The Chase Plate Errors

In the 1950’s, Dr. Carroll Chase had photographs made of a reconstruction of the 13 plates (2,600 stamps) which printed the 3-cent Type I stamp of the 1851-57 Issue (Scott No. 10 and 11). The negatives were subsequently donated to the Smithsonian, and prints were available for purchase from the National Postal Museum for many years. They sometimes appear on the market for sale.

Recent research (starting in 1996) has shown that a few of the stamps on the photographed reconstruction are plated (or placed) incorrectly. The purpose of this presentation is to document which positions have been found to be incorrect, to provide illustrations of the correct stamps for these positions, and to show the differences between them.

It is to be emphasized that Dr. Chase’s reconstruction of the 13 plates was done correctly. It turns out that a few incorrectly plated stamps happened to be on the reconstruction at the time it was photographed, and that is the issue which will be addressed here.

The majority of the incorrectly plated stamps on the photographs are stamps printed from worn plates. This plate wear obscures the plating characteristics of the position, especially for Plate 1 when differentiating the “early state” and the “intermediate state”. Unfortunately, Dr. Chase used many of these worn plate examples in his reconstruction.

For more information, contact Charles J. DiComo, PhD – who has Dick Celler’s original notes and mats of these discoveries. He can be reached at charlesdicomo@gmail.com.

The stamps shown on the Chase photos for the positions listed below do not look like typical printings for the position. It is likely that most if not all are plated correctly. (IN PROGRESS)