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How to Identify Plate Position on Stamps

Every sheet of postage stamps printed in the United States has identifying plate block numbers or a small diagram in the margin that shows the location the block of stamps came from. The diagram resembles a tic-tac-toe game drawing. Blocks are colored in to show the position on the full sheet. Stamps are printed as a full sheet and are usually separated before they go to the post offices. A block of stamps is normally a section from a full sheet that is at least two stamps high and two stamps across.

Instructions

- 1
  Check the margins of the block of stamps you have to see if there is a five- or six-digit number. This number is the number of the full sheet it came from.
- 2
  Check the edges of the stamps or block of stamps to see if there are any straight edges rather than all perforated edges. If the margin has been removed from the block of stamps or it came from the center of the sheet you will not be able to identify the plate position. You can determine this position by observing which edges have a straight edge rather than perforated edges. A straight edge on the bottom will indicate it came from the bottom of the full sheet. If there are straight edges on two sides this tells you that it came from either the top or bottom corners, either the left or right depending on which sides the straight edges are on.
- 3
  Check the margins that are attached to the block of stamps to see if the three squares by three squares diagram is there. Determine which block is filled in. This indicate the position that the block of stamps was printed in on the full sheet.

Stamp Collecting