Plating The 3¢ U.S. Imperforate Stamp of 1851 - 1857

Plate 1i:

Dr. Chase cites that Plate 1i came into use about the middle of July, 1851, with the earliest known use on a cover dated July 13, 1851. The plate was used for about three months, when it was again softened and extensively reentered and recut, which then resulted in the third state of the plate, Plate 1L. The intermediate stage recutting was the same as found in Plate 1E, with no additional touching up of the designs done for Plate 1i. Although the reentry was done to deepen the impressions from the fairly faint impressions of Plate 1E, the reentry failed, and the impressions of Plate 1i are no deeper than Plate 1E. In fact, Dr. Chase notes that due to the reentry, many of the fine lines are actually fainter on Plate 1i than on Plate 1E. Approximately 4,050,200 stamps (20,251 impressions were printed from Plate 1i. The plate showed no wear, so impressions are clear. Refer to Dr. Chase's book The 3¢ Stamp of the United States 1851-1857 Issue for the full story of Plate 1i.

Plate 1i - Earliest Use July 12, 1851; Used for 2 1/2 Months; 20,251 impressions/4,050,200 stamps/1.12% of issued; 65 Scott 10, 135 Scott 10A:

  1L 2L 3L 4L 5L 6L 7L 8L 9L 10L     1R 2R 3R 4R 5R 6R 7R 8R 9R 10R
       
11L 20L 11R 20R
21L 30L 21R 30R
31L 40L 31R 40R
41L 50L 41R 50R
51L 60L 51R 60R
61L 70L 61R 70R
71L 80L 71R 80R
81L 90L 81R 90R
91L 100L  91R 100R
  91L 92L 93L 94L 95L 96L 97L 98L 99L 100L     91R 92R 93R 94R 95R 96R 97R 98R 99R 100R

Chase - Plate 1i:

Images are provided courtesy of Smithsonian's National Postal Museum

  1L 2L 3L 4L 5L 6L 7L 8L 9L 10L     1R 2R 3R 4R 5R 6R 7R 8R 9R 10R
       
11L 20L 11R 20R
21L 30L 21R 30R
31L 40L 31R 40R
41L 50L 41R 50R
51L 60L 51R 60R
61L 70L 61R 70R
71L 80L 71R 80R
81L 90L 81R 90R
91L 100L  91R 100R
  91L 92L 93L 94L 95L 96L 97L 98L 99L 100L     91R 92R 93R 94R 95R 96R 97R 98R 99R 100R