1/2 penny bantams

definitely obliterated!

I'm seeing what could be a 6 under the  left /lower side of the numeral one - but plate 1 would good also , as I haveneither

it gets a bath today, maybe that will make the plate # stand out better

I bought a small lot of plate 19, this one  (poor cancelation)  I am not sure it is really 19 , but rather plate 9?  There is a very faint line which could be a "1" ... but i'm not sure it is  convincing

For your reference, I sliced up scans of some of the more clear plate numbers that I have, and lined them up in the pic below so that you can see the position of the digits on the left and right sides. Unused Bantams are too rich for my blood, and the cancels sometimes obscures one side -- so the pairs you see below are not necessarily from the same stamp.

I have ordered them by decreasing plate numbers from top to bottom, because I'm a non-conformist.

L and R represent the position of the left and right digits of the plate number, respectively.

The left slices are the rotated left side of the stamp, and the right slices are the rotated right side of the stamp.

The middle column is the plate number of the slice. (white space between slices indicates I'm missing a plate number in between)



As mentioned before, the plate number is always left-justified in the LR position. Therefore, there is always a digit in the L position. For 2-digit plate numbers only, the ones digit will be in the R position.

Missing in the picture are Plate #1, #4, #6, and #9. Either because I don't have them, or because I don't have a clear example of it, or I can't find it in the mess that I call my "collection".

I find Plate #1 to be the most difficult to find a clear example -- as I often cannot say with certainty that it's not a #10-#19 with the 2nd digit damaged/obscured.

The Bantams are notorious for degrading print quality, so it is not unusual to find the plate number digits unclear, damaged, or not obviously present (even though the opposite side clearly shows the digit!). Because of this, sometimes a poorly printed 8 can look a poorly printed 0,3,6,9 or vice-versa, and 5 can sometimes look like a 6...

There are some useful shortcuts (process of elimination) so that you can be certain of a plate number even if one of the digits cannot be seen/determined:

-- If L=2, the plate must be #20 (there is no plate #2)
-- If there is a digit in position R, it must be plate #10-#20
...

here's a plate 6


and could this be Plate 9?

@wert

I cannot get the image large enough, but I think yours is Plate 6 (?)

I'm using SG specialized Queen Victoria , and  it has a very shot section (literally a couple of pages) on these stamps. There are a total of 15 Plates used over the life of the stamp. Plate 9 was a 'reserve" and hence the highest CV of the group.  I did not realize until today that I might actually have a Plate 9. I have maybe 25-30 that I have accumulated over time and have just placed them inbto a stock book and today decided to take a break from France for a day or two and work on something else!

Maybe  others will have some more /better information about refernces. There musty be some articles on GBPS- I should probably go search since I have access

Cheers

Happy Friday

Sorry, but you have a Plate 19.

Compare to my Plate 19 in my earlier post of plate number slices, you will see your 9 and my 9 are in the same position.

If you had a Plate 9, the 9 would be in the same position as my Plate 8 slice.

Thanks khj for the info...
Robert

Yes, if you click on his image, you get directed to the log-in page. More and more image hosts are blocking hot-linking... forcing people to sign up for account if they want to examine the pic/data/info.

This will depend slightly on which browser you are using, in Google Chrome, you can right click on his image and then select "Open image in new tab". Then you don't have to sign in.

I believe the info is from a collector compilation on another forum. Where that collector sourced the information, I do not know.

some things (images I click work fine, but others atke me to the log-in}

I'm on Safari

and the larger 'chart" is much better!!! Thanks

and  my afternoon's efforts


if anyone has duplicates of Plates 3 o4 15 (I'd ask about Plate 9,,, but never mind)  I have duplicates of 1  (I think) 4, 10,11, 12, 13, 14 & 19  most all are sound stamps, a couple have cut perfs, but I have duplicates of the duplicates!

Below are the marked pictures. Please note that I have rotated your original pics 180º to show the stronger "4" and for directional consistency.


Your first pic is shown at left rotated. I have circled the "4" at top, located in the 2nd digit place, so it must be #14 even though you cannot see the "1". Once you are convinced the 2nd digit is "4", then look at the bottom, and the "1" is very clear and you can sort of make out the "4". Hence, my ID of "14"

The 2nd pic is shown at right, again rotated. I have circled the "11" at both top and bottom. It looks like "1|1" because of the separator.

One of the first things I do before trying to identify the digit(s) is to properly identify the correct location for each digit (the single digit plate number is actually not in same location on left/right side). Then I try to identify the actual digit(s), remembering that the plate number is always left-justified.

Thanks again khj 

Looks I have a couple more duplicate saof 11 and 14.  I am at a loss as to the possible single digit. I've tried B/W, skew the colors to see if I can get anything to pop out, but no luck. I m auy try and put it under th disscecting scope, see if that shows me anything more, but probably tomorrow, my eyes are already squinting!