Layout Line Thru Both Figures

See the layout line in both figures.

Stampmaster

Where do you see a layout line?

Peter

Possibly here?

Jim

What is a "Layout line" please.

Layout lines were scribed on the plate before the stamp design was rolled into the steel plate. They were meant as guide lines. Often they were burnished out before the design was rolled in. But as we see in this example that did not happen. Those who delight in the study of stamps printed from engraved plates (such as Stampmaster and others) look for plate layout lines and dots that were the guides to entering the stamp design. This is sometimes referred to as flyspecking, a respectable traditional study of engraved stamps.

Although I have never published the study, during the years that I exhibited the wine stamps both nationally and internationally, I included a study of the incomplete burnishing of the plate layout lines that ran horizontally through the middle of the stamp on the $9.60 denomination (Scott RE55). I was greatly aided in the study with a complete used sheet.

Thank you very much, Rmd.
Saved.