US #10/11 - Things You Can See On Unworn-Plate Printings With Quality Ink

Here's the "two tool marks" that I described:



Yeah, it's very minor and does seem to be two tool work lines. I don't doubt as you say that these types of marks are common.

Regardless of that, it's good to be in contact with you all again!

Have not performed an exhaustive search, but did notice that the 68L1e position image on stampsmarter also shows 5 of the radial lines. Along with the already noted "hint" of the vertical line in the left foot of T in THREE.

It also has connected feet of the adjacent "H" and "R" just like mine and stampcrow's which differ by having two of the vertical lines.


68L1e as seen on stampsmarter:

Historical DNA Collector, here's a clear example of a split frame line on position 2R2L, with Carroll Chase's plating and annotations on the reverse. Chase didn't classify it as a shift/double transfer, so it is recognized as resulting from recutting ("tool marks"), as you suggested with your posted image above.

Classic Coins (Gary? if I remember correctly),
Lovely stamp. An extreme example compared to mine. I see no evidence of double transfer and agree that it is two diverging tool lines.

Carroll Chase's plating and other annotations make it even better.

I thank you for sharing,
Historical DNA Collector (Ryan)

P.S. I see a similar vertical line artifact at the left of the foot of the second 'E' of 'THREE' in your image.

I've found many such artifacts, but haven't taken the time to look for consistencies.

Thanks, Ryan. I didn't notice the artifact in the left foot of the second E in THREE until you mentioned it.

Carroll Chase's printing is very distinct. His 2s, to me, look like seagulls in flight, and his Rs have a big gap in the middle. Here are four examples together:

Gary

I totally see that his marks are recognizable. I hope to find some of them for myself.

I thank you for sharing them.

You're welcome!

It seems that Photobucket is no longer a place to post full images, so here's detailed portions:







Anyone, message me and I'll gladly send you the full image.

I found this lovely plate 5 YRR.
Starting to see some wear in the triangle. The button and the eye seem to be very sharp still.

Stampcrow, I'm sure it's clearer in person, but I can clearly see the vertical shading lines in the eye, three arcs of shading in the button, and the line extending into the white oval! That's a nice one with some rust marks at bottom. Shouldn't be too hard to plate if you haven't already.

I have it as 53L5L.

Right on!

I found an even clearer eye than shown so far. This is another yellowish rose red/pale and yellowish, printed from plate 5L (65L5L). I counted six vertical shading lines in the eye, including a tiny one in the corner that I think is discernible on other images posted.

With this new image and stampcrow's new YRR image, I'm pretty convinced at this point that the orange brown/yellowish and yellowish rose red/pale and yellowish inks produced the best-quality impressions in the 1851 to 1857 3-cent stamp issue.







Split top frame line:

Brilliant.
This topic would make an interesting exhibit frame for the '2026 Boston World Expo'.

Thanks, stampcrow! I think I can get even better images with my DSLR camera.