10, 10A 11, Or 11A? Point Me In The Right Direction

I'm happy to work on plating for this if someone wants to point me in the right direction. Looks like a sign of a double line on the left. Not sure about inner lines or color. Previous owner thought it was a 10.

Rlsny,

I suspect this is not a 10 but an 11. If I were looking to plate it, I would start with Plate 4. (no inner lines, left line faint, no guide dots, Relief B). Using these elements on the Plating Wizard gets you to about 27 potential positions. A quick look showed several that seem to have the extra lines to the left to one degree or another. Those with more experience may correct me but that would be my starting point.

Hope this helps.
Hobsun

Hi RLSNY --

Off the cuff looks like a typical plate 4 stamp (i.e., BFL is heavily recut in combination with a weak LFL that is doubled and too close to the design).

Stamp is a B relief -- but no GD is visible -- so any B relief showing a GD in the areas that are visble on your patient stamp can be readily eliminated.

Another nice characteristic is the BFL of the adjoining stamp above -- which looks to be doubled at its west end -- and also appears to extend (??) ever so slightly beyond its intersection with the LFL.

The bottom margin on your patient stamp is getting close to where we should see the TFL of the adjoining stamp below -- but we do not. Hard to say if definitively a bottom row stamp -- but that is the first place I would look -- as you might get lucky.

Regards // ioagoa

PS -- I have not attempted to plate the stamp as crazy busy today.

Edit to acknowledge that I was typing while Hobsun was posting!

Thanks guys, will work on it tomorrow

There are several on the bottom row of plate 4 that are close, but the only one with the LFL of the stamp above doubled is 100L4. I think that may be it.

Rlsny,

If it helps any, it does appear that 90L4 has a doubling in the BFL so that aligns with the input from ioagoa about the top portion of your stamp.

Hobsun

I meant BFL not LFL. I'm not used to using the abbreviations. Lower frame line -I meant bottom.

While it takes longer to type-out the various identifying features, it sure helps those with less knowledge get up to speed on plating terms and techniques. I suspect the constant use of abbreviations in the various plating threads here turns a number of potential collectors away from plating, rather than luring them in.

Hi John --

You make a very good point -- and one that I really had not considered. Going forward I will make a point to both spell out identifying features and will also provide the standard plating abbreviations in parentheses. We definitely do not want to turn potential collectors away from plating -- rather, the hope is that more collectors will take an interest in plating the US classics. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Regards // ioagoa

Hi RLSNY --

Your stamp is confirmed as position 100L4.

You are correct about there being a number of stamps on the plate that look much alike -- but none of them have the spacing relationships between the frame lines and the diamond blocks as seen on this position -- and everything else is a solid match. Plus, that doubling of the Bottom Frame Line (BFL) seen on the adjoining 90L4 above is a solid match which further confirms.

As Chase noted in his book -- stamps from plate 4 can be some of the easiest to figure the plate from which the stamp came (i.e., inner lines not recut, in combination with a weak Left Frame Line (LFL) that is often too close to the design and slightly doubled in spots -- AND -- with a very heavily recut Bottom Frame Line (BFL). On the other hand -- stamps from plate 4 can be among the most difficult to plate to the position as many are much alike -- especially those without Guide Dots (GD's) or some other variety of recutting.

Nice job on plating this one.

Regards // ioagoa