Newfoundland ABN Plate Proofs of the 1897 Royal Family and 1908 2¢ Map Stamps

Notes:

1. There was only one printing of the red stamp. The colour was changed to green to accord with UPU regulations.
2. The first eight stamps in the bottom row are unpunched. This proof came from the Christie's ABN sale, but is not shown in Ed Wener's slides.
3. These three proofs were printed from an unnumbered plate of 200 stamps. The margin between the stamp rows is 3.5 mm. There are vertical guide arrows between the panes in the top and bottom margins. The shade of the stamps is yellow-green.
4. Pratt recorded the printing order date as 25 May 1898 [1]. This is evidently a typo for 25 Mar. because the ABN order book has an order entry of 1 Apr. 1898 for this printing. This is corroborated by the April 1898 date rubber-stamped on the proof. A printing of the 2¢ was ordered at the same time. Pratt records its printing order date correctly.
5. These proofs were printed from plate 2; however the plate number was engraved in the upper right margin sometime after the plate was put in production. It first appears on the proof dated 29 Aug. 1905. All these proofs have a plate flaw on stamp 185 (that is, the stamp in row 10, column 5 of the sheet) consisting of a line through the top left 1, which proves they were printed from the same plate. The margin between the stamp rows is 3.0 mm. This is smaller than the previous three proofs, and results in sheets whose height is smaller. The shade of the stamps is blue green.
6. There are no proofs for these three printing orders. Robert H. Pratt did not find an invoice for the 7 Nov. 1903 order, but he did find one for the other two.
7. There is no proof corresponding to the 24 Nov. 1904 printing order date. However, there is an undated proof with a printing order number F1767 in the top margin of the left and right sides. Printing order numbers appeared only on later printings. If they were applied in sequence, then this proof would have been printed after F1642 found on the 24 July 1908 proof of the 2¢ Map stamp and before F1908 on the 15 Mar. 1909 Map stamp. The style of the SPECIMEN overprint corresponds to that first found on the 29 Aug. 1905 proof. This suggests that the undated 1¢ proof was for the printing order of 24 Nov. 1908. The blue green shade of the proof also suggests a printing after June 1901. However, this proof does not have the flaw on stamp 185. Also, the spacing between the stamp rows is 3.5 mm and there is a vertical guide arrow between the panes in the top margin like on the first three green proofs. It appears that for some reason ABN reused the first, unnumbered plate of 200 to fulfil the 24 Nov. 1908 printing order.
8. This proof is printed from plate 3. The plate number is in the upper left margin. Unlike the other plates, plate 3 has a gutter between panes. The printing order number F2230 appears in the top margin of both panes.