I Want To Get Better At Telling 36 From 36B

Can anyone point me at an article or something to help with this. Sometimes it is obvious - recutting standing out. But too often I see a "might be 36B' and I'm just not sure. Are there other clues to confirm plate 3 other than broken frame lines? Thanks in advance.

The best reference material I am aware of is the Neinken book on the 12c stamps. From my experience Plate 3 stamps (where 36B came from) do not have the small gash mark in the lower right as do most stamps from rows 2-9 on Plate 1 (from which #36 came from). Some have a small dot in the LR corner though. Also, quite a few, but not all 36B's, are missing at least on frame line. You are familiar with the weak frame lines.

Thanks, good clues and thanks for reminding me about that book. I will take a look.

Here's a damaged stamp that is an example of the challenge. Only two margins visible. The top is ripped up so I can't really trust the weakness of the top line and the left line is indeterminate.

I would guess 36B but I wouldn't be very comfortable.

I can't tell. There's no re-entry either to help or any visible identifiers. The 36B color is sometimes darker but in the scan There's nothing to compare it to.

Here is a 36B.

I wouldn't hesitate to call it a #36. It doesn't look like a Plate 3 stamp and the spacing is usually wider than what this stamp shows.

I agree with sinclair2010 - looks like a #36 to me. As with the 10/11 identification, the best way to differentiate 36 from 36B is to plate the stamp in question. I don't believe the plating documentation for 36/36B is as good as for 10/11, though.

I don't think I have ever seen a reconstruction of Plate 3.

Stalker, your stamp haste extra line only on Plate 3. I think left pane.

Sinclair, thanks for that. I thought I had seen something about spacing that was different between the two plates. So the spacing between the stamp I posted and the frame of the next stamp to the left looks narrower than typical for 36B. And when you say "it doesn't look like a plate 3 stamp" - are you talking about more than just the frame line? Caper said 36B is sometimes darker. I appreciate all these comments. It's obviously not a cut and dry topic. I'm sure plating is the ultimately correct way to view it and "sometimes darker" "sometimes wider" kind of tells a story. Then it comes down to experience and I'm working on that part.

As I understand it Plate 1 which was used for Scott 17 was also used for 36. The centering on Plate 1 was close to begin with without exacerbating things with perforated stamps. I was not under the impression that the spacing changed for Plate 3.