US Proofs Quantities Printed Resource?

Does anyone know of a resource, preferably online, that calls out the quantities printed of plate proofs? Thanks in advance for your help.

I'm interested in this also so maybe bump it back to the current discussions. From what Scott's Specialized states, proofs of stamps issued prior to 1904 are reprints and were sold to collectors at face value (when were these sold? in 1904?). It would be interesting to know how many of these were sold. These are beautiful!!! I'd love to add some of these to my collections to fill the blanks for actual stamps I'll never be able to afford.

On a similar note, why would the government reprint these plate proofs when they already had "special printings" done for collectors in 1875 of the 1847 through 1875 issues.

Any info on this would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

Thank you for bumping this. I have yet to find a resource for quantities.

I might be able to help, but don't have the time just yet. I'll post what I know in the the next day or two.

Thank you Stampman.

Try this 2007 article in the USPCS Chronicle. It focuses on the card proofs of the officials, but applies to the other card proofs as well.

http://chronicle.uspcs.org/PDF/Chro...14/12898.pdf

In a 2015 presentation I made to the local stamp club, I created an 81 page booklet which showed the card proofs I had in my collection. At that time, I was needing only three proofs to complete the regular issues while the Special Delivery, Postage Dues, Officials and Newspaper issues were complete. That number does not include one card proof, Scott 286P4, of which there are only two known, one of which is rather seriously creased. This was outside the five BEP printings done between 1875 and 1894, so it was not included in the requirements I set myself for a "complete" collection. Is it a card proof? Yes. Should I include it? No, but that's my choice. It could very reasonably be argued that it "belongs" in a collection of card proofs. So, excepting the 286P4, I can now say that collection is completed.

In my research for that presentation, I found the Scott U.S. Specialized Catalog to be a good starting point. You can determine which issues were created as card proofs by looking for all issues with the "P4" suffix in the Proofs section. That was my starting point.

The next source which was invaluable was Lester G. Brookman's The United States Postage Stamps of the 19th Century, Volume III. Starting on page 217, Brookman goes over the types of essays and proofs, providing the basis from which the Scott listings were compiled. On page 221, he explains the five different printings, in general terms. Not all colors or stamps were created in proof form in each printing, which explains why some are extremely scarce and, consequently, pricey.

What Brookman relays, in short, is that there were five printings. The first was done in 1875 and were sold to collectors as sets for each issue, at face value. No numbers are listed for that printing. Subsequent printings in 1879, 1885, 1893 and 1894 had 500 individual sets of proofs for the stamps which had been issued to that point in time. Brookman states that 500 sets were individually cut apart and made available, but it is known that the Earl of Crawford had a complete set of all issues in panes of 50 each.

The "500" for each printing seems a bit low and I question whether that was 500 individual proofs or whether that was 500 sheets? The latter would tend to make more sense, from a purely economical standpoint for the printing companies (1875, 1879 and 1885) and the BEP (1893/1894). This would also explain how the Earl of Crawford collection had the panes of 50 for each issue.

So, the bottom line appears to be that the more common issues likely have a printing maximum somewhere in either the 2,500+ range up to 125,000 while the later issues would have a printing which would be a maximum of 25,000 or fewer pieces. Since there are no known numbers extant for the 1875 first printing, these number could vary somewhat.

The key items are Scott 212P4, which had only one sheet of 100 printed, Scott 193P4, which again had only one sheet of 100 printed and the last five proofs which came from the 1894 bureau issue with triangles (Scott 247P4, 248P4, 256P4, 262P4 and 263P4). The keys to the Officials are the four dollar values of the State Department as these were printed in smaller panes because of the size of the stamp itself.

At some point in the future, I'll try to upload the collection on this thread, much as I did for the thread I ran on the National Parks series and Farley Reprints.

Here's a teaser: These are the five issues of the 1894 series which were produced as card proofs.

Stampman - Many thanks for the information. Very informative. We share a passion it seems for proofs. I had a pretty good collection at one point, sold it off through HR Harmer and now deeply regret it. I had a great many complete runs. 1869 pictorials got me started. Then came the classics, complete officials, Columbians and so on. I look forward to seeing your proofs in the future. They are absolutely beautiful to me.

Below is a scan of a kiss print 3P3 that Harmer auctioned for me.

I'm always delighted to make the acquaintance of fellow essay-proof devotees (dare I say "specialists"?) Since 1975 my particular interest in the Banknote issues has been the essays, proofs, and experimentals. Since I've been at it a while, I hope you won't mind if I chime in on this topic, and offer a couple of correctives.

Stampman, I looked at the page in Brookman vol III you mentioned, in order to find out what threw you off track. For starters, that chapter in Brookman had actually been written by the great student of US essays and proofs, Dr. Clarence Brazer. When Brazer says that distribution items for collectors started in 1875, he is not referring to card proofs. At that point the material put up in special envelopes and sold to collectors consisted of specially printed stamps, some of which were overprinted "SPECIMEN" as a cancellation to prevent their illegal use (such as departmental and newspaper stamps). These were sold, without gum, at face value to any interested party.

It was not long before a howl went up from collectors miffed that they had to pay for these special stamps, many of which they could not legally use in the first place. When the American Bank Note Company took over the stamp production contract in 1879, they were commissioned to produce year sets of plate proofs on cardboard for special free distribution. Here is a pic from one of my exhibits showing the first set from 1879 for the series of 1870 with its envelope.



As you can see, the 1879 set of card proofs for 1870 contained items that were not specific to the stamps of that first year and some items which were no longer in production in 1879. In fact the number "1870" was simply a shorthand way of referring to the series of stamp designs which merely began to be issued in 1870, as if the date was the NAME of the series. (Can you spot my mistake on that album page?)

As Brazer pointed out, there were in all five emissions of these plate proofs on cardboard from 1879 to 1893: 1879, 1885, 1890, 1893 early, 1893 later. These emissions were only produced by the American Bank Note Company, not the BEP. (The BEP sets were separate and irregular.) How many proofs of each emission and their physical characteristics are discussed in some detail in a series of articles by Dr. Howard Friedman published in the Essay-Proof Journal (whole numbers 119, 120, and 123). Unfortunately, the EPJ is no longer in publication, nor has it been scanned for internet access. Maybe someday. In the meantime issues can be accessed via interlibrary loan through the American Philatelic Research Library if you are an APS member.

Suffice it to say for now that the estimates for production Stampman gave above are WAY too high. The largest number Friedman gives for any issue is 2000 proofs, roughly 10 200-subject uncut sheets. Quite a few were considerably short of that. Not sure why Stampman is skeptical of that, but would like to know. It is well to remember that the large Banknotes were produced from 200 subject plates, as were the Columbians. The small banknotes were produced from 200 and 400 subject plates, but for proofing on cardboard it seems that only 200 subject plates were used.

It's a great field of study, and I will be happy to respond to questions on the list as best I can.

Fascinating information EssayK. I have always assumed that there were varying quantities printed of even individual values within a set, such as the Columbians, given that the cv can differ dramatically. Same for the the 1869 pictorials etc..

Essayk, thank you for taking the time to correct what I had written. I should have waited to do that when I wasn't at the end of my day. My apologies.

You are, of course, absolutely correct about the dates of the five issues, although there does seem to be some disagreement over the dates and possible existence of other printings.

Greg Vaupotec was trying to identify the card proofs by printing date using the thickness of the card as the basis, as well as known color and stamp design. In his 2003 article in the January 2003 United States Stamp Society he explains his research had shown that the printing dates were 1879, 1882, 1890, 1893 and 1894, with a less well known printing in 1895.

My question for you, essayk, is whether there is an archive of the research papers/notes of Dr. Brazer anywhere that is accessible?

@rogdcam: as always, price is a function of two variables, supply AND demand. The catalog variations do show the supply side variations, especially for items on card which were in shorter supply than others, notably the 1c of 1887, and the later 8c stamps of the small banknotes and Columbians. However, the demand curves for the various stamp issues also figure in significantly. When the demand for the 1869s was particularly hot (in the 70s and 80s) only the specialists were willing to pay the price. Not the problem today. So it goes.



@Stampman2002 Thanks ever so much for the note on Vaupotic in the Specialist. He cross references to a couple of articles by George Brett in the Essay-Proof Journal that are based on data from the later Travers Papers. In all this brings things together more fittingly. Brett used the Bill Books reports to establish that the emission Brazer and Friedman had dated to 1885 (no doubt associated with the advent of steam printing) should be dated to 1882 (the time of the design adaptations for starch sized paper). With that I am off an running on the documentation Brett gives and the way that Vaupotic reinterprets it. There is also a footnote in one of the Brett articles that alerts me to a bit of work by Brazer on the 1c of 1887 that was unknown to me, but which I will examine before I publish my own study of that stamp. So a huge thanks for the heads up!!

Most of Brazer's notes and papers were passed on to Falk Finkelburg at the time of Brazer's death in 1956. Finkelburg seems to have kept them pretty much intact and merely added his own notes to the accumulation up to the time of his own death in the 90s. That hoard of material was "taken over" lock stock and barrel by one of the major essay-proof dealers of today, Jim Lee. Jim is local for me, and when we are on good terms (not always) he has been known to allow me access to the Brazer material, which is kept in bankers boxes.

essayk
I think you may want to rethink the 200 subject printing of the Columbian proofs on card. All the values of the Columbians from the 3 cent to 5 dollar were made from 100 subject plates. Only the 1 cent and 2 cent Columbians were printed from the 100 and 200 subject plates. So did the 1 and 2 cent values have plate proofs made from both 100 and 200 subject plates?

essyk
Oops I should have checked my notes again. The 1 cent Columbians were produced only on 200 subject plates. That still leaves the question of were the 2 cent plate proofs produced on both size plates. Do you have any info on specific plate numbers for card or india plate proofs?