12c Black (17). Positions 61-62/71-72L1, block of four, original gum, with large left sheet margin showing the absence of an imprint on the early state of Plate 1, other margins full to just clear in a couple places, intense shade, two horizontal creases thru top pair, bottom right stamp tiny surface scrape at bottom

VERY FINE APPEARANCE. A KEY BLOCK OF THE 12-CENT 1851 ISSUE, CONCLUSIVELY PROVING THE ABSENCE OF AN IMPRINT ON THE EARLY STATE OF PLATE ONE.

It has long been known that the first 1c and 3c plates did not have an imprint in their early state (see lot 135 for an example from the 3c Plate 1E). Specialists theorized that the 12c Plate 1 was also lacking an imprint, but the greater rarity of the 12c sheet-margin stamps, and therefore fewer plating opportunities, made it difficult to prove the theory. Stanley B. Ashbrook summarized his thoughts on the 1c and 12c imprints in his 1c book as follows: "We have no evidence whatsoever when the Imprint and Plate number were added to the first 12c Plate, but no doubt it was not done until some months after the Plate was made. There was only one 1c Plate and only one 12c Plate, hence apparently there was little necessity to number these at the time the first 3c plates were given Imprints and Plate numbers." The plating of this block by 12c specialist James A. Allen, along with sheet margin material he studied from the right pane, helped him prove definitively that the early state of Plate 1 lacked the imprint. See Chronicle 244 (pp. 316-322, this block pictured on p. 317) for Allen's analysis of the 12c imprint.

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