Why Plate Stamps?

Some do it in order to reproduce a full pane or sheet of old stamps that can no longer be found intact.

The challenge! Haven't you enjoyed putting together a complicated puzzle??? It's the challenge! When you've finally found the last stamp that completes the sheet --- you feel like you have conquered Everest.

Another reason someone may want to get involved in plating is for reasons of authenticity. Some stamps from some countries can be authenticated by identifying them to a specific spot in a sheet. Most forgeries that I know of cannot be plated because they don't possess the characteristics of the genuine stamps.

Welcome Paco.






-IBFS

Looking thru everyone's answers and the references I've been given in this thread, it appears that the main reason is to collect parts of, or whole parts of "a puzzle". A puzzle which consists of a plate of stamps of a single Scott number. I understand there are several stamps which can be plated.

To do this, I would have to read a book to get started (a Chase book...) (or thoroughly browse a website...) so I new what minor differences to look for. Then begin creating diagrams for each minor difference. Example...

https://goscf.com/t/46147&whichpage=2#393912

Then get hold of a boatload of stamps of that same Scott number. And between the combinations of how they fit the diagrams and the reference material I would know precisely what plate position a stamp would belong in.

Am I on the right track here? Or have I left anything crucial out? If I am, I would enjoy getting into this very much, as long as the stamps were cheap (because I would have to get alot of stamps in comparison to each stamp I needed to complete a position on the plate. (I would have a lot of "duplicates")

A reference to an rlmstamps2012 post here...

https://goscf.com/t/46872#402337

Suggests that I should start off slowly.

Sorry, a bit off topic, but I had to to get the full picture. A large part of my answer involves "the puzzle", but also "the complication of plating and the work involved" showed by some other links provided to me that are in other categories of topics here.

There is another topic that addresses the "how to". This one addresses "why get into it in the first place". Yet both are part of the whole picture.

Please guide me if anything I said is off track.

There is enough complication in the overall subject of plating, that all threads on plating be put in one place together here. But that's a decision for the mods to make. That's why they are paid the big bucks...uh...well...why they are...so huggable!




-IBFS

IBSF, something that I think about, and I'm sure others have touched on it, it makes a common stamp interesting. I have a couple of Three Cent 1851-57 stamps that when plated become somewhat scarce. Example; the 47R6, that's position 47 of the right pane of plate 6, has a recut that is unique. Meaning it only appears in that one position.

The Dr. Chase book reports 362,272,200 Imperf Three Cent stamps were produced. Of those, 21,211,000 were from plate 6. Plate 6 produced 106,055 sheets. So, position 47R6 has 106,055 copies. That's certainly more interesting than a stamp with 362 million copies.

Well that's something anyway.

I hope Scott hasn't heard of this. They may not yet have thought of putting plate variety prices in the Specialized Catalog.

Thanks stampcrow, that's a very interesting point. In an interesting topic that I hope helps someone else in the future.

Thanks everyone for your help!



-IBFS

Actually...They have and yes they do.

My 2009 Specialized Catalog lists five "Varieties Of Recutting" for the Scott #11.
One being, "Lines on bust and bottom of medallion circle recut (47R6)". The premium: $1,200.00 for mint and $500.00 for used.

You can plate based on somebody else's work, or look for a common stamp and do it yourself. It helps a lot if you have access to big blocks.

Many stamps and overprints can be plated. They don't need to be that old, up to the 1950's. What is important is how they were produced. If done in difficult times, odds increase.

Litography in particular makes good plating material.

Unexpected. I would have thought that the sheet-to-sheet variations would have made it very difficult to reliably detect plate-to-plate varieties ... too much noise in the sample stream.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Real problem is when there are no marks. Noise is irrelevant if you follow a plating chart. If it is new territory, they make it more interesting, it just means you need more material.

Now I understand.

It's good to see all the enthusiastic replies to this thread. I've been plating the 1851-57 US 1-cent and 3-cent imperforate stamps for over 15 years. The most fascinating thing about plating to me is seeing the irregularities and varieties that resulted from someone in the 1860s touching up a printing plate by hand with an engraving tool and no straight-edge.

I thought it would be good to add an image. The famous "Three Rows" from the left pane of plate 3 of the 3-cent issue came about when irregular spacing resulted from the mis-alignment of the transfer rollers during the transfer process. A worker tried to improve the appearance of the spacing errors toward the bottom of the plate by omitting some left or right frame lines where spacing was too narrow, and adding frame lines where spacing was too wide.

This image of 89L3 shows only one right frame line where there should be two, and four lines on the left where there should be two. Also, the engraver cut the top frame line too far to the right.

That's a fascinating story and example, Classic. Thanks for sharing this.


-IBFS