Tips for platers

Plating penny reds varies from simple to difficult depending on the particular 1d red you have in front of you! It works like this -

The letters in 4 corners penny reds - SG43/44 - G1 - are usually easy to plate as the numbers are part of the design. I find that a low power magnifying glass can make life much easier when plating these stamps. Plating them is quite easy as the actual number is visible in the margins. There are a huge number of minor constant varieties on these stamps that do merit looking at as they can still be bought cheaply and the study of the varieties do give a lot of insight into how these stamps were printed. Fascinating!

The perforated stars can be plated by using a combination of visually checking corner letter positions using Wiggins' 'The Plating of Alphabet II' and 'The Plating of Alphabet III' then using JB Seymour's 'The Postage Stamps of Great Britain Part 2' and Tonna's 'Penny Red Stars' which give details of marks usually not visible on the half-tone images in Wiggins' books. All these books are fairly easy to get hold of through Ebay or Vera Trinder Ltd in London on 0207 836 2365. I bought a new set of the 5 volumes of The Plating of Alphabet III for £25 in December from Vera Trinder so don't pay any of the inflated prices you see on the internet! Vera Trinder is a good place for a browse by the way but they don't open on Saturday.

All earlier stamps can be plated by using Fisher/Brown's 'The Plating of the Penny 1840-1864', Seymour's 'The Postage Stamps of Great Britain' (Parts 1 & 2, Edward Proud's 'Penny Black Plates', and Litchfield's 'Guide Lines to the Penny Black'.

I have listed below some more books which are of use but the best way to start is to sit down for a little while with someone who has done it before as the use of the Fisher Brown plating gauge which is used to measure corner letter positions is much more easily explained by someone who is familiar with it rather than just learned about from books. Join your local philatelic society and you will soon find someone happy to offer advice and practical knowledge based on years of experience. Buy some cheaper copies of positively identified plates and practice re-identifying them!

SG Specialised Catalogue, Volume 1 (Queen Victoria) - current edition 14th 2006) is a must and is full of useful information.

Ken Statham's 'The Essential Guide to the Great Britain Line Engraved 1d and 2d Stars 1840-1864 has a lot of detail in it and is very interesting but is so expensive that many will not be able to afford it even if they can find a set of his books!

NPM Imprimatur photographs can also be obtained but they are quite expensive.

Plating is one of those things that appears quite daunting at first, but gets much easier with practice. This is particularly true when it comes to identifying the difference between Die I and Die II and spotting the differences between the different Alphabets so don't give up - it will all fall into place! Also, if there's a stamp that you just can't identify as it doesn't quite fit with the varieties listed don't be tempted to dispose of it too quickly. It might be a new or very scarce variety!