Background
The numbering of printing plates has long been a part of quality control in the printing process. That way, if someone at the printing plant notices a problem with the printing of a certain stamp, the plate number can be used to locate the proper plate or cylinder so the problem can be investigated.
In some cases, for instance the Penny Reds of Great Britain and modern United States plate number coils, the plate numbers appear in the stamps themselves, but the more common practice is to include the number in the margin of each sheet, sometimes alongside the name of the printer.
On coil stamps (stamps issued in a long band of single stamps with the edges imperforate) a plate number sometimes is printed on the margin of a stamp, which collectors refer to as a plate number coil. Mint plate number coil stamps are most often collected as strips of three or five with the stamp with the plate number at the center of the strip.
Read more about this topic: Plate Block
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)