Call me by your number - 01c Black, red and blue pennies

From 1858 on, till 1869, new plates were issued, with red pennies, and blue 2 pence stamps.

Now the four corners have letters BA-AB for row A, column B.
There are 240 stamps in each plate, going from AA to TL.

For the 1 penny red:

Row R (18), stamp B (2)

Plate numbers are now mentioned in the left and right border decoration of the stamp.

The 1 penny red and perforated with 4 letters (one in each corner), had an extended life span.
They were printed from 1858 till 1879. Therefore, many plates were used, re-used, and retouched during those many years.

They started with plates 69 and 70, but due to many defects on the plate, those stamps were never printed. Same goes for plates 75, 126 and 128 - plate 77 was also rejected, but very few of the printed stamps did get into ciruclation and are therefore extremely rare.
A "77" is most likely a "117" or a "177",  or a completely forged stamp.

A much more challanging collection, is the compilation of a red penny (perforated) of each plate.
The total amount of issued, perforated red pennies, is 13,434,000,000 (55,975,000 sheets). 
So the amount of stamps is not the main problem.

But, first of all, plate numbers are not always very clearly printed, and greasy cancels will not make your search easier either. Plate numbers exist from plate 71 till plate 225.

Plate 225

With some help from the computer, the colours of the image can be altered, so that the contrast becomes more useful to determinate the plate number.
The stamp above leads me to plate 225 (or the last issued plate).

Two albums for possible collections :

plate numbers 1p

plate reconstruction 1p

For the 2 pence blue:

Row H (8), stamp F (6)

Plate numbers are now again in the left and right border decoration of the stamp.

Plate 8

The stamp above is from plate 8, the second plate used to print the 2 penny of this new series.
Plates 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 15 can be found.

These blue pence stamps are still affordable, and although 'old', they were emitted in such high quantities, about 196,824,000 (820,100 sheets), that they still can be found in (older) albums.

A full collection (240 of each plate), requires 1680 stamps.
More common is to compile a mixed sheet, with all plate positions.

However, feel free to collect them both : a reconstructed plate with all letter variations, and / or even more specific with stamps  .

Two albums for possible collections :

plate numbers 2p

plate reconstruction 2p

to be continued...

Call me by your number - 01b Black, red and blue pennies

A third variation of the Victorian pennies: are the perforated red penny and blue 2 pence.
They come in two variations, watermark small crown and watermark large crown, and perforation 14 or perforation 16.

As for now, all stamps mentioned here and in my previous post, have only two letters in the bottom of the stamp, and no plate number in the left and right margin.

These stamps are also called the red and blue 'star' penny.
The upper corners of the stamps don't have letters yet, but a decoration in a 'star' shape.
Again here, the specificy font of the alphabet, gives you an indication of the plate the were on, but plate numbers are not written on the stamps.

Also here, a sheet reconstruction is possible, compiling all 240 stamps from AA to TL.
It is also possible, to start two plate reconstructions for stamps with a large or a small crown watermark, as well as two plate reconstructions for stamps perforated 14 or perforated 16...

Red star penny plate reconstruction 

Blue star 2 pence plate reconstruction 

to be continued...

Call me by your number - 01a Black, red and blue pennies

A penny for your thoughts, but which one...
The 'first' (black) penny is unperforated, and has letters in the bottom corners only.

There were 11 plates, and plate I was divided into plate IA and IB.
It takes a whole study on its own, as the differences are found in the use of different fonts of the alphabet.

1 penny black

The total number of 1p blacks distributed in 1840 is recorded as 63,561,840... this isn't a low number, but in 1840 there were hardly people collecting stamps, and lots of stamps were lost.

2 pence blue

A 2 pence stamp was also issued in 1840.

It has the same features as the 1p, unperforated, letters in the lower corners only -> AA to TL

The total number of 2d Blues recorded as sold in 1840 is 5,382,240. (plates 1 and 2)

This 2p was issued again in 1841, now about 87,960,000 stamps (plates 3 and 4)

1 penny red

Second in line, are the inperforated 1p red pennies.

Total number issued over 2,588,000,000 of which it is estimated 120,000,000 were later perforated, leaving an approximate total of imperforate stamps of 2,468,000,000...

They were printed on plates 1 to 131, but the plate numbers do NOT appear on the stamps.

see link above for the album.

Therefore, I have made a 'basic' album for those who want to collect all letter combinations AA to TL, and another 'basic' album, for those who want to collect all plate number, regardless the corner letters.

full reconstruction of a sheet
source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black_printing_plates

I once had the opportunity to see a full reconstruction of a red penny plate. This was collected throughout many years, by one senior member of our stamp club, Peter.

First downloadable documents, are blank album, for all 240 pennies, with letters in 2 lower corners (imperforated).
The reason for this 'odd' number of 240, lies in the fact that till 1971, the imperial system was used.
1 British pound (£),  was worth 20 shillings, and one shilling was 12 pence.
Hence, each row of 12 black/red pennies, was worth one shilling, and all 20 rows together made the cost of one full sheet 1£.

Plate reconstruction 1 penny black

Plate reconstruction 2 pence blue

Plate reconstruction 1 penny red

It can be used for black and or red pennies, and also for the blue 2 pence stamps.
As the first stamps had no plate numbers printed on the stamps, it's very hard to compile a full sheet from the same plate.

to be continued....

Album pages common designs - 1. 1935 Silver Jubilee

The 1935 Silver Jubilee set is the first set with a common design for not less then 44 countries and territories, that are or were part of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
The group of 44 can even be extended with 18 more countries/territories, that issued stamps for the same anniversary, but who did not choose the same design.
Although strickly seen they are not 'common designs', I have added the stamps to the album, as they are often collected as part of the full set.

1935 Silver Jubilee CD 301

The set depicts the 25th anniversary of the reign of King George V, in 1935.
Besides the face of the king, we see Windsor castle.
The first group with exactly the common design, consists of 44 countries, each issuing 4 stamps.
In the extended group of 18 countries, we find issues with 2 stamps only, and issues with up to 7 stamps.
Both parts together, result in 245 stamps for this collection.

Below is a clickable link, to a PDF-file, with the full set on album pages.
(a free PDF-reader is needed to open the file)

CD 301 : Silver Jubilee 1935

The pages were made by me, with the AlbumEasy program.

screenshot PDF

A full, step-by-step course can be found on my blog, starting here https://rainbowstampsandcoins.blogspot.com/2021/04/making-your-own-album-00.html

This link leads to the introduction page, all further lessons can be found in the blog archive (lesson 1 to 40).

Please let me know in the comment section, if there are mistakes (size, information, ...), I will gladly update the file if necessary.
For those who work with AlbumEasy, and who want to alter fonts, page sizes (US) themselves, drop me a message too, and I will send the .txt-file for this album.

Please note that catalog numbers are omitted in the album, as they are depending on the used catalog.

to be continued ...

Making your own album 40 (final) - solving errors

click the 'Documents' header to see previous entries
https://rainbowstampsandcoins.blogspot.com/search/label/documents 

Last post on Album Easy 4.2.1

8      Errors

8.1     Errors when creating PDF:

Generating the Album ...

PDF generation error: Unable to write to file C:/Users/XXX/Documents/AlbumEasy/examples/Test Design 16.pdf.

Problem : a PDF with the same name is already open

Solution 1 : close the PDF with the same name

Solution 2 : give your design another name

8.2     Errors that prevent a script to be exectuted :

Error in line 54: Bad line continuation.

Problem : Page Text -command has an empty line

Solution 1 : omit empty lines in Page_text-command

Solution 2 :  close previous line with “ \ - start new line with “

Error in line 57: " ……. - Parameters require opening parenthesis.

Problem: programming line starts without any command

Solution : the “)” in the example above, closes the command, which was not necessary yet. Therfore, the rest of the command is neglected, as there is no “(“ to continue.
The “)” is not necessary on this spot, as it comes only at the end of the commandl

Error in line 58: PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE command - Parameters require closing parenthesis.

Problem : command line is wrongly terminated

Solution : “    \ should have been  “\

Error in line 59: PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE command - Quoted text expected.

The pm does not start with double straight quotes, (or there are too many double quotes).

Solution: re-write the text part as one continuing text.  Put \n where you want to start a new line. When no error occurs, you can split the tekst if you like.
Only if necessary for visual reasons, ,split the text part in your programming by adding a “\” between two lines in the programming code.
Each line should start with a black \ abd start with a blue “
 

PDF generation error: Error (1043) while processing the image file C:/Users/XXX/Documents/AlbumEasy/examples/decoration/deco corner leaf 02.png

The inserted image for a decorative corner is too large, and can’t be loaded.
Choose a smaller image. (less than 1 MB)

NOT to be continued...

previous part : https://rainbowstampsandcoins.blogspot.com/2021/05/making-your-own-album-39-overview.html

Making your own album 39 - overview important codes

7     Programming codes

7.1     Abbreviations

PM = parameter
mm = millimeter
pt = point
FT = font

W/E/N/S : West East North South
DSQ ; double straight quotes

7.2     For the whole document

7.2.1     Fixed data

ALBUM_PAGES_SIZE (210.0 297.0)

2 pm (in mm) : page size
210.0/297.0 for A4 – 215.9 /279.4 for US Letter

ALBUM_PAGES_MARGINS (15.0 15.0 15.0 15.0 )

4 pm (in mm) margins for work area : W/E/N/S

ALBUM_PAGES_BORDER (0.5 0.1 0.0 1.0)

4 pm (in pt) frame : line 1/ line 2 / line 3 / distance in-between

ALBUM_PAGES_SPACING (5.0 5.0)

2 pm (in pt) space between letters / space between lines

ALBUM_PAGES_TITLE (TB 16 "title text")

2 pm (FT and size) + “title text”

7.2.2     Variations on default settings

ALBUM_DEFINE_FONT(PENGUIN "Penguin Attack" )

2 pm (own FT + exact FT name in your computer”)

ALBUM_PAGES_MARGINSE (12.0 20.0 15.0 15.0)

4 pm (in mm) margins for work area, in EVEN pages, if different from ODD pages (default) W/E/N/S

7.2.3     Header and footer full document

ALBUM_PAGES_NUMBER (HN 12 C 1 "Page " " of $PAGES$")

6 pm FT and size, / location / “page” “ “ of (total number of pages)”

ALBUM_PAGES_DATE (HN 12 RL YMD "-")

4 pm (FT and size / RL (location) / Year Month Date(format) “devider“)

7.3     Working with paragraphs

PAGE_TEXT_PARAGRAPH_START(TN 10 LEFT*)   *LEFT or CENTRE or RIGHT:
PAGE_TEXT_PARAGRAPH_END

Only FT and size, and aligning -  no DSQ needed within ‘paragraph’ -command
to be combined with columns,

7.4     Working with columns

PAGE_COLUMN_START (2.0)

PAGE_TEXT_PARAGRAPH_START(HB 10 CENTRE)
PAGE_TEXT_PARAGRAPH_END

PAGE_COLUMN_NEXT

PAGE_TEXT_PARAGRAPH_START(HB 10 CENTRE)
PAGE_TEXT_PARAGRAPH_END

PAGE_COLUMN_STOP

7.5     Optional settings for chapters

PAGE_START_GROUP_BEGIN
PAGE_START_GROUP_END

Between BEGIN and END : all what we want to see as fixed or dynamic parts.

7.5.1     Fixed chapters

PAGE_TEXT(HN 1 "" 6.0)

Makes the fixed image placed a certain distance from the border frame
4 pm (FT and size , “ “ for the blank (empty) text line, distance to next line

ROW_START_JS(HN 6 0.1)

Mandatory command to create working lines – 3 pm (FT and size, spacing)

STAMP_ADD_IMG(42 21 "stamp_images/flag_canada.png" "" "" "" NO_FRAME)

7 pm for the inserted image:

·         Height and width in mm

·         Location of the image on computer “folder/name + extention”

·         subtext left, middle and right (texts between DSQ “xx”

·         choice between FRAME or NO_FRAME

PAGE_TEXT (HN 1 "" -22.0)

4 pm, FT and size / empty text “ ”/ negative spacing, so the text becomes next and not underneath the image

PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE(CPG 42 "Canada")

Entering text (next to image, thanks to the negative spacing)
3 pm, FT and size / “text” – mind the DSQ

7.5.2     Dynamic chapters (with the use of columns)

PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (HI 42 "France" 8.0)

PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (HN 13 $$1 1.5)  * settings reference $$1
PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (HN 13 "Definitive Series" 1.5)
PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (HN 13 $$2 7.0) * settings reference $$2

PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (HI 10 $$3 5.0) * settings reference $$3

PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (HN 1 "" 10.0)

PAGE_START_GROUP_BEGIN

PAGE_COLUMN_START

PAGE_TEXT(HN 1 "" 6.0)
ROW_START_JS(HN 6 0.1)
STAMP_ADD_IMG ($$4 $$5 $$6 "" "" "" NO_FRAME) * settings reference $$4, $$5, $$6
PAGE_COLUMN_NEXT
PAGE_TEXT(HN 1 "" -22.0)
PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE(CPG 42 "Canada")
PAGE_TEXT(HN 1 "" 12.0)
PAGE_COLUMN_STOP
PAGE_START_GROUP_END

Chapter  1 : PAGE_START ("replacement for $$1" "repl $$2" "repl $$3" 37.0($$4) 45.0 ($$5) "stamp_images/Sage.png" ($$6)

Chapter 2 : PAGE_START ("Merson Liberty and Peace" "1900 - 1927" "Designer - Nicolas Luc-Olivier Merson" 80.0 45.0 "stamp_images/Merson.png")

Up to $$9 (last 3 reserved for the image)

programming in AlbumEasy 4.2.1

7.6     For pages (mandatory command !)

PAGE_START

0 pm – needed to start a (new) page
PAGE_TEXT (HN 16 "free text")
PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (TB 12 "free text")

7.7     Using fonts

For the whole album
ALBUM_DEFINE_FONT (DJ "DejaVu Sans")

For use in text parts
PAGE_TEXT
PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (XX 99 “xxxx”)

7.7.1     Some fonts used in the tutorial

DJ : DejaVu Sans

HN : Helvetica (Normal)
HB : Helvetica (Bold)
TN : Times New Roman (Normal)
TB : Times New Roman (Bold)

CPG : CopperPlateGothic

PENGUIN : Penguin Attack

7.7.2     Using optional fonts

ALBUM_DEFINE_FONT (DJV "DejaVu Sans") – can work with Latin, Cyrillic and Hebrew

ALBUM_DEFINE_FONT(UN_BATANG "Un Batang") – for Chinese, Japanese, Korean

After installing fantasy fonts to your computer:

add the font(s) you like for your album to the album settings - with the chosen reference:
ALBUM_DEFINE_FONT(DALM "Dalmatian")
TIP :
Default fonts : 2  letters (HI, TB, …)
Optional fonts 3 letters (DJV, CPG, …)
Fantasy fonts : 4 letters (DALM, COLA, ….)

7.8     Using fixed colours

COLOUR_ALBUM_BORDER(colour name or  $ hexa-code)
COLOUR_PAGE_TEXT(colour name or  $ hexa-code)

7.9     Spacing texts

7.9.1     Within a text

TEXT_CHAR_SPACING (0.5)

1 PM, the spacing between letters (! DSQ)
PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (HN 16 "text")

7.9.2     Within paragraphs

PAGE_TEXT_PARAGRAPH_START(TN 10 LEFT)

Can be “left”, “right” of “centre” (no DSQ)

7.10  Boxes

7.10.1  Shapes

STAMP_ADD (Width and height "ABC" "D" "E" "F")

STAMP_ADD_DIAMOND (Width and height "ABC" "D" "E" "F")
STAMP_ADD_OVAL (Width and height "ABC" "D" "E" "F")
STAMP_ADD_TRIANGLE (Width and height "ABC" "D" "E" "F" [apex]) [apex] for trapezoid
STAMP_ADD_TRIANGLE_INV (Width and height "ABC" "D" "E" "F" [apex])

[apex] for inverted trapezoids
STAMP_ADD_HEXAGON (width SU/CU "ABC" "D" "E" "F")
STAMP_ADD_OCTAGON (width SU/CU "ABC" "D" "E" "F")

7.10.2   Box frames

STAMP_BORDER_STYLE (Style)

STAMP_INNER_BORDER_STYLE (Style)

SOLID - DOTTED - DOT_DASH - DASHED - BLANK (no border)

CORNER ** (TL / TR / BL / BR)

7.10.3  Box filling

STAMP_ADD_IMG (Width and height "naam.exentie" "A" "B" "C")
ALBUM_STAMP_NEW_IMG_SETTING (Width and height false / true) COLOUR_STAMP_BORDER (colour)

COLOUR_STAMP_INNER_BORDER (colour)
COLOUR_STAMP_BACKGROUND (colour)
COLOUR_STAMP_HEADING (colour)
COLOUR_STAMP_TEXT (colour)

to be continued... 

previous part : https://rainbowstampsandcoins.blogspot.com/2021/05/making-your-own-album-38.html
next part : https://rainbowstampsandcoins.blogspot.com/2021/05/making-your-own-album-40-final-solving.html