stainlessb
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qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,906
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
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Post by stainlessb on Feb 24, 2019 23:45:07 GMT
Today I went through some more boxes and binders of blocks and while most are plate blocks of 4, it appears my aunt (or uncle) veered off into blocks of 6-8...sometimes a half sheet.
most everything is hinged, and often the hinge was placed on one of the stamps <grrr>
In many cases there seems no real reason beyond maybe that's what the post office drawer had in it, so they took it
but in other cases (especially more 'modern" US) where the plate block numbers gave way to the ZIP code guy, Mail early, or a copyright with date, brief background on subject matter, (almost like th ePost Office is trying way too hard....) then maybe that's the reason... but looking at some full sheets, there's a lot going on in the selvage....
Does larger blocks increase appeal/value?
It seems if you did use mounts, the larger blocks would make mounting more of a challenge
When I was younger (much) a block meant, to me, a group of 4 (2 x 2) with the plate # on the selvage.
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renden
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Posts: 9,162 
What I collect: Canada-USA-France-Lithuania-Austria--Germany-Mauritius-French Colonies in Africa
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Post by renden on Feb 24, 2019 23:56:34 GMT
A Plate block is the URR-URL-LRR-LRL of a sheet, usually with id #....so 4 PBs in a sheet. Have never seen evaluations (except at auctions) of PBs of 8 or more - even in our Unitrade Canada Specialized cat. I guess very old blocks of 4-8 -more are auctioned $$$$$.
Never mount a PB....there are albums for them or you can use Vario pages and simply id each in order, somewhere (I used to hinge the selvage part when I was 12....mounts were rarer in the 60s !! They are still looking great in my Scott Albums - but no more hinging now !!)
René
for me a hinge well placed on a previous PB is not a problemo........stamps intact etc......my opinion
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stainlessb
Member
qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,906
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
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Post by stainlessb on Feb 25, 2019 0:18:46 GMT
Yes I would think 4 would be better- I may downsize the blocks to just 4 as they are not high Cv and I see no advantage to having >4 stamps per block
If the hinges had been better applied- in several instances, the hinge must have been "over-wet" as not only did the hinge stick, so did a unhinged portion of the stamp
and I found several instances where i guess they ran out of hinges and just licked the very edge and stuck them on the quadrile pages or album page - a small /light hinge is OK, but when someo f the adhesive is left on the page....
Now my grandmother had a habit of buying an entire sheet and either tearing one out for her single spot in her album, or she would lick the corner of the sheet to affix to a page ... (or both)
fortunately, the majority are not high value stamps
if we knew then what we know now
an interesting walk back in time- I also found one binder to contain picture postcards - unused, mounted with photo corners... unfortunately most have no date on them...but some nice vacation pictures to send back home....wish you were here....etc.
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Beryllium Guy
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Posts: 5,912
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Feb 25, 2019 11:08:24 GMT
A Plate block is the URR-URL-LRR-LRL of a sheet, usually with id #....so 4 PBs in a sheet. Have never seen evaluations (except at auctions) of PBs of 8 or more - even in our Unitrade Canada Specialized cat. I guess very old blocks of 4-8 -more are auctioned $$$$$. René, are you sure about the above statement? I had always been told that there is only one plate block per sheet, and it is whichever block has the actual plate number on it, and at least for most U.S. sheets that I have seen in the past, there is only one block per sheet that has the plate number in it. The other three blocks, as you have described them, would be "corner blocks" of 4, in my opinion. And beyond that you could have "margin" blocks, which include stamps from the margin on one side, or just plain "blocks of 4", which are taken from the sheet in such a way as not to include any stamps from a margin. I don't know if anyone else can confirm if one of our understandings is correct here? Any comments are welcome.... |
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renden
Member
Posts: 9,162
What I collect: Canada-USA-France-Lithuania-Austria--Germany-Mauritius-French Colonies in Africa
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Post by renden on Feb 25, 2019 12:55:06 GMT
A Plate block is the URR-URL-LRR-LRL of a sheet, usually with id #....so 4 PBs in a sheet. Have never seen evaluations (except at auctions) of PBs of 8 or more - even in our Unitrade Canada Specialized cat. I guess very old blocks of 4-8 -more are auctioned $$$$$. René, are you sure about the above statement? I had always been told that there is only one plate block per sheet......I don't know if anyone else can confirm if one of our understandings is correct here? Any comments are welcome.... Chris Beryllium Guy.....I have to check this out as I have the impresssion each Country marks their sheets differently but what you say makes sense - Just got up ....big snow storm here for 2 days.....shoveling and then PBs !! Thanks René |
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brightonpete
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Posts: 5,110
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Post by brightonpete on Feb 25, 2019 12:57:56 GMT
Beryllium Guy: 4 plate blocks per sheet is "de rigeur" in Canada. We have plate/inscriptions on each corner. Post Office panes have them cut off, philatelic panes have all 4. Unlike the US, which just has one. Although, weren't some issued in multi-sheet panes, so they'd be on any of the sides/top/bottom? Not being a collector of American stamps, I'm not sure of that...
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renden
Member
Posts: 9,162
What I collect: Canada-USA-France-Lithuania-Austria--Germany-Mauritius-French Colonies in Africa
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Post by renden on Feb 25, 2019 13:00:38 GMT
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Beryllium Guy
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Posts: 5,912
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Feb 25, 2019 13:09:13 GMT
Hello, René ( renden ) & Peter ( brightonpete ): Thanks for your responses! I never realized that Canada sheets normally have 4 plate blocks per sheet, so I am glad to learn it. The U.S. issues normally only have one. I also saw Xavier ( hrdoktorx ) briefly at lunch time here, and he clarified that for me, too. Well, since Stan ( stainlessb ) is in the U.S., and it seems that much of his holdings are U.S. stamps, I am hoping that he will want to understand the differences. Peter, you also mentioned about special cases for U.S. stamps which might have more than one plate number on a sheet. I am not able to respond to that either, as I do not collect U.S. sheets or plate blocks. My father had lots of U.S. sheets from the 1950s, which were later passed on to me, and all of those had only one plate number per sheet. |
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renden
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Posts: 9,162
What I collect: Canada-USA-France-Lithuania-Austria--Germany-Mauritius-French Colonies in Africa
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Post by renden on Feb 25, 2019 13:13:33 GMT
Chris @bberylliumguy....have a sheet of JF Kennedy 5 cent stamps in front of me.....just one number at the left lower corner LLC !
René
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2019 13:56:32 GMT
I don't believe there is a basic rule for plate block size as the printing methods vary by country For Canada & the US a block of 4 with the plate number is the general type. The plate number might be in a corner or in the middle. If the sheet is low value stamps then I would only keep blocks of 4 as the sheet adds no real value unless it is an early issue and even then sheet collectors are rare. However it comes down to what you want to present
In some cases the block needs to be larger. This issue has 4 repeating plate numbers so a block of 8 is best  The 1976 US flag issue was definitely a full sheet keeper. I kept it in a stockbook so no hinging required
For this DDR issue the full sheet merits consideration 
You might want to capture a certain amount of information. block of 12 showing the lower-margin row counters and left-margin row value numbers
or a block of 4 that shows the row value numbers and the sheet counting number in the right margin.
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stainlessb
Member
qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,906
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
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Post by stainlessb on Feb 25, 2019 14:29:33 GMT
the later sheets contain numbering that often doesn't make a great deal of sense (starts at 36788, but skips 36791 inserting 37244, and then picks up the 367xx sequence again)- I would have scanned the entire sheet, but for some reason my scanner weants to break it up into multiple panes... which I've not figured out how to turn off... This is the bicentennial flag sheet, so it warrants the entire sheet -there are no further markings past the MAIL EARLY IN THE DAY until you get to the opposite corner which has the ZIP code "man". The different colos of the numbers makes me think this is more for color registration...  |
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Admin
Administrator 
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Post by Admin on Feb 25, 2019 14:32:36 GMT
Each color used on the stamp required its own plate so those numbers are of the different color plates. Regarding the number of stamps typically in a U.S. plate block, this definition from the United States Stamp Society's glossary is instructive: |
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Post by feebletodix on Feb 25, 2019 14:57:02 GMT
My rule of thumb for this specialism is quite simple, if there is anything in the selvedge or gutter, collect all the stamps connected to said gutter or selvedge no matter how many.
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renden
Member
Posts: 9,162
What I collect: Canada-USA-France-Lithuania-Austria--Germany-Mauritius-French Colonies in Africa
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Post by renden on Feb 25, 2019 15:09:06 GMT
If one wants to complicate things further, this is an excerpt from UNITRADE Canada Specialized Cat 2019:  |
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angore
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What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Feb 25, 2019 16:27:03 GMT
In the US, it is common to collect UL, UR, LL, LR since they were part of a 200 press sheet that was split into quarters for distribution to post offices. Some ended up collecting margin blocks so no question on how many stamps are in a block.
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