SC #11A Cracked Or Scratched Plate

Scott mentions several different levels of cracked plates for the 11A, but there's no mention of location. Although, it's probably pretty apparent.

Here a scan of either a crack of scratch on an 11A in the margin lower left.

Thoughts?

I'd say 38L1L, plate scratch.

A beautiful example of this plate scratch!

I'm not finding that scratch listed in Scott. Or maybe I'm missing something?

The scratch shows up on the Carroll Chase print for 38L1L, and Chase noted in the margin of the print that it is a scratch at this position.

There are so many varieties/sub-varieties/etc on the 3c 1851 issue that Scott can't possibly list all of them. They cover some of the 'highlights' of varieties that are found on this issue. It looks like what you have is a pretty nice stamp - 3 good margins, close at top, clear (-ish) impression, blue pen cancel - with a plate scratch, but it looks like maybe it has a tear at UR (through 'E' of POSTAGE), but that could simply be dust on the scanner. The condition of the stamp probably plays a bigger role in its value than the plate scratch (others, please correct me if you think otherwise). Generally, pen cancels are less valuable than hand cancels (round, typically, and with a city, state, and date), but this cancel is blue, clear, and doesn't obliterate the plate scratch at all. I would say you have a fairly nice looking example which will not pay off the mortgage - maybe $5-$10 for a collector specializing in this issue.

The Scott U.S. Specialized catalog lists all of the cracked plate positions for 11A.

Chase mentioned the scratch on page 67.