Confederate BLOCK OF FOUR Two Cent De LaRue "Altered Plate" Stamp

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In October of 1861 the Confederate Postmaster General sent B. F. Ficklin to London, England to arrange for printing of Postage stamps. He contracted with Thomas De La Rue & Company to produce plates for printing one cent and five cent stamps. At that time Major Ficklin arranged for De La Rue to print quantities of stamps and deliver them along with the printing plates and a quantity of paper to the Confederacy. The shipment arrived around March or April of 1862. Since there was no one cent postal rate, these stamps were never placed on sale. On July 1, 1862 the Confederate Post Office Department changed the letter rate from five cents to ten cents. The Confederacy asked De La Rue to produce plates for a ten cent stamp and at the same time ordered plates for a two cent stamp. Since time was short De La Rue altered the five cent plates to ten cent plates and the one cent plates to two cent plates. These altered plates were shipped and arrived in the Confederate States but for some reason unknown no stamps were printed from these. The two cent plate was found in 1926 by August Dietz (Father of Confederate Philately) who printed a quantity of sheets in emerald green ink. Each of these stamps bear an indention in the paper along the border(s) caused by the pressure placed on the printing plate. This can be easily seen on the back as well read more

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