Page 4 - Charles Shreve - William H Gross United States 1847 Issue

C. Plate Make-Up Sheets of 200 - Panes of 100
The Three Recorded Straddle Pane Pieces

The printers, RWH&E, used a 200-subject plate to print the 5~ and 10~ stamps. Although this is not confirmed by
contemporaneous documents, it is highly likely as the same printers printed Canadian stamps with the same plate size and
layout in the same time period. The Canadian Postal Archives owns a complete sheet of proofs of Canada's ftrst stamp
to prove the point. The US sheets were later cut into panes of 100 for distribution to post offtces. Until Elliot Perry
discovered the 10~ straddle pane copy it was widely held that the 1847 stamps were printed in sheets of 100. Both John
Luff and Carroll Chase subscribed to this belief.
The lqyout of the sheet of 200 subjeds
The Straddle Pane Stamps
OOOOOOOOEB 000000000
00000000 0- 000000000
1
00000000 0 1 000000000
OOOOOOOOrlO 000000000
1
OOOOOOOO[J:O 000000000
1
OOOOOOOOwO 000000000
1
oooooooowo I 000000000
DDDDDDDD D DDDDDDDDD Orange brown
1
ODDDDDOO D 000000000 From the 10' vertical row- left pane (L).
1
11
000000000 - 000000000
There are two recorded copies of the Sti and one of the JO{i. All three are in this exhibit

Brown - From the 1" vertical
row- right pane (R)
7.15 mm. center margin.
(Stamp lifted and unfolded
lo JbOI/I aJmplele margin)

Position 1R with double
transfer Type "A" with 8.5
mm. center margin and
portion of left pane stamp
(Position 10L). e