An idiots guide to plating

If ever there was a misnomer, the title of this page is it. Not that idiots don't try. Many do and sometimes even get it right. However, the wish to plate the bloody things accurately is far from an idiot's normal haunts. But the range is huge with nearly 450 plates, and the learning curve near vertical. Where does one start? Thankfully, it is possible to break down the subject into more or less digestible chunks.

The easiest step to take is to not to plate at all, but allow someone else to do it for you. Many GB dealers will supply penny reds already plated, but the price of these will reflect the time and effort needed to plate and describe them. Unfortunately, many dealers, especially those found on auction sites will get the plating wrong, sometimes deliberately. You can avoid most of the pitfalls by sticking to the well known GB dealers that you find at the major exhibitions and fairs, or else find a plater and pay them a fee for doing the plating for you. If you have deep pockets, you could stick to exhibition pieces that come with a certificate. But even the best of these platers and expertisation bodies have been known to get it wrong. How would you really know without checking it yourself?

How do you eat an elephant?

The answer is ‘One bite at a time’. The same is true with penny reds, we have to break down the vast range into much smaller groups which can be handled more easily. The easiest group is the plate number range of penny reds, that is the ones with letters in all four corners and the plate number engraved into the design. Easy peasy [How do you spell that?]. Getting a full run from 71 up to plate 225 is within anyone's grasp. Collecting all 240 positions from just one plate is the next easy step, and if you pick a cheaper plate, easy on the pocket too. But with a plate study starts the real philately. Although easy, one can get to grips with things such as plate wear by comparing stamps from the same position, constant varieties and even a few repairs on some plates. Not to be sneezed at.

The next step is more of a knees bent, arms swinging leap. Probably with a run up. Plating something without any indication of which plate it is from. Fortunately, the plate run naturally breaks up into groups, though some of them are still large enough to be intimidating. There were only 11 plates used for penny blacks, and so are mostly easy to plate. The 2d blue group is even smaller. Spink recently sold the Nissen reconstruction of the penny black and have kindly kept a copy of the scans online for the use of philatelists. They can be found at: https://spink.com/private-treaty/nissen-reconstructions The best way to plate is to scan your stamp and make a direct comparison with the Nissen image within a computer graphics program. There are a few errors within the reconstruction a list can be found here.

Beyond these early plates, you will need to buy some literature and/or copies of the imprimatur (registration) sheets. As a bare minimum, you should have the imprimaturs for the group of plates you pick. Things that help in breaking down the range into groups are different alphabets, watermarks, paper colour and perforations. Here is a simplified breakdown of the main groups of penny reds.

Letter positions

Taking a step back, if you take a look at the Spink/Nissen reconstruction it should become apparent that the main differences between stamps of different plates are to be found in the corner letters. The reason for these differences is because each letter was punched into the printing plate by using a hand punch. This means that it is unusual to find two stamps from different plates with exactly the same letter positions. Getting proficient at spotting the differences between the stamp on your table and the images of the imprimatur sheets is the key to good plating. It takes plenty of practice and time.

An example. Above is a screenshot from my computer showing an image of the Imprimaturs for Die 2, plates 1-21 letter position IJ within a graphics program. All of the plates from this group show alphabet 2. It also shows an overlaying image (a layer) of a stamp which I am comparing with the imprimaturs. I have found a match at plate 9. There are a couple of extra points to mention here. Firstly, there are gaps in the range of imprimaturs at plates 1,2 and 3. This is because these imprimaturs have been removed from the imprimatur sheets many years ago, and may possibly be found on the open market. Since in this case I have not seen them, or the next best thing, seen an overlapping block covering IJ from these plates, I have left the space empty. There is an image in plate 8's position, as I have seen an example which I am happy is correctly plated. It should be apparent that in some cases, you are going to have a stamp from a known group which does not tie up with any known imprimatur, and therefore must come from one of the missing ones. They are worth hanging onto as they may be useful later if and when previously unseen imprimaturs or blocks come to light. The main source of scans of missing imprimaturs is Ian Wright's Missing Imprimatur Project.

This is probably a good place to mention scanners. In the dark old days before PCs, I could be found hunched over a copy of the imprimatur sheets with an eye glass and the subject stamp. Just about all of my work is now done using a graphics program and the method of capturing an image of the stamps is to use a scanner. Most scanners sold are included in the 3 in 1 units often sold with new computers. Unfortunately, these scanners are designed for general office or home use and are not generally good enough for our purposes. What you need to use is a dedicated scanner with an optical definition of 2400ppi or better. I use Epson scanners (costing about £80) with a definition of 4800ppi, though I rarely if ever need to get that close in.

Literature - imprimaturs

The one essential piece of literature that you need is a copy of the imprimatur sheets. In days past, the way to do this was to purchase full size photographs of the imprimaturs from the Postal Museum, where the sheets are housed. When I started collecting the price was £10 or £15 a piece, which was a bit pricey but worth it. Unfortunately, the price now is £50 a sheet which puts it out of the pocket of most collectors, especially those who do not specialise in one particular group. But worse than this is the quality. Some of the photographs are of quite poor definition due to being out of focus, or being slightly over or underexposed. Since the arrival of the computer a much better bet would be for the museum to provide good quality (1200ppi or even 2400ppi) scans of the sheets. However, the last time I looked, none of the trustees collected stamps, so they are very unlikely to understand our needs in this respect. Thankfully, there is an alternative. Two people I know sell sets of scans of the imprimatur photos at a reasonable resolution quality. Martin Jenkinson of Stuminster Stamps sells sets of imprimatur images and he also provides scans of the missing imprimaturs when he has a copy. I am sure he won’t mind me saying that he does get these inserts wrong occasionally, but to his credit he does constantly update the disks. Scott Treacey also sells disks, but leaves gaps where the imprimatur is missing from the sheet. I prefer this, as it allows the collector to satisfy himself that the plating is correct before relying on an image.

Postscript - The Postal Museum now has copies of the imprimatur sheets available on their website. Although the quality (definition) of the scans are probably not enough for intense comparison, they do provide a starting point.

Literature – Fisher / Brown

These books are designed around a method of measuring the gaps between the edge of the stamp and the edge of the check letters using a sliding scale. The books cover all of die 1, bar a few unissued reserve plates. I would argue that except where the letters are badly misplaced, it is not possible to plate using these books alone. Plating has to be confirmed by direct comparison with the imprimatur sheet. However, many collectors do use these books to narrow down the field so that they do not have to look through all of the imprimaturs. An online version of this system can be found on the GBPS website. Personally, I very rarely use this system, but prefer to look through the imprimaturs.

Literature – Books

There are many and it is probably safe to say that most are useful up to a point. However, you should keep in mind that they may not always be 100% correct. Wiggins is one author that looms large over the die 2 plates with many plating books to his name. However, he does make the occasional mistake. Other plate reconstructions can sometimes be found (Gardener-Hill and Alcock for example) and can be useful. As with all these old collectors, we do not know what they had access to that is now lost to us, but discernment is needed. As a rule of thumb, buy all the books you can for your area of collecting. Some dealers make a point of stocking philatelic literature. Bill Barrell normally has a good selection and will advise on what is useful and what is not so. Is this a bit woolly? Yes it is, but the area too big to cover here. Once you have picked a group, then the choice narrows down nicely. See the bibliography.

Hints and tips

• Start. You cannot steer a parked car and you cannot improve your skill unless you practice plating.

• Start with stamps with misplaced letters as there will be a limited number of possible plates to pick from.

• Even some apparent "easy ones" can turn into right pigs. If you can't plate the thing, put it aside and have another go the next day/week. If you still cannot find it a home, leave it in your "later" stock book. Your skill level will improve with practice and you can re-visit the problem ones later.

• If you are not 100% sure, do not be tempted to assign a stamp to a plate. Probably right is not good enough. Much better to keep a list of plates which are close with the stamp, than to mis-plate it.

• Don't look up the catalogue value. I know you will, but try to avoid it. The danger is every alphabet 1 stamp turns out to be 107, every C1 is from 199 and every C10 is 65.

• Get advice. Talk to dealers and other collectors. Join the Mulready group (now on a forum basis which can be found at http://stamp-forums.com/index.php) and ask for help. Don't expect strangers to do your plating for you, but if you go with a shortlist of possibles you will be well received.

• Have fun. It's a hobby. If you find all this too much like work, do something else. Collect surface printed, or postal history, or butterflies on stamps, or make Airfix kits. What ever floats your boat!

AP

2018-19