These issues, that had the letters handpunched, all have letters in the bottom squares only, the upper2 square containing stars. Mostof these plates had individual stamp images, all different,since, as forgery precaution check letters wereplaced in the corner squares with the stamp in the upper lefthand corner being lettered AA and in the lower right hand cornerbeing TL. As this wasdone by hand, the position of the letters relative to the surroundingsquare varied and allows an expert to tell from what plate anindividual stamp comes.
10, until The early issues of GreatBritain, from until where printed almost exclusiveusing the line engraved gravure, recess printing method.
After 1864, line engravedissues had letters in all corner squares,
As youcan see, black shows up much better on red stamp than blackstamp.. For engraved stamps printed before 1864, the letterswere individually punched into the printing plates, but more importantlyalso had the plate numbers engraved onto the stamp, making platingmuch simpler.
As this wasdone by hand, the position of the letters relative to the surroundingsquare varied and allows an expert to tell from what plate anindividual stamp comes. The differences in the strength of the check letters are identicalon both stamps. The term Penny Stars is oftenused for this incomparably complex series of stamps which werein continual production from Fed. 10, until As youcan see, black shows up much better on red stamp than blackstamp..
Thecomplexity of this series is due, ignoring at least distinctshades color shades, not only to the hundreds of plates used forprinting, but to that fact that master dies, both imperforateand perforate issues 2 gauges as well as experimental perforations,2 watermarks and varieties of one and fonts alphabetsas well as various combinations were used for these stamps. Notice that the positions of the check lettersand the absence of the white flaw at the bottom of the O inONE on the red is due to the fact that this plate position wasreentered before this red stamp was printed.
The differences in the strength of the check letters are identicalon both stamps. After 1864, line engravedissues had letters in all corner squares, that were engraved,rather than punched into the printing plates, but more importantlyalso had the plate numbers engraved onto the stamp, making platingmuch simpler.
Tags: engraved, print
