12c Black (17). Position 51L1, huge margins including "ENGRAVERS Phila. New York, Bos" portion of imprint, just in at upper right and touched at bottom, intense shade and impression, neat strike of circular datestamp, faint vertical printed line in sheet margin where plate number was usually engraved

FINE-VERY FINE. THIS IMPRINT COPY PROVES THAT PLATE ONE, WHICH PRODUCED ALL IMPERFORATE 12-CENT STAMPS, DID NOT HAVE A PRINTED PLATE NUMBER. A PHENOMENAL EXHIBITION ITEM.

Until the discovery of this item by Earl Oakley, it was not known whether the plate used to print the imperforate 12c stamp had a plate number. According to a summary of previous knowledge in article by James A. Allen in the 1851 Sesquicentennial book, three plates were made. Plate 3, which was used to print Scott 36B, has a plate number printed in the selvage. The stamp offered here proves that Plate One did not. No stamps have been definitively recorded from Plate 2, and it may never have been used.

As far as early classic U.S. plates are concerned, several did not have the plate numbers indicated, but this appears to have changed quickly. For example, on the 1c stamps, Plate 1 did not have the plate number, but it was added when the plate was reworked in 1852 (Plate 2 was numbered from the start). For the 3c 1851, Plates 1E, 2E, 5E and 0 all have imprints but no plate numbers, and these were among the first plates used.

Ex Oakley and Ishikawa. First described in Chronicle (No. 40, October 1961). Illustrated in Neinken's 12c plating book which was published in 1964. Illustrated in Jon Rose's Classic United States Imperforate Stamps.

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