Even if one were to ignore the three major die types, the knife varieties, the variety of paper colors and indicia colors, we've still got an incredibly complex postal stationery issue. The volume of envelopes printed with the 2c Washington indicium was huge.
I never had an interest in postal stationery. Then I inherited between 11,000 and 12,000 of these 2c Washington cut squares! Because they were mostly in tied bundles of 100 each, I had no idea what they were until I began to unbundle them. I've never really recovered from that first unbundling 15 years ago. Once I started, I couldn't stop. Once I realized they had been collected within a 3-year period in a nearby small city in the county where I (and multiple prior generations) had grown up, I was hooked.
I'll never be an expert or a collector of these. I don't know much about the printing technologies involved nor do I have a very good understanding of what kinds of printing problems can arise and lead to all sorts of varieties and targets for those interested in fly-specking this vast issue.
I probably know just enough to be dangerous. However, I have invested a huge amount of time reviewing and categorizing (to a degree) this material and can share my observations and scanned images of what I've found.
One of the first things I did as I went through the laborious process of unbundling these things, was order a copy of the 2001 UPSS 19th century catalog. It included the 1955 Dickinson list of indicium varieties. That was my starting point. There are several of his 29 varieties I have never encountered, but there are many others he missed!
I'm going to make an effort to begin sharing my findings here at SoR. It will be a trickle of info rather than a flood. I may be duplicating info that others have posted elsewhere. So be it. Consider it corroboration of others' findings. Your comments, thoughts and suggestions are welcome!
This first entry is a simple one. A break in the outer frame line. So far, I've found it on only two copies. I may have another copy or two lurking in the boxes, but this is very rare in my collection. One copy is on white paper and the other on amber. The cancels suggest they came from different small post offices, probably in Indiana or Ohio. The copy on white paper in the image below shows some of the blue staining in the break, but that's exaggerated by my scanner (or my scanning!). In real life, both copies show very clear, clean breaks.
Edit: I should mention I have a copy of another less clear break in this same area. If it is also a break, it's different. The angle is different.
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"I no longer collect, but will never abandon the hobby"
re: 2c Washington 1890s Plimpton & Morgan / Purcell varieties, printing problems, plate flaws, etc. #1
I consider myself very lucky to have found two of them! The reason I posted both examples was to avoid the impression that there was some sort of one-off fluke involved.
The fact that you haven't seen this variety tells me I need to get busy and upload other varieties that I've found that might have escaped yours and others' attention. It's not that I have better skills than others, it's just that I have a bigger pile to search through and that gives me better odds of finding something like this frame line break.
I can scan at 1200 for you. Which copy? or both? If both, I'll just send a single file if that's OK, but what's your preferred file format. TIF? PSD? JPG?
By the way, I'm not a collector of the Die 88s. I sold quite a few with fancy cancels on eBay back between 2000 and 2007. I'm going to try to sell a few (including these) again from time to time to get them into real collectors' hands.
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"I no longer collect, but will never abandon the hobby"
