US Scott #24 With Scratches And Mottling - Plating Help

Hi All,

Just picked up this #24 with scratches and mottling. I want to try to plate it with the Neinken book, but was hoping someone could at least narrow down the plates. If I'm not mistaken, it would be from plates 7 through 10? If you know the plate position, I would appreciate knowing that, too.

Going by the scratches alone could be Plate 5, 7, 8, 9 or 10. The mottling makes Plate 7 or 8 most likely. Looking into specific positions now.

Hmm, this is a tough one. It is Relief C. The bruises and mottles are not necessarily consistent, but you have what appear to be plate marks in the form of a scratch in the NE corner, a diagonal line in the NW corner, and a line in the C of CENT (see arrows below). I haven't found anything in the Ashbrook/Neinken drawings or the Doporto Archive illustrations that captures everything. 28L8 looks like it has the mark in the C, but nothing else. 64R8 has the bruising along the lower right side of the design, but none of the other marks. At first glance 28R10 looks like it has the diagonal line running NW to SE ending above the S of US, but on close examination the angle is not quite right. I haven't found any illustration of the scratch in the NE corner. Between Ashbrook/Neinken and Doporto not all the positions on the Type V plates are covered--perhaps this is one of those that isn't. Maybe one of the other One-Cent platers out there can do better.

27R7 also has a couple of matches, and I wonder if it could be a match, but a different impression.

Match on the mark in the "S" in US, and at the top of the unnamed ornament between Z and L. Stamp also has much of the mottling patterns in the head for this position.

Difficult. The Doporto image for this position is a very fine impression, different from this stamp, so just thought I'd toss this one out there....Ray

Dudley and Ray,

I know you spent a lot of time looking at this, and I greatly appreciate it. I've gotten comfortable with plating stamps from the imperforate plates, but not so much with the later plates.

Our pleasure, CC. It's what we live for.

Neinken alone is unreliable for Plates 8, 9 and 10 in particular. The Doporto Archive shows many platable positions for which Neinken says there are no plating marks (one gets the impression that he was hurrying to complete the book ahead of some deadline). That said, there are still some positions undocumented by either source. Your stamp may be one of them: keep it close to hand and compare it to any multiples you may have or acquire--you might be able to tie it in that way.

Is it time to start a new Stamp Smarter high resolution archive for these issues?
Don
APS #094826

There are definitely positions that DoPorto has that haven't ever been posted to his site, so he may not be actively maintaining it now. I've given him 2 positions from plate 4, and a Type Va that haven't ever been posted.

That being said, I would only feel comfortable with the idea of a StampSmarter archive for the 1c plating if it were done with Richard's support, since he has been such a help and great service to all of us.

There are others on this site (Winston for sure) who have or have had a lot more material that I ever will have, but if the project ever became reality, I'd be happy to provide images for everything I have. I have them all scanned at 4800 dpi, so I could see some of the faintest details possible.

Thanks for asking, Don....

Ray

A 1-cent high-resolution archive would be difficult to put together without Richard DoPorto's help. I could maybe supply 10 to 12 1-cent images compared to 125 3-centers I've uploaded to StampSmarter so far (more on the way).

Richard's site is so well done, already with high-resolution images, I think it would be best it we could get him to revive it or turn it over to another maintainer. I used to maintain a 3-cent imperforate web site 10 years or so ago, and I turned it over to the USPCS to be integrated on their web site. That project needs updating with larger images though.