This plate is in a class of its own, as it was registered for the new printing of the stamps in red.

     The only black stamps ever printed from it is recorded as 700 sheets during the provisional printing, hence their rarity. The earliest known date for a used copy in black is the 4th February 1841.

     If this information is to be believed then the red stamps from state 1 must have only had the same production run as for the provisional printing in black. (Two days .. about 700 - 800 sheets). This would make them about as rare as the provisional black printings. This is not the case. Also the number of black stamps, (reported to have been a production of 700 sheets -- 23,600 stamps), avalible is far greater than this figure would suggest. We therefore believe that the plate was put to press on the 21^st January printing black stamps. On te 27^th this was changed to red and the registration sheet submitted in that colour. The plate was again used to complette the provisional printing order on the 1^st and 2^nd February, which is the reported 700 sheets.

     This plate was also used in April 1841 for printing eight sheets on Dickinson paper, about which the printers reported "the paper prints well and the colour is good, but not strong enough for the gumming process."

     A listing is also avalible showing all the put to press, registration and withdrawal dates.