Well, at least I got to have a haircut in the Penny Lane barber shop. 02 Dec 2016 09:00:22pm
What's the difference between a British Scott #2 and a #4? The catalog says something about plates, but that's no help to me? And I can't tell from the picture if it's on "bluish paper." [image]/upload/2000877679.jpg[/image]I just bought a stamp called a "Two Penny Blue," valued at $900, but I stupidly assumed it to be a Scott 2, the one commonly called TPB.
Scott 2 (blue) is valued at 700.00
Scott 2a (pale blue) is valued at 900.00
As the seller said it had a "value" of 900, I expect he was of the opinion it was 2a. Doesn't look like pale blue in the scan, but I'm not a color expert.
The strip of three penny blues above appears to have a step-off or maybe they are askew. Are they all like that? If so, might explain why the borders seem to frequently be cut off at an angle rather than square.
"The strip of three penny blues above appears to have a step-off or maybe they are askew. Are they all like that? If so, might explain why the borders seem to frequently be cut off at an angle rather than square."
Not all, but many -- when the printers (Perkins Bacon) made the printing plates by rolling a master onto them 240 times, they did not do a very good job at lining up the rows. Thus many plates had this sort of "stepping" effect where the impressions got lower as you went along the row.
And yes, that's one big reason why stamps (especially when they were in strips) seem cut at an angle. It also caused problems when perforating machines were invented, as those assumed that the impressions on the sheet were evenly laid out -- so well centred examples of the early perforated stamps are difficult to find! Perkins Bacon had to up their game to do a better job of layout once perforation became standard (better, but not flawless).
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