Plating

Plating is made possible due to the presence of small signs characteristic of each brand - permanent options for stamp details printed from one printing plate or lithographic stone , as a result of which it is possible to determine the exact initial location of each brand in the sheet ^[1] .

Such signs that you can rely on when paying include defects or “errors” that occur during the transfer of images, individual strokes of the engraver , re- engraving of printing plates, repairs and accidental damage to printing plates.

In addition, postage stamps may not be uniformly printed, as a result of which the differences in the intervals and orientation of the postage stamps can be used to determine their position in print.

A branded place can be easily identified for some issues that have characteristic details , for example, letters or numbers different for each brand ^{[1] [≡]} .

In the reconstruction of the printing form, other features may also be useful, such as shades of used ink or watermarks on paper ^[3] . In the absence of such signs, plating is not possible.

Platinum is used to identify counterfeit stamps ^[1] .

Due to the high accuracy of modern methods of manufacturing postage stamps, most modern issues cannot be plated.

A copy of the Red Penny of 1855 ( Sc # 9) with the letters K ... E in the lower corners, indicating the 11th row of the sheet ( K ) and the 5th mark in this row ( E ) ^{[^] [^] [ ^]}

The philatelists have made significant efforts mainly to platinum many classic stamps of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries ^[1] and have written a number of books on plating various issues of postage stamps. 

It looks like this. Here is a piece of paper, the cells of which are filled with the same stamp, repeated a hundred times, but each time it is a little different. Changes are recognized through a microscope. If, say, one hair more sticks out in the monarch’s beard, then by this sign you determine that the mark should be in the fifth cell of the second row, and if the upper line is thicker in its frame, then it is from the sixth cell of the seventh row.
These, as you see, are very meticulous differences, but to know them is absolutely necessary in order to correctly position the stamps. If you can imagine how this is done, then you can be proud. It's about knowledge.

- ^[4]

UK

From the moment of appearance in 1840 and until 1884, control letters (letters of the English alphabet ) were indicated on the British postage stamps in the corners, showing the exact position of the stamp on the sheet ^{[1] [≡]} , for example: A ... C is the first row (first letter alphabet A ), third mark (third letter of the alphabet C ). At the same time, for some time, the number of the printing form with which the stamps were printed was also indicated.

Black Penny

One of the noteworthy achievements of philatelists is the payment of “ Black Penny ” made in 1840. These postage stamps were printed in 240 sheets of stamps, consisting of 20 rows of 12 stamps each ^{[5] [≡]} .

• Individual copies of the " Black Penny " with letters of their place in the sheet
•  

  A ... A : 1st row, 1st mark

•  

  G ... F : 7th row, 6th mark

•  

  N ... K : 14th row, 11th mark

•  

  R ... K : 18th row, 11th mark

• Blocks of " Black Pennies " with letters of the position of stamps in a sheet
•  

  Rows 12 ( L ), 13 ( M ); Grades 4 ( D ), 5 ( E ), 6 ( F )

•  

  Rows 6 ( F ), 7 ( G ), 8 ( H ), 9 ( I ); Grades 1 ( A ), 2 ( B ), 3 ( C ), 4 ( D ), 5 ( E )

The print forms of Black Pennies wore out as they were printed and were often replaced. Starting from the 71st printing form of stamp II in 1858, the form number was imperceptibly engraved on the postage stamps themselves. All stamps had control letters, which indicated the exact position in the stamp sheet, so the reconstruction of printed forms, starting with form 71, is simply a matter of finding the necessary stamps. However, postage stamps printed from the first 70 printing forms of stamp II and all printing forms of stamp I [more than 200] did not have any numbers to indicate the specific printing form used to print them, so their plating was a much more significant problem. Thanks to painstaking study of postage stamps, philatelists were able to restore most or all of the first 70 printed forms of stamp II ^[6] .

Subsequently, philatelists were helped by opening access to control copies and high-quality photographs of the original Black Penny stamp sheets, which were stored by the British government . Similarly, the subsequent Red Pennies ^[≡] and other first engraved issues of UK postage stamps were paid ^[3] .

Estonia

Unlike the “Black Penny”, reconstructing the printing forms of other classic stamps was relatively easy, as, for example, for Estonian stamps of 1927, in which the place is determined by the characteristic detail of the drawing ^[1] - the unique serial number of the stamp in the sheet:

• Estonian postal-charity series with serial numbers of stamps in a sheet (1927)
•  

  No. 57 ( Mi # 63)

•  

  No. 53 ( Mi # 64)

•  

  No. 50 ( Mi # 65)

•  

  No. 44 ( Mi # 66)

•  

  No. 13 ( Mi # 67)

Corrientes

One of the simplest was the payment , which were individually engraved so roughly that the differences between the stamps are obvious even to a layman ^[7] :

• Examples of Corrientes postage stamps visually distinguishable by place in the sheet
•  

  1856, 1 real ( Mi # 1)

•  

  Same, different stamp in the sheet

•  

  1860 ( Mi # 2)

•  

  Same, different stamp in the sheet

Mauritius

Mauritius's earliest postage stamps were used to reconstruct a series of original stamp sheets made from printing plates that show an ever-increasing degree of wear from the first sheets (on which the stamp pattern is distinct and clear) ^[≡] to the last (with the stamp pattern very light and weak ) ^[8] .

Russian Empire, RSFSR

In Russian and Soviet philately philanthropy was used for zemstvo stamps of the Russian Empire and some other interesting postal issues , such as the official issue of 1922 RSFSR airmail stamps ( TsFA [ ITC Marka ] No. C1-C8) ^{[1] [9]} :

Cuba Postcards

In the case of marked postcards , when their sheet is made up of 10 or 20 cards, variations of letters or design elements in the same way allow for the reconstruction, or plating, of these sheets on the basis of the identified differences ^{[10] [11]} :

UK

• Brown R., Fisher HW The Plating of the Penny 1840-1864: In 4 vols. - L .: The Great Britain Philatelic Society, 1979-1984. (eng.)
• Perforated Line-engraved Issues // The Postage Stamps of Great Britain / (Ed.). - 2nd edn. - L .: Royal Philatelic Society London , 1962. - Pt. 2. (English)
• Queen Victoria // Stanley Gibbons Great Britain, Specialized Stamp Catalog. - 8th edn. - L .: Stanley Gibbons, 1985 .-- Vol. 1. (English)
• , Gardiner-Hill C. Imperforate line-engraved issues // The Postage Stamps of Great Britain. - 3rd edn. - L .: Royal Philatelic Society London, 1967. - Pt. 1. (English)

USA

• The United States One Cent Stamp of 1851-1857. (eng.)
• The 3 ¢ Stamp of the United States, 1851-1857. (eng.)
• US One Cent Stamp of 1851–61. (eng.)
• Plating the 10c, 1847. - New York , NY , USA : , [1924-1926]. (eng.)

Other countries

• Bhopal : Notes on Plating the " Primitives ". - Derbyshire , England , UK , 1978. (English)
• Basel L. Computerized Plating of the of Greece. - Stamford, CT , USA, c. 1984. (English)
• Cartwright B. Hawaiian Islands postage stamps . Plating the engraved "five cts." Blue of the issue of 1853. - Honolulu , HI , USA, 1911 .
• Cockrill P. Liberia. Plating of the First Issues, 1860-1869. - Newbury , Berkshire , England, UK, [1979]. (eng.)
• Dumont G. France: Plating of the 20 centimes, Blue Issue 1863 // Specialized Catalog. - Jamaica , NY, USA, 1950. - Vol. 5. (English)
• Groten AH Plating Canada's 2c stamp of 1864. - Toronto, Canada: British North America Philatelic Society, [1981]. - 8 p. - (BNAPS Handbook). (Eng.) (Retrieved December 2, 2017) Archived December 2, 2017.
• Guerra Aguiar JL Estudio Sobre la Primera Emisión Postal de Antillas Españolas. - La Habana , Cuba : Cuadernos del , 1976. (Spanish) [A classic study on the platinum of the first four Cuban postage stamps .]
• India's Bi-Colored Four Annas 1854, A Specialized Study of Third Printing. - Calcutta , India : Philatelic Congress of India, [May 2000] ^[12] . (eng.)
• The Postage Stamps of Uruguay ; with special reference to the "plating" of most of the lithographed issues. - New York, NY, USA: Postilion Publications, [1994?]. (eng.)

• Plate Number

• Plate Layouts for US Postage Stamps . Articles of Interest . 1847usa.com; Bob Allen. Date of treatment October 9, 2008. Archived January 16, 2010.
• Archive Home . Philatelic Interests: The 1 ¢ Franklin Plating Archive . , CA , USA: Official SlingshotVenus Web Site; Richard Doporto, Sonic Imagery Labs. Date of treatment July 6, 2017. Archived on October 29, 2016.
• Plating the 1851-57 3 ¢ . Stamps & Covers: USPOD Issued Adhesives: The 1851-1860 Issue: 1851 3 ¢ Issue . Indianapolis , IN , USA: Date of treatment July 7, 2017. Archived April 1, 2016.
• Paiste G. Plating Study of the Turkish 20 Paras (Thin Paper) Stamp of 1863 . Studies . USA: The Ottoman and Near East Philatelic Society (May 20, 2003). - Plating (location on a printing plate) in the case of the Tugra issue mark with a face value of 20 pairs (1863). Date of treatment July 7, 2017. Archived March 18, 2012.