15h – cracked printing plate at 11/II

Updated 24 June 2017

Plate cracks occur on several values of this issue, especially at marginal stamp fields where the risk of mechanical damage is naturally higher. While reconstructing the first and second plates of the 15h (POFIS no. 7) I came across a very interesting example of a cracked printing plate.

A pronounced crack of the upper-left corner occurs at field 11 of plate II. I believe it arose from damage to the plate during routine cleaning. Stamps with this damage are, in my view, scarce.

Field 11/II – imperforate, without the crack

Field 11/II – line perforation 13¾ : 11½ (F), with the crack

Field 11/II – imperforate, with the crack

Field 11/II – comb perforation 13¾ : 13½ (A), with the crack

Field 11/II – comb perforation 11¾ (B), with the crack (collection of Mr Jaroslav Michalík)

Field 11/II – perforation B, with the crack, in a block of six (collection of Mr Jaroslav Michalík)

Field 11/II – trial print in the rare line perforation 13¾ (C), crack in phase 3

Development of the crack

The crack developed gradually, as the images of the individual phases show:

Phase 0 – intact plate · Phase 1 – faint deformation · Phase 2 – the plate shows a crack · Phase 3 – the crack grows · Phase 4 – final phase

15h 11/II — occurrence of the crack phases in the individual perforations
Perforation	Phase 0 intact plate	Phase 1 plate not yet cracked, but shows deformation	Phase 2 plate shows the crack	Phase 3 the crack grows	Phase 4 final phase of the crack
imperforate	✓	✓		✓	✓
A	✓	✓			✓
B					✓
C	✓	✓
D	✓	✓	✓
E	✓	✓
F	✓	✓	✓

Addendum: an interesting article on this subject by Jaroslav Michalík was published on infofila.cz: infofila.cz – Hradčany: cracked printing plates.

Josef Matoušek (30 December 2014, updated 24 June 2017)