1851 3c Plating Help

I wish I had some plating ability. I look through the varieties on the stampsmarter database, but I'm hopeless. I see 3c imperf, and I generally assume it's an 11 or 11A (11A in this case). But the color and the centering is urging me to investigate further. Can someone help with narrowing down my search of the plating database?

I can help you! What you have is an 11A from Plate 1L. It's a B-relief position with guide dot. Usage is all but guaranteed to be January of 1852 because the color is an early 1852 claret, a color that I happen to consider is exclusive to Plate 1L... But I'm not going to plate it for you. I don't want to take all of the work out of it.

lol thanks - I may still try to plate it just to get the experience. Where is the guide dot? Is that it on the left side near the top, just below the diamond?

Just underneath the lower right diamond block.

New-York JAN 17

"B" Relief??? Where is the break in the top and bottom or tessellation impingement of the white oval? Not "C" because no shoulder gash. I was thinking "A" relief.

1L??? Guide dots should be UL & UR then if B relief... and I don't believe that is a guide dot on the bottom right. So no visible guide dots on this stamp.

Primary Inner Line is Recut variety 1; two inner lines.

Is that a possible Recut Diamond Blocks Variety 40? Lower right triangle and lower right diamond block are joined by a faint line.

Also possible Recut Triangle Variety 17; one vertical line recut in lower right triangle.

Battleship, you need to check your sights.
You're missing more often than hitting.

@sinclair2010 - LOL, probably so... my eyesight isn't what it used to be!

Shouldn't the guide dot be a small circle and not a dash?

Not necessarily. There is no typical guide dot. They come in all manner of appearances. Check out some guide dots on the 12c 1851 for examples of guide dots that are anything but circular.

I see the white dot in the center of the UL rosette as being particularly off center, and those in the lower rosettes appear off center to a lesser degree. Might this help your search? Good luck!! Oh yeah, and have fun!

I have been staring at this stamp now for far too long! I am still failing to see why it is "Relief B". Would someone please indicate in red where the breaks in the oval are, as well as the tessellation impingements that would make it a "B". Sincerely appreciated.

Well I went through the database for all Relief B 1L stamps - no luck. Doesn't mean it isn't there - just either missing or my eyes missed it.

Perhaps it isn't "Relief B"???

Could you re-scan it and post again... we need more clarity on the upper left triangle and bottom right triangle areas.

Here you go

48L1L. Still a B-relief from one of the rows that you would expect a B-relief to come from and also still has a guide dot.

Yep, that's clearly it. Shows I'm really not good at this yet. I see a comment in the database that says "Can be Experimental Orange Brown". What do you think of the color? Still 11A or perhaps 10A? This latest scan is on my better scanner at 48 bit color.

Experimental OB's only come from Plate 1L.
All positions on that plate were printed in that shade, for a little bit, towards the end of 1851.

Experimental OB is NOT "Orange Brown".
An experimental OB is still an 11A, not a #10A.

This stamp is not Experimental OB.
Winston gave his opinion at the start of this thread, that it was an early claret, which looks correct to me as well, from what I recall about 3c colors.

* Usual caveat emptor about scans and colors.