English 1p And 2p Stamps (Scott A8/A10s)??

It's me again!

In an effort to keep from showing my total lack of knowledge on stamps (which is, in fact, true) I've spent the last two days on at least 8 different occasions, going through my Scott Catalog trying to figure these stamps out.

Here they all are in a row with better, bigger pictures following in the narrative (click to make even larger). I know they're not worth much money and I hate to waste anyone's time but it bugs me not to be able to assign numbers to all of them.





L-R I have what I think is an A8 in the A10 style (but probably not an A10) and four more almost definitely A10s. The first one I believe is an A-8 as that is the only one for 2p I can find that has letters in all corners and squiggly lines along the sides in a rectangular "frame" and not "oval. I discern a plate number 9 along the sides but it is, obviously, BROWN, not blue as the book says. Has time discolored this one so much or did I miss something in the book?



Before going into detail on the other four, my primary issue may be resolved if knowing that plate numbers do not matter as they are all perfs. I then have to try and figure out what shade of "red" they are (not that it really matters as the values are nominal.)

So, did I interpret Scott's correctly in deciding plate numbers only apply to non-perfs?

If plate numbers matter then I have other issues: the second from the left is plate 176,



the third has no discernable plate number other than this weird looking symbol that "might" have been a 9;



the fourth is 14(?) (can't make out third number)




and the fifth has a number 99.



So....was I close on figuring these out or do I just chuck everything out and go find another hobby, like watching my grass grow in winter? javascript:insertsmilie('')

Can't help you much on the two pence one, but the plate numbers listed in scott, I think, are actually the numbers on perforated stamps.

If it helps these are all Plate 9 2d Blues
Yours has oxidised quite badly.



For the 1d Reds the plate can make a big difference to value IF in good condition.
Do yourself a favour if you are interested and get a specialist catalogue for these.
There was another thread recently regarding this exact topic.

Anthony, thanks! I find it hard to justify spending money on a specialized catalog given that this collection does not appear to have much in the way of valuable stamps.

Have you the name of a catalog I might find on E-Bay or somewheres?

There is a specialised Stanley Gibbons for this.

Here is an earlier one for reference. It may not be clear in the scan but the paper is blueish.
You can see it is imperf with no letters in the top corners and the letter type is different from the later types.
I'm no expert and couldn't tell the plate for this one.



and a later one for comparison.



These are not expensive stamps if you want to collect a few to aid in learning but it is a very technical area but very interesting nonetheless.

You are working with Scott,
so I cannot assist, however, I find the 3rd down very interesting,
are you able to scan with a black background?
(place a bit of black paper over the stamp on the scanner platen)

That appears to me to be a very early PERFIN,
and I'd like to see the detail.

The plate number on that stamps seems also
to be an "impossible" number, looks like plate 66
(the plate number of the "Royal reprints")
Cheers

Hi Vilmar,

The perfin pattern is H over C & Co and was used by H Clarkson & Co Ltd, London EC2. It's recorded as being used from 1870 through to 1925.

The business was founded by Horace Clarkson and now trades simply as Clarksons: http://www.clarksons.com/

Search on SCF here for 'peroxide' to use to de-oxidize your stamps. The colour will come back no problem.

Nice stamps.

There is some useful info on this site - http://www.pennystars.com/Tips-for-platers

Wow! You guys are awesome.

Rod: did Nigel answer your question?
Nigel: I guess you do this a lot. No way I could have figured that out. From what I've read perfin like this lower the value of a stamp (not that this one has a lot of value...but generally speaking.
Anthony: thanks for the catalog name. And the link on plates. I'll go do some hunting.
Puzzler: peroxide, eh? Well, I've got nothing to lose.... :-)

Yes, thanks Vilmar,
check your plate number of that one under magnification.

Rod, the best I can make out is that it is a "9" I've tried a 10X magnifier but there does not seem to be any info to the left or right of that "thing" that looks like a number 9.

Do you have a scanner Vilmar? Your images appear to be digital photos.
You will be able to see more detail in a scan.

Anthony, here's a scan done at 1200 dpi. I really see nothing different that makes ID easier (but it could be my old eyeballs!)

Have you resized it? It is 1/4 the size of my scans at 1200dpi.

I found a nice site with links to some interesting documentation. Have a look in the [B] section.

http://www.philatelicsannex.org/ref...ference.html

It came out about 1100x1300, I cropped some excess away and the final is 1020x1170 (MOL)

I think Photobucket trims it even more.

I can email you image if you wish.