1d Red Plate Number?

Hi,
I am just starting to collect GB victorian stamps and got substantial problems to find the plate numbers from the 1 penny red (unperforated issues, two letter on the bottom). The specialized Michel catalogue does not show the way to find the plates. It seems there are particular books (many expensive volumes) and CD's with scanned stamps. Can someone help with a suggestion ?
The Stanley Gibbons specialised catalogue may be helpful ? Or there is no way as to consult these expensive books ?

Hi Polo,
There is no alternative as far as I know as this is a very specialised area.

Welcome, Polo. You can probably find a used Great Britain Specialized vol. 1 for not a lot of money. It would be a pretty good start for us beginners, as far as plating resources go.

I am just starting to get into this area myself, polo. Even with a specialized catalog it looks like it will take alot of hard study to be able to plate these with confidence. I did pick up the Stanley Gibbons Specialized Queen Victoria catalog for less than $15 (not including postage). Older versions are available at a reasonable price and contain just as much useful information.

Hi,
many thanks for your suggestions.
I will try to buy first the SG specialized vol. 1 - Queen Victoria.

They are for sale here:

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?q...=&qyearonly=

Make sure to sort by lowest price.

Some good info here - http://www.kernunnos.com/Philately/GBQVLE.html
But you can see how complex it can be especially for Die I items.

Hello everyone !

I got more information regarding this difficult field (plating 1 penny red) and found out that the Stanley Gibbons Specialized catalogue cannot help very much ! The information from this catalogue are useful, but not satisfactory. You need additional documentation. Taking into account that the specialized books are quite expensive, I found by a UK dealer CD's with copies of scanned stamps from all the plates. These tools are quite useful. However you need time in order to identify the stamps (considering the position of every letter).