Update To The Unique 1938 Cracked Plate Series

For many years the ACSC described a unique very early cracked plate, to date the plate mentioned is in my collection.

A few days ago, a specialist stamp dealer informed me of some Arthur Gray stamps that his company bought and a strip of 4 looked very similar to my very early cracked plate, upon sending me a high resolution scan of the Arthur Gray stamps we started comparing.

It turns out that the block of 4 mentioned in the ACSC as the unique very early cracked plate is actually a burnished variety, where McCracken removed the Ash imprint and substituted it with his own.

Arthur Gray has a strip of 4 burnished stamps less defined as mine but it is part of the series showing the course of the burnishing resulting in the plate cracking, hence the late and very late state.

We also came to the conclusion that there most likely was never a unique very early cracked plate, as the two burnishing shows a continuous event from the first burnishing to the very late cracked plate, eliminating any suggestion that a broken line of events exists.

ACSC will be informed about this discovery.

Arthur Gray's description of the set of stamps.

"Substituted imprint showing burnishing marks below imprint as a result of the removal of the Ash imprint".

Shown are the two burnishings and the two cracked plates that followed (the colour of the kangaroos in the Gray collection must have been incorrectly scanned with two bright a light, as the actual tone of the 'roos are shown in the three I own.


Ex-Arthur W. Gray collection

It looks like Rob will be adding something new to his collection. Neat.

Rob's post does not make sense.

First there is no clear relationship between burnishing and cracked plates in metallurgical terms so I would like to see a published authority on this.

Second the scans posted appear to be of different plates. The top two scans clearly have no guide pipes whereas the lower two have very clear defined guide pips.

Regards
Frank

From the collection of the late Arthur Gray, he quoted that the burnishing marks below the McCracken imprint was the result of the Ash imprint being removed, the burnishing caused a weakness in the plate eventually creating various states of progressive deterioration.

I am no metallurgist, but Arthur Gray was a renowned expert in Australian stamps and his description of the progression of damage is good enough for me.

However, I will be investigating this further so I can get a clearer picture of the burnished McCracken stamps.

It is well known that McCracken had used the Ash plates with his name substituting Ash's, and in some cases, just re-used the Ash plates without removing Ash's imprint (A good example is the 1941 surcharges).

I have a near complete collection of Australian Coronation Robes (there are 20 to the complete set, I have 18). Many of those stamps were from the Ash Plate, but were substituted with McCracken's signature shade (the colour is darker).

The official McCracken stamp is of thin paper, resulting in more saturation of the ink causing the result to be a darker colour. To save on paper he used the original thick paper of 1937-38, the original plate and forced a saturation though the thick paper, creating a very defined shade of blue.

There is no recording of any cracked plates occurring with the later Coronation series.

Getting back to the cracked plates, the single John Ash printing of the ½d wallaroo from Plate 1 comprised of 4,800,000 stamps. There were five McCracken printings between November 1940 and December 1941, totalling 72,000,000.

No wonder the re-engraved plates wore out faster in the area where the burnishing occurred causing a series of cracks.

Rob041256

You have not addressed the major issue of why you are using scans of different plates to demonstrate your knowledge. It just does not make sense and will not make sense until you identify the plates involved and explain the relationship. Waffling on about other issues does not help at all.

Nor have you provided any authority for the burnishing resulting in a cracked plate - the Arthur Gray description is not an authority and by the way it does not mention any cracks or a relationship to cracks. In fact it appears to be a description from a sales brochure and if it is it could never be regarded as an authority. Do you have any papers published by Arthur Gray or any other person on this matter which support your statements.



Regards
Frank

If it is two different plates then progression is showing up for both examples.

As with compartmental lines is how the ink builds up that took place around the printing plug on any one give plate position. After plate cleaning had taken place the compartmental line position would not necessarily built up the same way again.

Could the pipe position be added to a plate after being used for an amount of printings before hand?

Keep chasing it Rob you will get somewhere. A lot of good things take some time for the stamp material to show up. Your situation is the same as all great printing info starts. All the very best.

Image 2 & 3 sure look like the very same cracks under A & N but progressed!

Actually the three blocks of 4 (darker scans) were from the same plate, this I received from an expert in Australian pre-decimals. The strip of 4 (in a lighter scan) are from the Arthur Gray estate and Arthur was an expert authority in Australian pre-decimals.

Arthur Gray was the original owner of Millennium Philatelic Auctions and had collected stamps for more than 70 years. He also won large gold medals at stamp exhibitions.

No-one is waffling on, the continuous line of progression has come from the same plate, Arthur identified his as Plate 1, it is very similar in progression, and it is assumed by experts that all 4 came from the same plate.

What authority are you expecting, a personal report from Ash or McCracken? I listen to experts in their field and what they say is good enough for me. I also do my own research, and I compare my research with their information, and once I have done that, I ring them and discuss my findings with them, and then after we form a conclusion, the result is recorded and added to the forums I am on.

Arthur Gray was an authority, he was very particular with his collection, and he wrote about each stamp he collected in detail. His collection was sent to auction and realised over $7 million; do you think this philatelist with such a collection would have no clue about the stamps he possesses, I don't think so.

My stamp collection is worth a lot of money, I have spent the best part of 40 years researching and recording the provenances of each and every stamp in my collection, and what I fail to find, or have an incomplete history I will ask experts, which includes speaking to Chris (Ceremuga), the Juzwin brothers, Michael Drury etc.

So what authority are you referring to?

Recording cracked plates is very difficult, as certain progressive deterioration of plates is not recorded and what is, there is very little to work on.

"Do you have any papers published by Arthur Gray or any other person on this matter which support your statements"

Can you provide any such papers pertaining to any Australian stamp? Ceremuga is an expert in his field and there are no published papers from him, The Juzwin's are experts in their field, there are no published papers from them, Michael Drury is an expert in his field and there are no published papers from him.

As one who is trying to do the same as Rob ( different stamps, different era ) I applaud his efforts. I think he has an excellent case here and I love his examples

Peter

Rob041256



Please name this expert so we can assess the value of this opinion.

Regards
Frank

I said everything I needed to say about these cracked plates, you will need to provide evidence that my comment is inaccurate. I can assure you that my comment about these stamps are quite accurate.

There is no need for me to post information based on inaccuracies, I take my collecting very seriously and the information I give based on the resources and result at my disposal.

If you believe I have made a mistake provide the information based on those grounds so I can investigate the matter further, and if proven, I will correct the information I posted.

I also noticed you follow ***Edit by Staff*** me in other forums, but that doesn't bother me, I will continue to provide assistance to collectors who need my help in Australian pre-decimal and decimal issues.

Rob

As I suspected there is no expert and you cannot explain why the flaws seem to be on different plates.

If you are interested in expert opinion on Australian stamps I would think a forum with Australian experts such as Stampboards would be an appropriate place to post these but of course you know this as you are a member there. Chris Ceremuga is a member there also and would be able to add more than I could.

But there is a lot of information available to you at Philas (Philatelic Society of NSW) which is only 20 minutes away from you on a good day.

Regards
Frank

Here in NSW if you need stamp experts Philas is the only place to go & they have helped me out plenty of times .

Chris Ceremuga is an expert on everything just check out his bosses next auction!!

You seem to not read the comment, rather make an irrelevant complaint. As I said, there is very little on cracked plates, but there are experts, and I have actually mentioned the experts I speak to on a regular basis, so where is the relevancy in your comment stating that you suspected there is no expert?

Can you explain to me what area and type of stamps you collect, and how long have you been a collector, and do you actually research on any of the stamps you have, which includes getting in direct touch with renowned experts.



Yes, I am a member of Stampboards as I with other philatelic forums, and it is no different to any other forum, and any forum is appropriate, for instance, Stamp Community.

Actually with respect to Stampboards, it isn't as active compared to Stamp Community or the other forums I am associated with.



I personally know Chris, and we have discussed a few times about the cracked plates in my collection as well as the rare and very rare stamps I possess as well. Chris is quite tall, approximately 6'3" (1.92m) - 6'4" (1.95m) in height.

Also, I mentioned earlier that Chris Ceremuga is one of the experts I speak to, your response is that there is no expert (read beginning of this response), and now you refer to him as an expert, not mentioning the other experts I am in contact with.



I will be going to Philas House in the new year but will not be expecting much in relation to the stamps I have, though I do have friends who go there, and every little snippet of information is important information to me, and which can be built on.

Hi Buddahboy
Can't disagree with you there. He has a very relaxed attitude, and doesn't split words when it comes down to helping one understand about any item{s) in question.

Rob