Stereotypes and electrotypes

[Berni17]

Years ago a friend of mine wrote a topic about the engravings I want to show you. Here is a small excerpt.

Stereotype heels (Stereotypen-Stöckel) are made of relatively soft type metal. If they initially delivered very nice prints, after only a short period of use, they became severely worn, which resulted in unclean prints.

Large plate errors are therefore found more frequently in the stereotypes (especially Type I stamps). A succession of plate defects in a heel (Stöckel) can also be determined by comparing the corresponding stamps.

In order to cover the soft stereotype heels (Stereotypen-Stöckel) with a harder metal layer, galvanoplastic processes (= electrotypes) were tried out. The results were insufficient, which
is why the stereotype method was used again in the meantime. Later, however, the production of the electrotypes had matured to such an extent that only this method was used.

The trick was to get a metal coating that was as thin but hard as possible, which still allowed for detailed prints. This probably explains the 2x and 3x engraving of the background of the coat of arms, which was necessary to make the background of the coat of arms appear dotted despite the additional metal coating.

Gravuren.jpg

The double and triple re-engraving relates exclusively to Type III marks and is only used there as a basis for plating.

When re-engraving, particular attention is paid to the fields marked in the image.

Gravurfelder.jpg

Here is another example of the double and triple stylus guidance from the Kainbacher manual.

Stichelführung 2-fach.png

Stichelführung 3-fach.png

An overview of the plates and types of Lombardy-Venetia,
as they are called in German-speaking countries.

Plattenübersicht.jpg

Example: 15 C Ty IIa/2 = Plate 2

Regards Bernhard

Rev LB Dec 2022