Identifying Penny Red Plate 77

When it comes to identifying plate 77, are the numbers in the 4 corners an identifying factor? If not what do the numbers represent? Thanks.

No, the letters in the corners are called check letters. The letters are the position of the stamp on the sheet. 1st stamp, 1st row. AA, then AB, AC...etc. 2nd row, BA, BB,BC...etc.

For the stamps with letters in all 4 corners the plate number is in the scroll work on the side.

If you become interested in these, there are various ways to collect them. Looking for the individual numbered plates is the commonest (you won't be finding 77, and you'll have to pay a fair amount for 225). Then there's creating a lettered page, ignoring the plate numbers. Then creating a lettered page of a particular plate. The last two involve buying large quantities to sort through.

Another thing people collect penny reds for is to see if they can get all the different early numeral cancels. About 10 years ago I bought a collection that had already been through the hands of a cherry picker (Ie big gaps evident on the pages) The original collector had evidently been trying to collect penny reds in many different ways, some of which I still can't understand. I got over 400 penny reds in decent condition for around 10pence each.
I see your plate 187 is what they call sulphuretted. this means atmospheric pollution has turned the ink almost Black if you have avery sulphuretted stamp you can have some harmless fun showing your pals your penny black and see how long it takes people to realize it has perforations!

The incomplete run I have was obviously put together by someone who collected on the basis of his initials - I think some here do that with 1d blacks, which is a more expensive indulgence. I've found it surprisingly hard to find my initials even among the 1d reds I have.

You got me there Geoffha! exactly why I bought a rather rough looking set.. I'm easy pickin's

Further to Stallzer's reply. The corner letters were intended to prevent forgery. At the time, the Post Office thought a forger would forge a plate from one stamp or a small part of a sheet of stamps. Any forged sheet would show repeated letter combinations. This would be impossible if the sheet was genuine.

GeoffHa wrote on February 2: "you won't be finding 77......." Very true. The census of actual copies of Plate #77 stands at 10, according to an article in the March/April, 2019 issue of Scribblings, the bi-monthly journal of the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library. The article, by Abed Najjar, explored the authentication process for the 1865 cover sent by playwright Victor Hugo, who lived on Guernsey at the time, to his publisher in Brussels.

Three copies of Plate #77 were used to mail the Hugo letter. One copy was purchased by King George V and is in the Royal Collection. Two were bequeathed to the British Library. Three are in private hands and whereabouts of the seventh single stamp is unknown. The Hugo cover is the only example known of #77 used on cover and is the only known multiple use.

An interesting factoid would be if someone knows why so few copies of this Plate number have turned up. How many were sold and over what time period?

Plate 77, like a few other plates, was rejected and the stamps from it were never officially issued.

My understanding is that the "Hugo cover" is considered a Plate 73, re-engraved, for some reason, by Perkins, Bacon, rather than belonging to the same group as the other plate 77s.

Hi Geoff. The Hugo cover article is available for viewing on the Library web site: www.rmpldenver.net . Look under Publications and then under Scribblings archive for March/April, 2019. The article includes photos under 250x and 1000x that show all paper fibers are intact and had not been tampered with.

As a result of the new research, the Royal Philatelic Society of London rescinded its prior certificates of 2006 and 2014 saying the cover was a fake, and refunded the submission fees. This was reported in the January, 2019 issue of the London Philatelist.

Cheers!

Steve - thank you. I was referring to the fact that these appear to be from a different group from, for example, the mint examples from the top corner of the sheet

http://victorhugocover.com/plate-73-connection/