Field determination (philately)
Field determination is the assignment of the positions on the printing sheets or printing plates of a postage stamp . The term “plating” that is occasionally encountered is actually incorrect and comes from a wrong translation of the English term “plating”.
The respective row and column or the consecutive number in the printed sheet and the respective printing plates used are determined. This is made possible by the fact that every position and plate has different characteristics. For example, imprints can be of different sizes depending on the printing plate or they can have an individual print image. A distinction must be made between a new determination of previously unknown features or a later assignment of trademarks to already known features. The field numbers begin with the arcs at the top left and are then counted down row by row, starting with number one.
The determination was sometimes still relatively easy, at least with older manufacturing processes, because some of these were engraved individually, field by field, and were often printed with just a single ink. With modern manufacturing methods, a complete, subsequent field determination is hardly possible anymore because the brands are too similar. It becomes particularly difficult if different printing techniques are used for the same brands or several printing plates are used, as is often the case today.
The determination is easier for sheet edge pieces or if complete sheets are available for comparison. The respective brand position is only very rarely printed directly on the stamp, such as the One Penny Black .
literature
- Brand position. In: Frank Arnau : Lexikon der Philatelie - Eine Enzyklopädie der Briefmarkenkunde, Lingen-Verlag Cologne, without year but after 1972, pp. 375–376