RI Issues Part I     RI Issues Part II     RI Issues Part III     RI Issues Part IV 
     
Plate Blocks

Plate Blocks are another area that many collectors specialize in. A Plate Number Block is a block of stamps (usually 4 or 6) with the attached portion of the sheet margin bearing the plate number. A plate number is an index number that is engraved in a plate from which the stamps are printed and is used to keep track of the plates. It is usually found on one of the corner margins. 
    
The USPS has "Changed the Rules."  Now, some issues have a set of different plate numbers all across the margin and there are Color Blocks, Zip Blocks and mass confusion as to what constitutes a Plate Block today. This is why as a rule, I no longer collect plate blocks. I do however have some plate blocks of Rhode Island issues and have scanned in a few of them to illustrate the differences in collecting Plate Blocks in the "Good Old Days" and trying to collect them now.
    
Note that the earlier issues are all plate blocks of 4 and that the two later issues from the 1980s had to be collected in a block of 12 and a block of 20 to get all of the plate numbers and other markings.

Tercentenary Issue (Poorly Centered)	Army-Navy Issue	Gilbert Stuart Issue
Automated Post Office	George M. Cohan Issue	Touro Synagogue Issue

RI Issues Part I     RI Issues Part II     RI Issues Part III     RI Issues Part IV 
     
Plate Blocks

This Page was added on April 19,  2003
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