Plate 77.....................

Plate 77.....................
The search for plate 77 1d reds (SG43) has probably caused more disappointment to stamp collectors and philatelists than any other stamp over the last century and certainly continues to do so. Fakes, blurred inks, obscuring postmarks, optimism and inexplicable oddities all make the search for a genuine plate 77 stamp a hard one.

One thing seems sure and that is that some stamps must have been printed from plate 77. Usually at least one sheet was printed from a new plate and then sent to Somerset House for approval before the new plate was put to press. When approved, one sheet was kept there as the registration (or “imprimatur” sheet. Any faulty sheets would then have been destroyed by burning at Somerset House and any good ones put into stock in the normal way.

So, as the plate was not approved, any example sheets examined should have been returned to be first accounted for and then destroyed, but in the case of plate 77 some stamps have survived.

We know the plate must have reached the point of inspection because a letter from Ormond Hill to Perkins Bacon still exists, telling them that he was rejecting two plates as they were not vertically aligned well enough to allow a good standard of perforating and although this letter doesn't mention the plate numbers, they must have been plates 75 and 77 because the date of the letter (7th February 1863) is the same as the date on which the other plates submitted at the same time (76 and 78 to 81) were registered.

Hill must have been looking at least one sheet produced from plate 77 (and from plate 75 too as it happens) to have made this decision - so at least one sheet from plate 77 existed at some point. The only alternative is that Hill determined that the plate was poorly aligned by looking at the plate itself but as that would have been so very much more difficult to do than the simpler and usual way of looking at an example sheet there is no reason to think that happened. After all, it is reasonable to assume that he would have wanted to make absolutely sure that plate 77 was unusable before rejecting another plate. We will never know how many copies of this stamp were printed from plate 77, maybe one sheet, maybe half a dozen sheets, but one thing is sure – it wasn’t many!

If the odd 77 has escaped into the wild then there is also the possibility that examples from plates 69, 70, 75 and 128 may be found one day as well, but it's not likely. If they were going to be verified they probably would have been by now. As of now none are known to exist although Bacon mentions that H L Estrange-Ewen had seen copies of both plate 70 and 77 stamps "evidently from proof sheets". Philbrick and Westoby record in "An Appendix to the Postage and Telegraph Stamps of Great Britain" that a few specimens that were printed "were not issued to the public, and were either kept in the office, or distributed amongst amateurs". Judge Philbrick stated that he had seen a copy of plate 70 (AA) in the "Stainforth collection". Reverend Francis John Stainforth was one of the early pioneers of stamp collecting and he is said by Bacon to have obtained the plate 70 stamp in 1858 although this date must be incorrect as the plate wasn’t made until 1861. His collection was dispersed in early 1865 about 18 months prior to his death and the plate 70 stamp was bought by Judge Philbrick. It was then bought by Ferrary when he acquired Philbrick's collection in 1872. In 1891 Philbrick also stated that he had seen 2 used copies of plate 70 and Bacon states that "in 1898 another supposed copy was the subject of an action for the recovery of the stamp at the County Court of Sheerness". All very mysterious!

Here is some more information relating to plate 77 which may be of interest. Firstly, I believe that 9 have been found so far, not 10 as mentioned in the July/August 2009 GBJ. 4 mint stamps and 5 used. Two of the mint stamps have been lost leaving 7 currently accepted examples of plate 77 in existence.

”AA” - The lettering is unconfirmed, but AA is the most likely position if the old tradition is accepted that a mint irregular block of 4 was discovered back in the 1870s (AB, AC and BA are known to exist) and split into individual stamps. AA is the logical missing stamp. In 1868 Judge Philbrick refers to a trial sheet of penny plates printed in 1863 an example of which lettered AA came into his possession. He said "It is finely printed in very red carmine. There is nothing to distinguish it as a proof and except from the source from which it came into our collection we should hardly have supposed it to be such". Bacon didn't know what plate it came from and said he thought it must have been a stamp from the "imprimatur" sheet. Now, could that stamp have been from plate 77?! "AA" or whatever stamp it was, was in the collection of William Hughes-Hughes who was one of the founder members of the Royal Philatelic Society London. He was a Barrister of the Inner Temple and his collection was started around 1859 and discontinued about 1874. When interviewed by the Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal in January 1896 (when the stamp was bought from him by Gibbons as part of his "Great Collection") he stated that the whole collection had only cost him £69 as most of his stamps had been obtained "through influential connections". King George V’s example (BA) was doubtless obtained in the same way! The article also mentions that all of the stamps are "stuck down tight and have to be cut out" so presumably this example would have been sold unused rather than mint! Although Bacon mentions this stamp as being in the Ferrary collection I can find no evidence of this (it didn't appear among the listed items sold at the Ferrary sales in Paris so maybe the example of plate 70 said to have been bought by him has been confused with a 77? In fact it was sold to H L'Estrange Ewen who in turn sold it to Henry J Crocker in America (see The Philatelic Record June 1902 page 132) where it was lost in a fire that followed the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. I would be interested to hear if anyone has any references from American publications to do with this occurrence and any reference to the check letter position would be great!

AB – Is an unused stamp now in the Royal Philatelic collection. Bacon refers to this stamp being in the Royal collection in 1919 after being acquired by King George V. There are gum residues on the stamp but there is no way of saying whether this is original gum. When viewed from the back the Large Crown watermark is very slightly high of centre and slightly left of centre. The top perforations are scissor-cut in a sloping fashion. How this stamp came to be part of the Royal Collection is a mystery but I think the most likely explanation is that it was a gift or a purchase for George V at some point after Edward Denny Bacon became curator of the Royal Philatelic Collection in 1913. The interesting question remains, who was it a gift or purchase from!?

AC – It was found in 1919 by Chas Nissen (the discovery is recorded on the front page of The British Philatelist, October 1919, Volume XII Number 8). It is stated - "Our publishers have shewn us an unused copy from the very rare plate 77 of the old Red Penny. This is the fourth unused copy which has been discovered.....Mr E D Bacon stated "It is the same colour as the one in the Royal Collection which is lettered AB and the two stamps at one time formed a pair...I can tell this for certain, from the position the perforation occupies round the edges of the two stamps". Like AB, the top perforations are scissor-cut in a sloping fashion. This stamp was found at the same time as AB and although it is clearly recorded that Chas Nissen found AC it does not seem to be confirmed anywhere that he found AB too. This stamp was later sold to Per Gjerding (it was shown in his collection at the London Exhibition in 1928 where it was described as “the most sought for stamp at the exhibition” (see London Philatelist, December 1928 page 282 and Stamp Lover December 1928 page 189). The stamp does not appear in the Per Gjerding auction sale by HR Harmer in January 1956 (sales 2601/2602 on 16th and 17th January 1956) so must have been sold separately before then. It was bought by Chas Nissen and sold by him as part of a collection to J R de Phillp (see British Philatelist August 1941 page 44 and September 1941 page 52). It was later sold to Major Raphael on 4th November 1959 at a Robson Lowe auction (sales 1875-76 Lot 171 where it was described a "fine with much original gum".), and then disappeared in 1965 when his collection was stolen and no trace of it has been seen since then.

BA is an unused (no gum) stamp now in the British Library from the Tapling collection. Its centreing is consistent with AB and AC. When viewed from the back the Large Crown watermark (Type II) is very slightly high of centre and slightly left of centre. I am confident that this stamp is from the original plate 77. This confidence is based on the fact that I have examined every single stamp with the check letters BA from ALL the plates in between 71 and 225 and NONE of the positions match the Tapling stamp although 81 is the closest by far. It’s still not a match though. This proves that some stamps were printed from plate 77. BA is the first plate 77 to be recorded in the public arena as it became part of Tapling's collection prior to 1891 when he died and it was bequeathed to the British Museum..

LL was discovered by Mr NV le Gallais, an enthusiastic 1d red collector, in 1906 (Gibbons Stamp Weekly 20th October 1906 page 251) and passed to GEJ Crallan of Jersey who sent it to the RPSL for certification. It’s obliterated 80 in a circle with lines outside as per EC London head office 1856 - 1874. The RPSL cert is dated 14th December 1914, signed by ED Bacon and numbered 4900. The stamp sold in the Daily Telegraph stamp auction by Puttick and Simpson on a day of bad weather in aid of the Belgian Relief Fund, in London on 28/9/1915 and raised £50. It was bought by WS Brocklehurst and sold again in 1955 as Lot 635 of his collection in the Robson Lowe sale 1474-7 on 9th/10th November. It was sold again at a Robson Lowe sale on 10th May 1966. This was recorded in the Philatelic Journal of Great Britain, June 1966 page 64 where the stamp is illustrated and its' sale price of £375 recorded. It was owned by Dr Latto who exhibited it in 1974 in London. It is now owned by JW Phillips. I do not have an image good enough to compare it with the check letter positions of other plates.

MI - Found in a box of stamps in November 1944 by Percy Jackson and sold for £220.00. Once in the collection of J de R Phillp.

NC – Found in a Harmers lot in 1994 by David Rowse. The stamp is off-centred high to the right with an inverted barred 15 cancel. I do not have an image of this stamp.

PH is on a small piece and was found in 1924 by AOJ Readhead and was advertised for sale for £200.00 by Messrs HF Johnson (HF Johnson and AOJ Readhead) in The Stamp Lover, December 1924 on page 179. HCV Adams acquired the stamp and displayed it in 1938 (Stamp Lover November 1938 page 153. It is also recorded in Stamp Lover, March 1927 page 285. The Adams collection was sold by Robson Lowe on 15 February 1956 (sales 1456-7 - Lot 402) and this stamp was bought by Hugh Greenwell Fletcher for £300.00. When he died in 1968 at the age of 86, the Fletcher collection was left to the Bruce Castle Museum in Tottenham, which was once the home of Sir Rowland Hill. The collection was transferred to the British Library in 1989 where it remains. Interestingly, HR Holmes records that two other stamps (MI and PI) also originated from the same large wholesale lot originally bought by HF Johnson and later subdivided.

PI - This stamp's announcement by J E Lea, Manchester stamp dealers is recorded in Stamp Collecting 30th October 1920. It's cancelled 15 surrounded by heavy bars, as used by London Head Office and is on piece with a 4d red and was issued an RPSL certificate in 1920. Its’ centreing and perforations make it likely that this stamp once adjoined PH. With 4d red (1920 cert?). As with PH it is said to have originated from a large lot from HF Johnson. It was bought by J de R Phillp (it was lot number 172 in his auction sale by Robson Lowe 1875-76 on 4th November 1959). It later became part of the "Isleham" collection. Isleham was a pseudonym of a wealthy American and his collection included most of the great philatelic rarities of the British Empire. This collection was sold by Robson Lowe (New York) on 11th March 1987 and was Lot 8. It was also part of Hassan Shaida's collection for a while. The piece was again sold on 7th May 1992 at Lot 1102 In the Christies Robson Lowe sale 4749.

These are the currently accepted copies of plate 77. They can be confirmed as stamps from the true plate 77 rather than re-entered or re-engraved copies unless anyone can demonstrate that the stamps have the same check letter positions and other characteristics of any other plate from which they might have been re-engraved. So far this has not been done. Having now checked all letter positions from all plates I can say that the mint copies do not match any of them but I have not yet checked the used copies as I have no image of NC and insufficiently good images of MI and LL. It would be very interesting to look at these stamps along with PH and PI (which I believe were once a pair) at some point when images are available.

It is a mystery, now unlikely to be solved as to who originally found the 4 known mint copies back in the 1870s. Maybe it was an individual at Somerset House who shouldn’t have taken the stamps so would not have publicised his ownership of them. It is also possible that the discovery of all the mint stamps at once is an urban legend. If they were all discovered together it is odd that the AB and AC stamps didn’t surface until 1919 and it would seem very unlikely that those two stamps didn’t originate from the same source although AC was bought by Chas Nissen and Tom Allen records that he was in Chas Nissen's office at the point that a "man outside" had a mint plate 77 to sell (AC) and that this stamp was bought at the time that plate 77 AB "was already in the Royal Collection". At least 2 of the used stamps, possibly 3 originated from the same bulk dealer lots, and the co-incidence of the discovery of PH and PI is less remarkable when this is taken into account.

These stamps found their way into the great collections of Crocker, Tapling, Adams, George V, Fletcher and Shaida amongst others and will doubtless play a starring role in the significant collections and displays of the future. It seems that the appeal of this simple 1d red made rare by its’ number will continue to fascinate current and future stamp collectors as much as their predecessors.