Friday, August 8, 2008

Plate 65 - BD


This is one of those few repairs that are seen in the second state quite frequently, but are very scarce or rare in the original state.
I have seen just two state 1 examples, yet at least 15 state 2s.

Prints of the repair are easily recognised by the markedly weakened checkletter D, and TRL in the left margin.
The repair was carried out so early that no worn state 1s have been seen; instead it is usual to see state 2s displaying quite a degree of plate wear.
Also there is a progressive patch of wear in the background directly above EN of PENNY, together with a mark inside the same E.
These are both easily seen on the image posted (click to enlarge).
The position of this patch of wear is quite unique - such patches of wear are usually seen in the adjacent right corner.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Plate 165 - BB


I recently located a imperforate state 2 example of this unit.
A very interesting stamp.

There is an illustration of a perforated vertical pair lettered AB-BB in GBJ Vol 3 No 4 Pg 58 (Oct 1961).
The text mentions duplication of the outer line of the SE corner on both stamps (more apparent on stamp BB), but doesn't mention that this is in the second state only.

The original state of this stamp displays very weak and broken left and right sidelines.
The lower half of the right side has been recut in an attempt to mitigate this.
However it is apparent that this recut does not follow the original line, and that it 'cuts in' resulting in the SE corner not being square.

In state 2, there is no apparent strengthening of the left side despite there being a weak TRL in the upper left margin.
The repair has restored the right side though, and the outer line of the second B square is duplicated.
It is apparent that the inner of these two lines is the original recut-out-of-plumb line of state 1.
This corner is now square.
The operation results in the second B being in a different postion than in state 1 - appearing more centrally placed - but it is in fact in exactly the same position relative to the original recut line.
There is some weakening of the checkletters, especially the lower part of the second B.

In Statham's description of this repair he says 'original recut of lower part of right frame line is no longer obvious'.
I would agree it's not obvious, however the line is still discernable in the outer side network, coming down to meet the innermost of the two lines on the outside of the SE square.
Statham also says 'TRL in right margin', but this is clearly not so in this stamp and nor is it in the illustration of the AB-BB pair mentioned above.