Collecting Specialized Areas of British Stamps

Collecting Specialized Areas of British Stamps

One of the most satisfying areas of stamp collecting is the ability to collect any country, any way you want, instead of the traditional way of collecting every stamp a country issues. Some collectors prefer topical collecting, while others prefer certain reign’s or years. Then, there are collectors who specialize in certain stamps of a given country. There are many countries who have very similar looking stamps with minor differences and can offer a truly vast area of collecting. One area of great interest to collectors of Great Britain are the penny reds and all of their plate number varieties. We aften receive inquiries about why there is such a large discrepancy in the values of these penny reds. The answer usually lies in the Plate #’s. Lets have a look at some of these

Great Britain One Penny red with blue boxes marking the tiny plate number engraved in each side frame line.

Plate #225

Close-up scan of a Great Britain One Penny red, blue boxes marking the plate number 109 worked into the fine lines of each side frame.

Plate #109

Great Britain penny red, red cancel, with blue boxes marking the tiny plate number engraved in each side frame.

Plate # 123

To the casual observer, these stamps may look the same, but if one looks carefully in the areas highlighted, you will see the Plate Number is different in each stamp. There are also the Position varieties (the letter in the corners of the stamps ranging from A to Z). There are many, many British stamps with differing Plate #’s making this a very challenging and interesting area to collect. These plate varieties are all listed in the Great Britain database in EzStamp.

Great Britain Queen Victoria halfpenny rose stamp, blue circles marking the tiny plate number in the scrollwork at each side

Plate #9

British ½d rose-red stamp with blue circles ringing the tiny plate numbers in the left and right frame lines

Plate #5

Great Britain four pence Queen Victoria stamp, Sc# 69, with plate number 15 circled in blue in each side panel

Plate #15

Here are a few more examples of Plate #’s in the Queen Victoria area of Great Britain. In my own personal collection of Queen Victoria, I have over 300 penny Reds (Sc#33) that I have acquired over the years and am always actively looking for plate #’s that I do not have and are within my budget. Some plate #’s command a large premium as they can be very scarce. As always, collect what you enjoy. There is no right or wrong way!