Show Your US 1851-57 Imperforate Stamps

Hey StampCrow --

Great to hear from you -- it has been so long since you posted to this thread that I was beginning to worry about you. Hope all is well.

Regarding the color of my 15L5L -- with the usual qualifiers about colorizing stamps from computer scans -- I can can tell you that in the flesh the stamp is definitely an 1856 Yellowish Rose Red -- (and which was confirmed for me many years ago by Bill Amonette).

Regards // ioagoa

Hi John Becker --

Your philatelic sleuthing skills never cease to amaze me!

I am going to add your cancellation notes to my write-up for this stamp.

Thanks again for your insightful post -- much appreciated.

Regards // ioagoa


Edited to add -- Hi again John B - just read your edited post -- and will be cracking out my cancellation books and checking the usual online resources to see if the font and spacing can nail this one down. Thanks again // ioagoa

ioagoa,
all is well here. When my wife started working from home I lost control of my "stamp space". I've continued to lurk and enjoy the forum especially this ongoing thread but haven't been active enough to contribute.

Even though my space is mine again I haven't yet regained my collecting momentum.

When my first grandson was born, 4 and 1/2 years ago he inspired me to begin putting together pages of the 1851-57 3c stamps so I was very active. But then my daughter and son in law threw a monkey wrench at it by having my second grandson 2 years later. Good problem to have really, and then covid hit, so my collection is frozen in place.

Sharing for today,

Here is a cover dated tomorrow - July 12, 1851.

Earliest Known Day of Usage of plate 1 intermediate - which means that this is probably not it.
That leaves plate 1 Early.

I also think that everyone likes the "Taunton, Mass" CDS with the integral "3 Cts." rate as well.
Here it is in blue.

This stamp is barely tied to this cover by a tiny bit of the outside line of the small, blue, 7-bars in a circle cancel.

Unplated.

Stan Shepp

Here is a strip of 3 (not mine) that I have been trying to plate with no luck. Any help would be appreciated. I posted them separately to retain the resolution.

Hey Jaxom --

Your strip of 3 is positions 34-36L5L.

A scan of 34-36L5L from my plate reconstruction is attached for your additional reference.

Regards // ioagoa

PS -- Based on the file names in your scans -- looks like this might be the old "left / right" transposition??

PPS -- Apologies for the scan quality -- but this is the best I could get keeping within the 300kb SCF file size limit.

Thanks Ioagoa. I should have checked the same position on the left pane first thing.

Hi All,

I sincerely appreciate all of the information and experiences shared by SCF members over the years that have significantly enhanced my enjoyment of stamp collecting.

A special example is the response I received from SCF members to a post I made on page 101 of this topic regarding extraneous markings in the left margin of #10A position 1L0. The markings of interest are some deeper plate indentations adjacent to Washington's forehead and a series of more superficial plate scuffs near the bottom left corner of the position. These plate markings resulted in consistent printed ink patterns in the left margin of stamps from sheet position 1L0.

SCF members and other philatelists enthusiastically provided images from their collections as well as opinions to help develop theories on the possible causes of the mysterious markings. The same study group encouraged me to write an article on these markings, which was just published in the August 2022 edition of the U.S. Philatelic Classic Society's Chronicle magazine, which recently arrived in my mailbox.

Images of the 1L0 from my collection (top) and from the Smithsonian National Postal Museum (middle and bottom, shown with NPM permission) are below:

Congratulations on the article publication and thanks for all your contributions.

Thanks, Harper.

And thanks again to all SCF members who contributed.

Great article Classic! Thank you for including me as a contributor, as well as all of the other folks. I received my copy of the August Chronicle this afternoon.

Okay, I'm ready for the next one! =)

Thanks, Moyock13. I can't begin to imagine what else I could write about.

Greetings all. I have plated this one to 16R1E and wanted to see if you all agree. I don't think its 16R1i because the frame lines do not look like they have been re-entered.

Regards,
Harper1249

Classic Coins - Great Article!

I was early on the digital microscope bandwagon and have learned to really appreciate how hard it must have been for early enthusiasts to see the interesting but very small oddities we can routinely now see with todays tools.

Thanks, Caper. I appreciate your feedback.