Some comments on Admiral Plate Flaws

Other than a brief 1987 publication by Hans Reiche, little information—and even fewer images—have been made available on plate flaws of the Admiral Issue. In his comprehensive 1982 study, Marler provided extensive details on re-entries and retouches but described only a handful of actual flaws.

The Unitrade Catalogue (2025-2026) lists just five Admiral plate flaws: the “shilling mark” on the one-cent green (sheet and coil), the “N” and “V” flaws of the seven-cent brown, a cracked plate variety of the fifty-cent denomination and a transfer in the 'N' of Cents on the two cent green endwise coil.

Note: The 'N' and 'V' flaws occur many times on the plate. They are both quite common when compared to most other plate flaws.

Yet, the Admiral Issue was printed from a large number of plates—over 200 for the one-cent value alone. Close examination quickly reveals that the Admirals abound with printing flaws. The plan is to document many of these constant varieties and to encourage collectors to share and compare their findings.

In 2013 (The Admiral’s Log, Vol. XIII, No. 1, p. 13), a simple zone system was proposed for describing the precise location of a variety on an Admiral stamp. That Zone System will serve as the foundation for discussing the location of interest on a stamp and will help with the efficient use of the site.