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Plate flaws: crack on 15¢ Holmes, tension chock mark on 5¢ Washington

By John M. Hotchner

   The United States 15¢ Oliver W. Holmes coil stamp pair with shiny gum (Scott 1305E) shown in Figure 1 exhibits a rather startling plate crack on the
left stamp. I am not sure that this is a new report or one that the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamp and Covers
has not seen fit to list.
   Plate varieties such as this are treated inconsistently by the Scott editors. The term "plate flaw" covers a multitude of problems, such as damage to plates, incompletely burnished out mistakes in entering a die, what are sometimes called "foreign entries," cracks and more.
   A foreign entry on a plate is the entry of an incorrect die on an intaglio printing plate in place of what ought to be there.
   An excellent example are the 5¢ entries on what was intended to be 2¢ George Washington stamp printing plates in the 1916-20 period. These stamps are identified as Scott 467, 485 and 505, the carmine error 5¢ George Washington stamps. The stamps were assigned major Scott numbers because they are distinctly different.
   It seems that damage and evidence of multiple transfers have better chances of being listed the earlier the stamps were issued. By the late 19 th century, plate flaws were so common that all of them could not be listed without making the catalog significantly larger. The Scott catalog adopted a policy of noting only generics, such as "double transfer" or "plate crack," although there might be hundreds of double transfers for a muchused definitive but only a half-dozen plate cracks.
   catalog , however, list very few especially notable plate varieties, such as the so-called Broken Hat variety on the 2¢ Columbian stamp of 1893.
   The Bureau Issues Association (now called the United States Stamp Society) stepped in decades ago to give continuing attention to plate varieties.
   Loran C. "Cloudy" French devoted a lifetime of study to this information. In 1977, the BIA published his accumulated findings in a 337-page 8½-inch-by-11-inch wellillustrated hardcover book titled Encyclopedia of Plate Varieties on Bureau-Printed Postage Stamps.
   The book is still available from the USSS at $35 to nonmembers ($25 to members) postpaid, from the USSS Executive Secretary, Box 6634, Katy, TX 77491.
   After French passed away, no one continued his work. Many stamps have been issued since, and many new discoveries on older stamps have been made, so the book is in serious need of updating.
   It is for this reason that I do not know if the plate crack on the 15¢ Oliver W. Holmes pair shown in Figure 1 has ever been reported.
   The plate crack is positioned where one normally sees coil plate cracks: on a stamp at the end of a plate, which is obvious because the stamp is adjacent to a joint line.
   The flaw is called a "gripper crack." It results from stress on the plate from the gripper that holds the plate to the press.
   The great majority of a printing could take place before the crack is evident. For that reason, what can develop into a strong crack might not exist in many stamps, or there can be several stages as a crack develops.
   The heyday of gripper cracks was the mid-1950s, and the flaw is associated mainly with the Liberty issue stamps of 1954. I can provide a list of known examples, with associated plate numbers on the sheet stamps, to any U.S. Notes reader who would like one.
   To request this list, send a business-size stamped reply envelope to me, John Hotchner, in care of Linn’s Editor, Box 29, Sidney, OH 45365. Also enclose 15¢ in mint U.S. postage to cover photocopying.
   If you see what seems to be a plate crack on coil stamps that are not associated with joint-line pairs, be suspicious. There is a phenomenon that masquerades as a plate crack.
   It is called a "tension chock mark." Figure 2 pictures an example in a strip of three 5¢ George Washington stamps.
   Look closely at Washington’s nose on the center stamp. The mark results from the accumulation of ink on the tension chock that holds the coil stamps in place in coil-dispensing machines. It is not a production mistake.
   I would be interested to hear from any readers who might be able to match the 15¢ Oliver W. Holmes plate crack stamp with examples in their own collections.
   Please write to the aforementioned address if you have additional information.
   Imitation
   If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the monthly magazine Consumer Reports must have really liked the five 2005 37¢ Sporty Cars stamps pictured at left in Figure 3.
   Shown at right in Figure 3 is a bookmark sent out in 2007 to readers of the magazine. It recognizes the 70 th anniversary of the magazine. Unlike the stamps, the bookmark does not identify the cars.
   The second car on the bookmark does seem to be a match for the 37¢ Chevrolet Corvette stamp of the Sporty Cars issue. The stamp identifies it as a 1953 Chevrolet Corvette.
   Thanks to Sue Dempsey of A &D Stamps and Coins in Walnut Creek, Calif., for sending in the Consumer Reports bookmark.
   Please include your address on letters when you write to me.
   Iappreciateyourcardsand letters, and I try to respond to everyone who writes, but it sometimes happens that envelopes and letters get separated at Linn’s before being sent on to me.
   If a letter has no address on it, there is no way I can reply.
   The address can be for postal use or for e-mail, but either way, your help in addressing a letter would be much appreciated.

Figure 2. The center stamp of this 5¢ George Washington coil stamp strip of three bears (on Washington’s nose) what is called a "tension chock mark" that can be mistaken for a gripper crack. The great majority of such marks are not necessarily near or associated with a joint line.

Figure 1. Joint line pair of the 15¢ Oliver W. Holmes coil stamp that shows a gripper crack on the top middle of the left stamp. The crack goes down about two-thirds of the way to the bottom. The author asks if this is a known variety or a new discovery.

Figure 3. Shown on the left are the five U.S. 37¢ Sporty Cars stamps issued in 2005. At right is a bookmark sent out in 2007 by Consumer Reports magazine that features its own version of four classic cars.