The 15h printing plates
Seven printing plates of 100 stamp fields each were used for the 15h. They fall into three groups: the early plates I and II (closed spirals, brick red shades), the later plates III–VI (open spirals, vermilion and carmine shades), and the rare plate VII.
| Plate | Prevailing type | Shades | Documented perforations | Occurrence and rarity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plate I | IIs | brick red, brownish red, red | imperf, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H | Common plate — together with plate II it accounts for ≈51 % of the attributed stamps in the statistics (10,931 of 21,239 pieces). | gallery |
| Plate II | IIs | brick red, brownish red, red | imperf, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H | Common plate — together with plate I it accounts for ≈51 % of the attributed stamps; perforations C, D and E are the rarities here. | gallery |
| Plate III | Is | vermilion | A, B | Scarcer — plates III and IV together account for only ≈6.6 % of the attributed stamps (1,403 of 21,239 pieces); sought after. | gallery |
| Plate IV | Is | vermilion | A, B | Scarcer — together with plate III only ≈6.6 % of the attributed stamps; sought after. | gallery |
| Plate V | Is | carmine, vermilion | imperf, A, B, C | Common plate — together with plate VI it accounts for ≈46 % of the attributed stamps (9,813 of 21,239 pieces); usage peaked in spring 1920; perforation A is the scarcer one here (only ≈5 % of plate V–VI material — see statistics). | gallery |
| Plate VI | Is | carmine, vermilion | imperf, A, B, C | Common plate — together with plate V it accounts for ≈46 % of the attributed stamps; heavily worn towards the end of printing Perforation A is the scarcer one here (see statistics). | gallery |
| Plate VII | IIs | brick red, brownish red, red | imperf, A | Very rare — only 51 of 21,239 attributed stamps (0.24 %); the rarest plate of the 15h value. | gallery |
The complete library of reference images of all positions is in the position gallery.