Have An Engraved Die For Postage Stamp, Looking For Info

I have very old die for a stamp that was issued for the 'Republic of Liberia'. Approx. around 1870's. It's a small wooden block with a metal plate screwed to it (with very tiny screws) with a very thin engraved piece of copper at the surface. It is for a one dollar postage stamp, with an engraved scene with a hippo.
I've tried looking extensively on the internet for info of such things, and or possible value of such an item. With no luck what-so-ever . Does anyone here know where I might find the info I'm looking for??
or possibly the value of this item.

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Does it have provenance ? The $1 Hippo did not appear on a Stamp until 1892 I believe.

Got a pic?

Provenance?? It just say's 'Republic Liberia' and One dollar.. Scenic picture with palms and such with hippo in foreground.

Provenance: The primary purpose of tracing the provenance of an object or entity is normally to provide contextual and circumstantial evidence for its original production or discovery, by establishing, as far as practicable, its later history, especially the sequences of its formal ownership, custody, and places of storage. The practice has a particular value in helping authenticate objects.

It sounds to me more like a block used to illustrate a stamp magazine in the days when type was set letter by letter rather than a master die that was a part of the stamp production process.

Such items appear on ebay every so often, two of which are on sale now:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CAPE-of-G...em56514497e0 for Cape of Good Hope.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/POSTAL-CO...em3a7b7dc908 for £1 PUC of GB.

GLENN MORGAN

The Cape of Good Hope ( ebay) item, oddly enough, seems to originate in Brazil:

"Product Type: Printing Block Country: Brazil
Continent: Central & South America Quality: Used"

It does, but then why not, as Brazil has a long history of publishing stamp magazines that would have once required such blocks to illustrate articles with.

Or the printing block vendor does not know where the Cape is, of course. Clearly he is not a stamp collector.

GLENN MORGAN

Seen simular copper block on the TV show Pawn Stars with the image of US 24c washinton. Expert came in and basically real plates would have been steel not copper and the image was 2x the actual stamp issue so as he put it "its worth a buck as a rubber stamp" Not to say that is the case with yours just simular circumstances and very likely used to print the image in a magazine/ newspaper

These things have nothing to do with the actual stamps. They are letterpress blocks.

There is even an ebay category for this sort of thing - http://www.ebay.com/sch/Type-Cuts-P...46735/i.html

I'd even guess that the stamp related blocks are modern repros - that COGH block has been on ebay for years.

Appreciate the effort guys, but unlike the blocks you describe, and the one's shown on e-bay and other sites that I've looked at, nothing has even come close to comparison. The one I have is the exact size of a real stamp, and the detail of the engraving is far finer than any so called print blocks shown on e-bay. It looks like the real stamp as shown in some peoples collections. I'd try to show a photo of it, but I don't think the true detail of it would show well enough.

Try to post a picture of the plate/block. Even a crummy pic is better than no pic.

See if your Camera has a macro setting. Do you have any documentation as to where it came from ?

The real stamp have the center and frame in different colors.
In those die both colors are in the same clisé, so it isn't the clisé of original stamp.

It was funny, the "master die" even included the perforations.

Cheers, Robert

Over the years, many of the engraved cliches created for printing catalogs and albums have found their way on to the open market. Amos publishing sold many of their cliches and also gave them away as party favors at stamp events.