What ???


....please clarify.

Sorry mate had my wife rushing me to take her shopping,didn't have time to proof read/edit which I have done now,Thanks Tom

I'm not following you for some reason. Both the 405 & 486 have a space between the horizontal lines and the square border line.

Now the 405 is a flat plate and the 486 is a rotary press.

Your stamp is perfed into the square border.

Maybe it is time for to buy the Encyclopedia of Plate Varieties on U.S. Bureau-Printed Postage Stamps.

All Washington/Franklins show a gap inside the border. The frame on the one you show only looks broken because of the perf holes.

I beat you by a few seconds. LOL

I see your point,I did look at where the lines terminated and called it a border and not a termination point,so where the lines terminated at the ends this is where I'm trying to focus your attention,Where the lines show thin this is related to the relief K 8 (this should read B 6) which is an exact match from the plateNot a problem if you want more clarification

Do you mean here ??

I hope this helps Tom

Yup......that helps alot...now, if you don't mind....please explain K8.

You peaked my interest. The 405 used the "A" plates and there were some with a cracked plate and even a double transfer. That is about all of my knowledge.

It works like this Tom Relief A is nomal with no breaksRelief B has breaks and they are listed in this wayB 1 49l (left of line 49) #405 #408 this means the break is in B 1 on the left side of line 49 on both #405 and #408.

Tom the double transfers were rife in #498 with the H block being good examples.

I wasn't following the conversation on this one well so it puzzled me. So tonight as I was working on a game plan for an upcoming basketball game I decided it was late enough and went to bed. However as is very usual for me the first hour in bed is spent reading.

It is always a choice between three topics; the Civil War, The Israeli conflict and stamps. Tonight I was luck and it was stamps.

There in front of me on the first page I flipped too was the answer to the thread. Yes we are talking about Plate Varieties. This plate variety is a common RELIEF BREAK that is well documented, so much so that I should of understood it sooner.

First of all a relief break occurs when a piece of steel breaks off of the transfer roll containing the image. When this piece of steel breaks off the result is a stamp has a part of it where the ink doesn't transfer when it should.

In other words the unprinted area of the stamps relates to the part of the transfer roll that broke off. There are many well known relief breaks such as the broken circle in the 5 cent Huguenot-Walloon stamp.

The less spectacular relief break is the 1 cent flat plate Washington to be more exact the 405 and 408. They have little pieces of the horizontal shading lines broken off. So if you would look at the horizontal lines they would form a uneven vertical line because of the relief breaks. Without the relief breaks this line would be an even vertical line at the ends of the horizontal shading lines.

Now we now what a Relief Break is and I can now go to bed knowing one more thing about stamps all due to a late night of working on some basketball plays.

While these are interesting and adds to the variety of these stamps they are not an official list number by Scott.

Boy stamps sure can be complicatied. Though I don't collect varieties, I am intrigues by them and the collectors who take the time to do so.

Thanks for the lesson guys.

Dianne

Thanks M K well done mate,that's a better answer than I could ever come up with on plate variety'sregards mate