Show Your US 1851-57 Imperforate Stamps

Thanks, Classic. I also think it's interesting to have a rust spot so well centered. Thanks for sharing the 69L5L. I knew mine didn't match either of the variations listed in the catalog. But with it being such an obvious dot it might have been well known. I'm glad @ioagoa nudged me to dig further. Now if only I can find the double transfer I posted (just the label) earlier. I found matches for the letters, but nothing else seems close.

Hi NicholasC,

Would you please say what positions you found to most closely match the double transfer on the stamp you showed just the label for?

Here is the full stamp. It has seen better days.

I did a search on two inner lines and double transfer. Nothing else.

I do believe there is a recut in upper left triangle, but I did not include that in the wizard criteria for the search.

The positions that I found that seem to match the letters are:

26R2E
4R5E
14R5E

but they don't make sense. I doubt this stamp is a #10A.

Hi NicholasC,

Did you mean you doubt the stamp is an #11A?

After seeing the plate 1L gouging at the right edge of the top label block, and the over-wiping of the bottom half of the stamp in your full image, I narrowed my focus to only 20 positions, and found it quickly on plate 1L.

Were you only looking at the orange brown plates? Although the intermediate state of the plate shows the double transfer, your stamp doesn't look at all like an orange brown printing to me. It's an 11A.

Hi Nicholas C —

On your "double transfer" stamp — a few hints:

— one line recut ULT

— LIL up too far

— TLB screams plate 1L (most likely)

— relief B

— LLT might also have 1 line recut (hard to tell as I am working from an iPhone right now)

Regards // ioagoa

Edit to acknowledge that I was busy typing while Classic Coins was making his last post — apologies for the overlap.

Great (plating) minds think alike!

No, I meant the positions I found, which were all 10A, just couldn't be correct. This stamp has to be 11A. For the hints given, I had already tried all of that with the wizard, but nothing looked right. I will try again.
.

Please tell me it's not 95R1L. The reference image just doesn't look like a good enough match.

Update: I think it has to be 95R1L. The color image on stampplating.com might be the problem why I didn't find it the first time around. It is not showing the inner line going up too far nor the shift, whereas the Dr. Chase black and white image does. Sometimes I look at the color image when scanning the results. Guess I have to stop doing that! Also, the images on stampsmarter are more of a match.

Hi Nicholas C --

Regarding the "color image" of the stamp currently slotted as 95R1L (NOT) on the StampPlating website -- it is actually position 87R1L.

The site's owner is aware of this error of plating and will eventually correct the image.

Regards // ioagoa

95R1L is correct, NicholasC. Well done.

I'm not sure you know what I meant when I referred to the over-wiping of the bottom half of the stamp. The plate workers had to wipe excess ink off of the edges of the plate sometimes, and sometimes they accidentally wiped ink out of the recessed design entries on the plate. If you look at the dark background oval to the left of Washington's upper lip, you might be able to see that the background oval below that level is under-inked, making the cross-hatching in the oval clearer than the upper half.

In addition to the plate 1L gouging, the second clue that led me to focus on only 20 positions was the over-wiping of the bottom half, which strongly suggested a bottom-row stamp. From there, all I had to do was quickly scan through the 20 bottom row positions of both Chase plate 1L prints to confirm 95R1L.

Thank you both once again for your assistance and confirmation. I definitely am not familiar with the over-wiping. I do see what you mean by the more clear cross hatching.

Here was an easier stamp to identify. It is position 29L3. Relief B. Extra frame line at the left and right outside frame line acting as inner frame line. Also has LR guide dot that isn't so obvious to me.

Here's another patient. It has the top label and right diamond block joined together. I had one of these before that turned out to be 52L2E. This one looks like 52L2L. If so, that would be pretty cool to have both the early and the late from the same position.

Here's a difficult one due to the condition of the stamp. But I think this is 47L2L.

Two pictures. First as scanned. Second with some adjustments to help me see it better. There are 2 recuts in upper left triangle and double guide dots at lower right. Neither of these are easy to see. The curve in the top frame line above the T and A is what really makes this a match.

Another easy one. This time #11A position 59L3. Extra outside frame line to the left and the right frame line acting like inner frame line.

Another poor pair that came with my recent acquisition. These look to be #11A positions 5L2L and 15L2L. They are very similar to the early plate images, but they don't have the right color.