Plate 1b, unit SD

The output of Perkins, Bacon from 1840 to 1880.
Post Reply
petrod
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 6:00 pm

Plate 1b, unit SD

Post by petrod »

Does anyone have a copy of this stamp (in black)? If so I would appreciate seeing a scan because I am in the process of buying one on Ebay (said to be Plate 1b) which exhibits a distinctive mark in the margin above the NE star square. Until I have the item to hand I can not be certain that the mark is from the original printing or an extraneous addition.Of course this is one of a strip removed from the imprimatur sheet, and I can find no reference to any such mark in Seymour, Fisher/Brown or the latest Gibbons. Mine is the middle stamp of a horizontal strip of three (SC-SE) with red MX's.
jimw
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 1:27 pm

Re: Plate 1b, unit SD

Post by jimw »

petrod
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 6:00 pm

Re: Plate 1b, unit SD

Post by petrod »

Thanks very much for pointing me in the right direction. At first sight it looks as though the mark I referred to is absent from all the illustrated stamps, so it may be a one-off printing fault or more likely a usage mark of some sort. We shall see - I await delivery of the item with bated breath! And of course I will update here in due course with a scan.
petrod
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 6:00 pm

Re: Plate 1b, unit SD

Post by petrod »

IMG_20211015_0002.pdf
(2.32 MiB) Downloaded 260 times
Well, here we are. Firstly I am pretty sure it is not Plate 1b, rather Plate 5. And I am tempted to think from the black printing following the 3rd. (Provisional issue) repair, as related in Gibbons QV Vol I, Part I. Unfortunately I can find no illustration of this particular unit anywhere.

Secondly, the mark above the NE star square seems to be an integral part of this printing, but again, I can find no reference to it anywhere.

Perhaps I am not looking in the right places. Any ideas, people?
jimw
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 1:27 pm

Re: Plate 1b, unit SD

Post by jimw »

To me this is an early copy, state 3 would be cancelled in black as printing did not start from 3ed repair until 22nd of Jan 2 weeks after they changed to black cancels. Also the letters would be weaker in the third repair in my opinion of cause.

Had to go out, so did not have time to plate these 3 stamps i now have done and they are plate 1b.
SE is the clincher
petrod
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 6:00 pm

Re: Plate 1b, unit SD

Post by petrod »

Thanks for your input Jim.

I agree about the colour of the cancellations, although there are quite a few instances of the later use of red ink. And the strength of the letters is also a consideration. I was reluctant to rely entirely on Brown/Fisher measurements for plating as there is hardly any difference in the course of four plates, except of course for SE. (I had only recently found a blatant error by way of transposition in Vol I of BF.)

The configuration of the stars does not seem to me to entirely match with the commonly accepted record of 1b.

But for me the most frustrating aspect is the absence, so far, of any information about the mark above the NE star on SD. I find it difficult to believe that my stamp is unique! Even though the strip is missing from the imprimatur sheet, there must surely be many copies of SD in existence. Just a confirmation that mine is a one-off would be nice.
petrod
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 6:00 pm

Re: Plate 1b, unit SD

Post by petrod »

Since my last post I have searched very many dealers’ lists, catalogues, and other publications both hard copy and online, and failed to find a single illustration of, or reference to, this stamp. I have become inclined to think that it is in fact a non-coincident re-entry, and almost certainly from Plate 1b, but this is still very much surmise.

Most intriguing, but also frustrating - there must be another copy out there somewhere!
Post Reply