Show Your US 1851-57 Imperforate Stamps

Welcome, Magguss, and thank you for posting.

Can you tell us the position number of the #10A? Are you interested in specializing in the 3-cent imperforates, or focusing on collecting one of each type?

ioagoa, thanks for sharing your color schematic.

Sure enough under Plate 1L Exp. O.B.... Dull.

Classic Coins, Chase in his book said that the 100L2E had the #24 recut, where the left inner line runs down too far. I was suspicious of that to when plating and stuck between 100L2E and 100L2L.

Welcome Magguss. I don't know Mr Shepp, but I have traded a few emails with Dr DiComo about Sc 26's.

I don't know the exact plating of the 10A, though I'm sure if I ask Charles he could tell me exactly. Plating isn't really a collecting area I have wanted to focus on, more just filling individual holes.

What made you decide it was 2E and not 2L?
In your pic it appears to have a lot of plate wear for a plate 2E.

Magguss, Is the plate position written on the back of the stamp?

stampcrow & Classic Coins, in my excitement to have actually found a matching position without hints and then to read that Chase mentions the same recut for that position, well...

But now that the party is over and everyone has departed, I whipped out my trusty magnifying glass. And there, lightly scribbled in pencil, in small letters, just below the stamp on the envelop... 100L2L.

And I do agree that there seemed to be a lot of plate wear for a 2E.

Gary, I'm sorry I neglected to answer your original question...
Yes. And sometime today I'll plate them and post results.

Thanks for the update, Moyock13. It's good to have that cleared up.

There is a lot going on with this reconstructed 51L5L and 52L5L pair.

1) A plate crack joining the diamond blocks between the positions
2) Spots of color above U.S. POSTAGE on 52L5L from corrosion/rust damage on the plate
3) An engraver's slip above the S on 52L5L

Gary, here is one from the earlier post about the plate 1L stamp. I've landed on 16R1E or i. If I had to choose I would go with 16R1i.
But I'm always open to suggestions and corrections.

Stephen, That's a nice #10. The no-inner-lines OB's are tough to find these days.

I would have to defer to those more skilled at distinguishing between the early and intermediate states of plate 1.

stampcrow - right away, I noticed that the top FL runs very unevenly along the top. Maybe compressing the image horizontally would make this stand out much more. Good luck with plating that!

Hi stampcrow --

Regarding the #10 that you posted yesterday as tentatively plated to 16R1E (or i) -- I believe that neither 16R1E nor 16R1i are the correct position.

No-inner line, A reliefs (i.e., where there are no other varieties of recutting), from plates 1E and 1i can be difficult to plate. And given that the only difference between the two plates was "re-entry" -- differentiating between the "Early" state of the plate and the "Intermediate" state can be even tougher.

A couple of things to consider in comparing your stamp to reference copies of 16R1E and 16R1i (i.e., mainly the Chase photo stamps and the reference copies on stampplating.com):

-- The UR corner distance between the TFL and URDB of your stamp appears way too large.

-- The spacing between the LFL and the design on your stamp does not appear to match. More specifically, the distance between the ULDB and LFL looks closer on your copy than the reference copies. Further down, at eye level, the LFL looks too far away from the design.

-- Your stamp has a decent sized right margin, yet there are no traces of (the very close) adjoining 17R1 at right. Look at the UL corner of the Chase photo of 17R1i which implies that there should be a bit of the FL from the adjoining 17R1 (E or i) visible on your stamp -- especially as your right margin widens out opposite the queue?

-- The bends in the TFL of your stamp are very distinguishing -- especially at the far left where the TFL drops down above the right edge of the U. in U.S. POSTAGE -- and also the way it gets very wide as it heads east. There are many stamps on 1E and 1i with an open corner at UL like yours -- but very few have a TFL / TLB "white spacing" relationship like yours.

There are 31 stamps on plate 1E -- and another 31 stamps on plate 1i that meet the following criteria: Relief A, No recut inner lines, and No Guide Dot. I am pretty confident that you can find the position by going through the 31 copies on either plate. That said, once you land on the position, determining if early versus intermediate will be challenging.

I have plated your stamp -- but will hold off revealing the position in case you want to take another run at it. I have also made a preliminary determination as to the state of the plate -- and in that regard have sent a scan of your stamp along with my reasoning to a fellow plater for confirmation.

In the meantime -- let me know if you want me to reveal the position-- or if you would prefer to make another go-around -- in which case I can readily confirm your plating.

Regards // ioagoa

73R1E?