Catalogue For US Plate Varieties?

I collect piles of stuff and am especially fond of rooting through common stamps to find listed varieties. Does anybody know of any catalogues available that list plate varieties for US stamps? The Unitrade catalogue is very good for Canadian varieties, and I've found a number of other specialized catalogues that are good for listing plate varieties on stamps from other countries. However, I've never found much for US stamps. The Scott Specialized catalogue lists very few plate varieties - plenty of the "missing black, $1500" type of listings, but nothing I'm ever likely to come across.

I already have a copy of the "Encyclopedia of Plate Varieties on U.S. Bureau-Printed Postage Stamps", which is fine for older stamps, but it has no valuations of any sort. (A similar catalogue by Hans Reiche also flyspecks old Canadian engraved stamps, with the useful method of adding a percentage in value to the current catalogue value - in that way, his listing never becomes obsolete price-wise.) I also have a 2003 Michel US Specialized, which contains a very small number of varieties.

I'm not looking for a book on plating some rarity from 1863 that I'll never see - I just want to look through the piles of common stamps I have for interesting listed varieties, as I can now with stamps from Canada or Germany or wherever. With the huge number of US collectors, I'm surprised that I have never come across any of the type of literature I'm looking for.

Ryan

Hi Ryan.....

Welcome to the club.....


You might find some helpful info from the Durland catalog of plate numbers......it's generally used to id scarce plate numbers but I think it also lists many varieties.

I do have the Durland Standard Plate Number Catalogue, a 2005 copy. Perhaps the newest ones have more info, but the 2005 doesn't really contain anything that I can see about varieties not listed in Scott (other than specialized info on any plate number imprint varieties, of course). But between that catalogue, my Hebert plate number singles catalogue, and my old 1995 PNC catalogue, I can play around with whatever little plate numbers I happen to come across. (Yes, collecting catalogues is almost as much fun as collecting stamps ....)

Ryan

Ryan, your best bet for this kind of stuff is the SCOTT CATALOGUE OF ERRORS ON US POSTAGE STAMPS. It used to be called something different, but I don't recall what... I believe it's available through Amos Advantage at a decent price.

-Allen

I already have an early (pre-Scott imprint) edition of an errors catalogue by the same editor, Stephen R. Datz. It only contains missing colors, imperfs and inverted centres, not the kind of constant plate varieties I'm looking for. The listing for the catalogue on the Amos Advantage website makes it sound like nothing has changed:

"Back in print after 4 years, the Scott Catalogue of Errors of on U.S. Stamps features the latest listings and values for hundreds of imperforate, color-omitted and invert errors."

Oh well.

Ryan

Ryan, you already have THE book regarding plate flaws/varieties for US stamps. However, as you noted, it doesn't cover recent US stamps. Much of the plate flaw/varieties are compiled from the journals of the former BIA (Bureau Issues Association). They are now known as the US Stamp Society. Google them and contact them to see what they might have for modern US plate flaw compilations. I don't think they have any compilations post-1980. I know they have back issues of their journal, but that can get pricey and you'll get far more than what you are looking for.

Cloudy book is a excellent reference guide for all stamp plate varieties, not just U. S. Stamps. Apply what Cloudy wrote about then you can apply to other stamps outside the scope of Cloudy's book.

Cloudy discussed revenue stamps alot.

Shift Hunter Letters is excellent source for early revenues, the line drawing as well as the Cloudy book is by far better than scans or photos. Scans and photos include too much useless information, I think its called noise now.

Stampmaster