Show Your US 1851-57 Imperforate Stamps

Asking for a friend... seriously...

This is the best image I could get from them.

Best I can tell:

- 1 inner line at right only
- relief B
- looks like 2 lines recut in upper left triangle

I was thinking this could be 87R1E, but the image is so poor and the stamp also appears a bit damaged on the right side near the lower rosette. The outside frame line seems to bend in on the patient stamp, but perhaps that is from damage to that edge of the stamp. There were no images on the StampSmarter site.

Hi Nicholas C --

Despite the poor scan -- given the combination of the GD location, the FL bends versus the design and the label blocks, the recutting of the RIL, and the 2 lines very close together in the ULT, your "friend's" stamp cannot be anything other than 87R1E.

Another confirming feature is that the BFL of the adjoining 77R1E above is a nice match.

As a side note -- when it comes to stamps from plates 1E and 1i -- normally a much better scan would be needed to determine the state of the plate -- but in the case of your "friend's" stamp -- it cannot be Intermediate state -- as the GD on position 87R1i is much larger and lower versus Early state.

Your "friend's" stamp has definitely has a hard life

Regards // ioagoa

edited to fix typos

Thanks @ioagoa. If I keep getting these right, I might start to think I'm good at this. Stamp has definitely had a hard life.

Hi Nicholas C --

You are most welcome!

Given the last few stamps you have posted up here, you seem to have a natural talent for plating. You should consider putting together a specialized collection of the 1851 3c issue.

One place that many collectors start is by reconstructing the "three-rows" on the left pane of plate 3 -- all as explained here by Classic Coins:

https://goscf.com/t/72775&whichpage=215#816753

The stamps are very affordable and there are plenty to be found in the wild.

Regards // ioagoa

Greetings all.

Came across this one in a large group of covers I recently acquired. It's 51L3 showing a portion of the imprint with the plate number showing and tied to the cover with a nice Concord, NH cds with "3 PAID".

Here's another interesting one. 20 and 30L1L with centerline and portions of positions 11 and 21 from the right pane. Its a bit of hack job on how these stamps were separated from the sheet but thats probably what resulted in the centerline and portions of right pane remaining.

Harper — very nice pickups — imprints with the plate number showing are very scarce — as are gutter snipes showing portions of stamps from the adjoining pane. Thanks for showing these. Regards // ioagoa

Those are some outstanding covers, Harper1249! Thanks for showing the covers, and especially the closeups of those amazing stamps.

Hi Harper - was this from the NY Stamps ebay auction a week ago or so? If so, I think I was the underbidder - congats in any case on picking up some great material!

This #10 (no inner lines) is from sheet position 3L1i, a double transfer position.

I prefer a pen cancel like this more than many CDS cancels on the 1851-57 issues. The pen cancel is neat and unobtrusive. All the parts of the design vital to plating are visible.

Well that one makes an impression…. Sorry.
It is a really sharp impression. Nice.

Here's my two Scott 12's. One of them has a very clean cancel only visibile in the top right as a small black gash. The other 12 has nice margins to the point all four sides are clearly defined and a sliver of the adjacent stamp on the right margin is visible.

New patient for me.

Features that I see:

- two inner frame lines
- guide dot at top right
- looks to be relief B
- no other recuts that I can see

I came up with position 1R3. That seem right?

Hi NicholasC. 1R3 is the correct position. Nicely Done.

Harper1249

I am stumped on this one. Maybe I need to look at all 860 stamps that meet my criteria. I went with Relief B and Two Inner Lines. I cannot tell if there is anything else to help.