Plating Guide for Plates I and II of the HRAD ANY 15 H Knihtisk Series 1: Vol. 5, No. 1 by F Hamr 1993 Originally published as STUDIJNÍ FILATELISTICKÉ PÌÍRU KY 20/1993 Hrad any 15 h Rekonstrukce I. a II. desky Translated into English with the permission of the Spole nosti sb ratelç eskoslovenských knihtiskových známek by Dr. Mark Wilson KNIHTISK Winchester, Virginia
Series I: Plating the Hrad any. Vol. 5: Fifth Design. No. 1: 15, Plates I-II. Copyright 2004 by Lunasa LLC. All rights reserved. Translated from the original Czech with the special permission of the Society for Collectors of Typographic Stamps, Prague. Knihtisk is the imprint of Lunasa LLC, of Winchester, Virginia. www.knihtisk.com Knihtisk is a labor of love. Its publications represent the volunteer work of fellow collectors and are sold at prices that merely sustain production. Manufacturing or accepting unauthorized copies undercuts the efforts of contributors and may discourage further work. The only authorized source for copies of Knihtisk publications is Lunasa LLC. Please support this effort to bring out-of-print, highly specialized, or materials hidden behind the veil of other languages into the hands of collectors by refusing to accept copies from unauthorized sources. Of course, you may make print or make electronic copies for your personal use, but you must never release or keep a copy to avoid payment. Please note that series, volumes within series, and numbers within each volume may be published non-sequentially and at irregular intervals. Suggestions for future publications or your own contributions should be sent to the published address of Knihtisk. Caveat: This is an amateur translation by a collector who professes no special knowledge of the Czech language. As a result, there may be unintentional misrepresentations of the meaning of the original text. The alternative would have been to keep the translation private rather than sharing it with other interested collectors. Suggestions for corrections, clarifications, or additional information should be emailed to info@knihtisk.com or sent via ordinary mail to Knihtisk, 316 Devland Drive, Winchester, Virginia 22603. The Translator Cover Illustration: Lower left corner block of eight from Plate I showing both types of the fourth spiral and the lower left inner frame variations. April 2004 ii
This information was taken from the Monographs on Czechoslovakian Stamps, Volume I, written by Dr. F. Kubát. Stamps in the 15h denomination were printed in the so-called Fifth Design. It was derived from the fifth revision of Mucha s second draft. The entire set of printing plates were made using a single auxiliary setup. This setup was created from the auxiliary setup used for the 25h denomination, but with the numbers in the value tablet replaced. The auxiliary setup was twice the size of the printing plates. Using a prism, a glass negative the size of the printing plate was made by photographing the auxiliary setup. The image from the negative was transferred to metal plates and etched, from which were derived six 1 printing plates. The plates were used in printing matrices that contained four plates in the following combinations. A printing form was used to produce about 40,000 sheets, then taken apart to clean the plates, which were then put in a new printing matrix. The entire output for these stamps was about 116, 650, 000 stamps which were produced by about 30 of these printing matric arrangements. If they were able to clean multiple plates from the same form no one knows. Work was done on the open fourth spirals for these first two plates of this denomination. But in several positions the spirals were left uncorrected, which is why joined types are found on these two plates. Printing began on the 15h denomination on June 3, 1919 and imperforate stamps were released June 7, 1919. From the entire printing of 116,650,000 stamps, some 52,090,000 were imperforate and 64,560,000 perforated. Some of the stamps were used for SO 1920 overprints and others overprinted and surcharged for postage due use. In the end, the release of imperforate stamps totaled 52,031,400 and perforated was 60,473,000. 1 A seventh plate was recently discovered and a plating guide for it, being written by Zden k Ryvola, should be ready for publication in early 2005. 1
The following rough estimate of the stamps issued in specific kinds of perforations was made from a census of the stamps: Comb 13 3/4 x 13 ½ 28,140,000 A Comb 11 3/4 900,000 B Comb 11 ½ 1,200,000 D Line 13 3/4 28,150,000 C Line 11 ½ x10 3/4 40,000 E Line 11 ½ x 13 3/4 28,000 G Line 13 3/4 x 10 3/4 15,000 H Line 13 3/4 x 11 ½ 2,000,000 F Variations in the control numbers on the bottoms of the panes may be used to identify the panes from specific printing plates : Plate I The stamp above 15. has a chipped oval, a Type II fourth spiral, and the right dove s tail is +. Plate II Bent decimal bar on the 15., a Type II fourth spiral, and the right dove s tail is +. There are philatelically interesting variations in the stamps. 1. Types a) Spirals: Type I: Positions 2, 21, 22, 23, 49, 83, 91, and 94 on Plate I. Position 15 on Plate II. Type II: All over positions on both plates. b) Trimmed Numerals Same positions on both plates: Type I: All positions not give below. Type II: Bottom on numeral 1 trimmed 13, 71, 78, 89, 94. Type III: Bottom on numeral 5 trimmed 9, 81. Type IV: Bottom trimmed on both numerals 68, 75. c) Shifted numerals Same positions on both plates: Type I: All positions not given below. Type II: Tilted downward 5, 19, 23, 45, 54, 64, 66, 67, 71, 72, 74, 82, 90. Type III: Tilted upward 91. Type IV Shifted downward 33, 80, 90. Type V: Shifted upward 8, 16, 34, 57, 82. Type VI: Shifted to the left 14, 15, 21, 28, 56. Type VII: Shifted to the right 1, 60, 91. 2
2. Plate repairs before printing The right dove s tail a) Top and right closed (+ +) Plate I: 17, 84. Plate II 78. b) Top closed and right open (+ ) all positions not mentioned above. 3. Plate repairs after printing The Monographs mention none. 4. Colors a) Imperforate stamps vermillion, brown red, brick red, flame red. b) Perforated stamps vermillion, brown red, brick red, carmine. 5. Paper Thicknesses from 0.03 to 1.0 mm. 6. Plate defects a) Primary Unrepaired right dove s tail ( ) Plate I: 78, 89, 82. Plate II: 46. b) Secondary Both plates, positions 11, 78, 79. c) Tertiary Plate I: 4, 18, 46, 48, 49, 59, 68, 86, 96, 100. Plate II: 24, 52, 62, 69, 70, 72, 73, 75, 83, 87, 94. 7. Printing defects a) In the image double prints, printing on the gummed side of the paper. b) Offsets entire printing press, partial printing press. c) Fogs (veils) In the left dove Plate I, position 41. In the left branch Plate I, position 91. In the letter T Plate II, position 2. In the right decorations Plate II, position 3. In the right dove Plate II, position 52. d) Wandering rings in various places. e) In the color over-inked, under-inked, no ink, dirty spaces between the stamps because of insufficient cleaning of the plates. f) In the paper single fold, overlapped, thinned paper. g) In the perforations rough, displaced, extended and foreshortened comb, miscentered. 8. Ministerial perforations line 10 ½.. 9. Forgeries none reported. 10. Envelopes a) Single domestic letter rate. b) Double (certified) domestic letter rate. 3
New Findings I wish to introduce here for the first time discoveries that were made after the publication of Dr. F. Kubát s Monografie, and consequently were not mentioned in the preceding section. An enquiry about variations in the drawing of the right inner white frame line was pursued by F. Fry in Filatelii, No. 14/71 and 24/72. It was a description of the extension to the bottom part of the right inner white frame line for stamps 2, 7, and 20 from Plate I. He discovered a variation on stamp 29 from Plate II in the upper part of the right inner white frame. Another very conspicuous variation was described by F. Gebauer in Filatelii No. 14/81 with respect to position 49 on Plate II. This stamp lacked the white part of the right hacek connector. Besides being exciting, the description of this variation requires serious thought because its documentation correctly indicates that it was done to an already completed plate. I described variations in the lower left part of the inner white frame line in Filatelii No. 14/83. This same variation with examples establishing the defect are mentioned in the following text. The count of stamps which have the lower part of the right inner white frame line elongated upwards, as described in F. Fry s article, is augmented in this study. They are positions 10, 27, 29, and 50 on Plate I and position 39 on Plate II. The heavy damage is interesting, there are multiple notches in the stamp frames for some stamps on Plate I that are the result of mishandling. In addition to the defects mentioned by the Monografie, I found the following conspicuous variations: Secondary Tertiary Plate I 82 white line crosses the connection between the right haceks. 24 gap in the third tower. 35 short second tower. 41 short second tower. 42 short second tower. 49 colored line near the right frame. 57 notch on the front of the numeral 1. 62 thicker right frame. 66 numeral 1 damaged. 76 numeral 1 damaged. 77 numeral 1 notched. 84 numeral 1 notched. 97 gap in the left outline of the right branch. Plate II 60 white spot in the eighth spiral. 77 white spot in the right decoration. 81 white bump on the N s right leg. 91 white spot on the white frame line over the N. 4
Postal Use On May 5, 1919, an increase in the postal rate from 10h to 15h for letters forced the expedited release of these stamps. Before them, the only ones available were postage due stamps from other denominations. In all, these stamps may be found in these conditions: with perforation variations, with two types of the fourth spiral, and in four variations of color. To consider collecting all of the possible pairs of spiral types would be ambitious in terms of both time and money. Fifth Design Schema 5