Three Cent Brown Admiral Variety

Here is a nice constant plate variety on #108. It is the "Blob Behind Head" variety.

Nice scans. You'd think they could've come up with a better-sounding name for that one. The detail scan looks like "arrow in cranium." I don't dispute it is descriptive.

This is the sort of post that reminds me I've never made a systematic check of my admiral duplicates for plate flaws. Some day.

Nice find ! It does look like an arrow in the head !

Here is my other copy. Slightly different appearance to flaw but is probably the same flaw.

No wonder I cant find any of these varieties watermark...You got them all...

VERY NICE...

Neat. A helmet remainder maybe.

There are a few other scrapes and scratchs on either stamp also I noticed. Below POSTAGE and over by the left leaves.

Would these be plate scratches I think they are called, or something else?

Its hard to say what caused these marks years after they happened...with my training in printing watermark my educated guess is debry upon the plate...that is what causes donut affects on e
some printed stamps we see today...if you look close at the ink directly surrounding the mark, it is what will be expected when some thing is stuck to the plate...IMHO.
Robert

I'm in awe of you ladies and gentlemen. If I'd glanced at this, I'd have assumed that it was foxed or that I'd clipped it with a fag end!

Has this variety been plated yet?

- stamporator -

An article in The Admiral's Log Vol 11, No.1, January 2008. Written by Ralph Trimble and edited by Leo Beaudet states: "Looking closely at where the blob reaches the head, at least one engraved line looks to be malformed, rather than this just being some dirt on the plate. Perhaps something heavy was dropped on the plate.

There is an editors note "I believe Hans Rreiche described this flaw in his first Admiral handbook when he wrote [1, p. 64]: "There appears a heavy dot behind the King's head." ... from dry printing plates 118-120."

The image used in this write up was my second stamp above.

That is the information I have at hand on this flaw.

Watermark...Have you found out if this "flaw' is only isolated to the 3 cent king stamp only..??

It is believed to be a constant plate variety found on the three cent value, dry printing. The plates used for dry printing were plates 118-120. The position is unknown.

May be there is one in the Bringham collection Admiral sale?

Brigham Auction lot #278 has a block of four with the flaw in upper right stamp.

Watermark, as I am sure you may know, the first issue of Dots and Scratches (Vol.1, No.1, Whole No.1) mentions that this variety "is plate position 120UL77".

My memory is slipping....I stand corrected. I forgot to check my own and other more recent correspondence... I am definitely slipping. As they say the older you get the more you can forget...AAARRRGGHHHHHHHH!!!

Serves me right for not organizing my material better. Thanks for the correction. I have volumes of correspondence on many of my varieties so I should get it better organized. I just keep finding goodies and the correspondence gets lost or misfiled. At least I can still find varieties. I hope to have another 5c Beaver proof win today. A friend sent me information on it and I hope I win it.

Thanks for the correction Scottamer. I always welcome constructive criticism. I now have egg on my face... :-)