Show Your US 1851-57 Imperforate Stamps

Happy Holidays, friends!

Here is a #10, position 78R1e, on a first-month-of-use folded letter sheet. The Jul 28 Huntingdon PA postmark was edited in pen to read Jul 29.

The letter is addressed to James Ramsey (16 Aug 1789 - 13 Aug 1853), Shirleysburg, Huntingdon County PA. The writer requests that James provide the date and time of payment regarding a legal matter.

If anyone can identify who made the notes on the front and back, I'd appreciate you posting the info.

I am contemplating making compression charts for the 3c imperforated issues. I would like some opinions. It will take a lot of work. Will the work be worth the effort? Here is the first chart that I have come up with.

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Here is a recent acquisition showing a full strike of a scarce town cds from Shallotte, NC.

According to some quick internet research -- Shallotte was originally settled around 1750 -- had a post office established in 1837 -- and was incorporated in 1899.

Stamps plate to 18-19L2L -- with 19L2L showing recut variety with the top label and URDB joined. Color is post office fresh 1857 claret.

This pair fills a tough hole for me in one of my "side-bar / fun" collections of the 1851-1857 3 cent imperforate -- namely an assemblage of "off-cover" stamps where the cds shows the full name of the "state" -- the goal being to have one nice example from each state (and territory) as they existed on July 1, 1851. This stamp has both a scarce town and an almost full strike of the North Carolina "NC" abbreviation.

Regards // ioagoa

ioagoa - really cool pair with history. Is this referred to as the 'unlisted' plate crack (highlighted below)or just an engravers slip?

Nice pair, ioagoa!

Good eyes Caper123!

Hi Caper --

As Moyock13 mentioned -- you have good eyes!!!

The areas that your arrows point to on my 19L2L are not plate cracks -- rather they are the result of a double, or shifted, transfer -- with elements of the cross hatching of the vignette visible in the white space of the oval -- and also elements of the tessellation work visible in the white space between the RIL and RFL.

Regards // ioagoa

Love that Shallotte, NC pair, ioagoa! That will be quite a challenge to collect a pair from each state like that.

I don't have any pairs that show the town and state so well.

A couple of recent acquisitions.

Scott #8 Type III





And a pair of Scott #7 type II with a red Mobile Alabama strike.

For a bit of comic relief ... this is the only #13 that I have, actually part of my Oregon counties collection. No detailed stamp scan just now. The postmaster did this kind of creative cancellation on a number of covers out of Umpqua City.

Jaxom - that looks like an INSANELY intensive project if you decide to tackle it! I am sure all the students out here of the 3c 1851 would appreciate your efforts. Using the compressed images is an incredibly effective tool. Making it easier to use (with an already done set of examples) would probably make this tool more widely used.

Would you be using the database of the USPCS, or some other source? Are you a member? What would you do with the database - put it up yourself, or maybe here, or hand it over to the USPCS? Might there be copyright/ownership issues? Would you double your work and do the same for the Tops and Bottoms of each position, too?

Great idea, but it would be A LOT of work. I wouldn't discourage you from tackling such a project, but SHEEESH!!! It would certainly be a way to get your name etched in the annals of the 3c 1851 world.

I have already looked into and received permission to use the images as long as they are used anonymously and in partial images as I am doing. It will take more than a month's labor to complete. I doubt that I will do the tops as the top and bottom lines are rarely complete. A lot of questions have turned up, such as, will the relief A page contain the misplaced A reliefs, what to do with the C reliefs, where to display the plate images when complete, format to be 5 or 10 wide, etc. It is a large undertaking to say the least. I have not decided how to make the charts accessible to others yet. I have not decided if the format will be 5 wide or 10 wide. At this time, I am making it up both ways. I showed the 5 wide format above and I will post the 10 wide format here now. I am looking for feedback as I am just starting this project. The charts are posted here at 80% because of the size restrictions.

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jaxom100, You've done fantastic work on the plate 0, Left pane, A-relief compressed image chart! Thanks for showing what you've accomplished. It's clear that you've put a lot of work into this.

As you may be aware from my posts, I use this technique extensively as a plating tool to quickly arrive at a short list of candidate positions.

Since you asked for opinions, I would suggest trying compression to 10 percent of the original vertical dimension. I compressed to 20 percent when I first started using this technique years ago, and I found it adequate for positions with more pronounced side line curves. However, for stamps with only subtle curves, or with nearly straight and parallel side lines, or with no inner lines, I found that compressing to 10 percent much better enabled me to evaluate the curves.

Classic Coins, I appreciate your input. My first thought about your suggestion of making the charts at 10% was horror. I have created about 560+ images at 20% so far. I have completed all relief A with inner lines for types 10A and 11A. Then my mind had an idea to shrink the entire chart by 50% vertically and see what I came up with. It seems to have done the same job as the 10% compression would have. I have compared a few examples and I cannot seem to tell any difference. Maybe you can try a few and see if you notice any discrepancies. I did not have to scale this chart at 80% like the 20% chart. You can see that there are a few stamps that I had to do some patchwork because of missing lines. I always check them to make sure they look correct.

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Here is the Plate 0 right pane relief A compression chart at 20% and 10% in the 10 per line format. I have also made the 5 per line format. Still not sure which way I want to go with it. I have not gotten much input on it. I will need to redo the text for the 10% chart.

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Thanks for your labors Jaxom! A useful tool for us 3c minutiae lovers!