Plating An Eob 11A 31R1l?

Thanks for the help on plating. . .Here's another. This one has a cert as an Experimental Orange Brown. . .meaning it is plate 1L. And it is a left margin stamp with a stamp below it - meaning there are only 18 positions to check. I think this is 31R1L. . .what do you think?

I haven't checked the plating(s), but one next step towards eliminating positions would be to determine the relief. That will reduce the search a lot more.

This one seems pretty easy to tell. What relief is it?

I'm not sure of the relief on this one. It looks like it has the break in the outer oval at top (B Relief) but has a thick outer oval to the left of the break (A Relief). It doesn't seem to have the "notch" of the A relief. The bottom inner frame line looks like it has one break (A-relief). If you say this one is easy to tell, I'm not sure how to interpret the conflicting characteristics. . .If the top outer oval frameline break is the key feature, then I'd say this is a B relief. (My plating guess is an A relief).

The stamp is definitely an A relief, which matches your plating guess.

The reliefs of this stamp can take some time to get used to. Its good to kind of calibrate your eyes to this, by just looking through the platings at the various websites. Look at a bunch of confirmed A and B reliefs and things will start to 'pop' better for you. Then come back to this stamp, and you will see.

The lack of a guide dot at LR or UR is always a clue that it might be an A relief. That's not a given, as 10R columns don't usually have guide dots, regardless of relief, for example.

I've been practicing the reliefs on known stamps. . .I am up to about 80% accuracy. . .not good enough yet. How do you explain the break in the outer frameline if this is a A relief? (Thanks for your help on this!)

I have it narrowed down to 4 possible positions: 11L1L, 51L1L, 31R1L, 51R1L. . .will need to spend more time to spot the differences.

Suggestion: Is there any way to be able to make proper uppercase letters in titles, etc? This thread's title is a perfect example of how confusing it can be. I thought "Eob" was a typo until I read the first entry.

You are asking good questions, which are illustrating the difficulties in differentiating these reliefs.

One of the problems with telling these, is that some of the differences are so small in places, that a minute difference in printing can mislead one very easily.

I always note guide dot status first. That doesn't tell you the relief, as the guide dot is on the plate, not the relief. It does, however, tend to make me favor one relief over another, based upon dot-present/not and location. It is true that guide dots can be obscured or cut off, so you just don't know. Also, some are small and not easily seen. Also, there are misplaced reliefs in some spots on some plates.

With your stamp, I don't see any guide dots, so that starts me out looking at A reliefs.

I have tended to key at least initially off of the thick outer oval line indicating A relief. Also, I do see the 'notch'. I also see the outer oval is still thick at 3:00. After seeing these, I'm mostly convinced its an A.

I see what you are asking about at 12:00. I believe that this will be another example of where these reliefs can be difficult, due to minute differences in printings. The blue cancel is also blurry in that area, making it a bit harder to see that spot perfectly.

Determining the relief, is part of eliminating candidate plate positions. If you just can't be sure of the relief, then don't eliminate any and look at everything.

I certainly invite other 3c platers to comment on things that they key off of to determine reliefs, and what difficulties are found.

For the benefit of others, an article on 3c reliefs is the second article on this page: http://stampplating.com/reliefs

I should add that I also do not see any impingement in the outer oval at the bottom aligned with either side of the "C" in CENTS.

Many B reliefs show this. Some, not as much, due to the effects of guide-reliefing -- over-rocking of the bottom of the C relief into an already entered B relief.

This further hints towards it being an A relief.

I ruled out 11L1L and 51R1L. . .I still think this is a 31R1L. . .but it could also possibly be 51L1L. (I think my stamp has the left inner frame line going too far up - recut 23). Can anyone confirm?

31R1L looks correct to me.

The right inner line is all wrong at the top to be 51L1L.