January 6, 2026: I'm proud to announce the launch of Version 2 of www.stampplating.com. This is a Major Update - After almost nine years, we've completely rebuilt this plating study with double the platings, powerful new tools and a unique visual experience to help you identify your 3¢ 1851 stamps!
What's New:
- Four Complete Platings! - Dr Chase, Lund-Amonette-O'Doherty, Celler, and Amonette-Historical platings: The historic Chase plating with black and white images from the Smithsonian archives; the Lund-Amonette-O'Doherty plating improving the original Lund plating; the Dick Celler plating, graciously provided by Robert J. Lampert; and the Amonette-Historic plating, acquired December 2025 after decades out of public view. Please go to the Platings tab in the Navigation Bar for more details.
- The Plating Wizard is radically improved with live stamp count and sophisticated four-state filtering (Ignore/Require/Include/Exclude) and many other features introduced below:
- Live Action Stamp Counts show you in real time how many stamps each characteristic affects—find rare, powerful identifiers!
- Don't Miss the 63% Blow Up show all four plating results, side by side, and magnified to fill your screen width!
- Expanded Filters including Misplaced Relief, Guide Dot Variations, Margin & Centerline, Chase Comments (RUST, re-entry), and Comment Search
- Devere Card analyses of stamp characteristics is integrated into the Plating Wizard with 12,625 factors added into the database tables!
- Please start with the Plating Wizard or read the Wizard Guide to learn the systematic approach.
- 3¢ Stamp Exchange – connect with other platers to buy, sell, or trade 3¢ stamps! Browse available stamps by plate and position, list your own stamps for sale, and find exactly what you need to complete your collection
- Comprehensive Wizard Guide teaching the systematic "process of elimination" approach
- Animated Inner Line Borders – watch the page margins cycle through actual stamp inner line patterns!
- Enhanced navigation with "Modify Search" capability, seamless result browsing, and enhanced ability to advance to the next stamp in your search
Start with the Plating Wizard
or read the Wizard Guide
to learn the systematic approach.
This study is dedicated to helping you plate your stamps!
