One of the most important parts of the philatelic collections of the BPMA is the series of registration sheets of stamps from the Penny Black to the present day. All are public records and part of the Royal Mail Archive. These sheets are in the process of being catalogued and made available online. However, the size of the sheets is such that they cannot at the moment be scanned so images available are rather restricted. Anyone wishing to view the original sheets must make an appointment with the Curator, Philately. The next section provides an overview of these Victorian registration sheets, under which the Penny Black is categorised under.
Queen Victoria (1840-c.1870)
All Victorian registration sheets (sometimes called “imprimatur” sheets by collectors) are imperforate. There are no scans of any part of the original sheets. Included in this are, of course, all sheets of Penny Blacks in the collection (10 in total, though not every plate is represented) and all sheets of Twopenny Blues from the 1841 and 1858 types. No registration sheets exist for plates 1 and 2 of the original Twopenny Blue. Also included are those Penny Red sheets from 1841 onwards which exist (from plate 12 onwards – 206 in total) and the new series of Penny Reds from 1855 (a total of 106, but excluding plate 77) There are also a very small number of other values.
All Victorian registration sheets (sometimes called “imprimatur” sheets by collectors) are imperforate. There are no scans of any part of the original sheets. Included in this are, of course, all sheets of Penny Blacks in the collection (10 in total, though not every plate is represented) and all sheets of Twopenny Blues from the 1841 and 1858 types. No registration sheets exist for plates 1 and 2 of the original Twopenny Blue. Also included are those Penny Red sheets from 1841 onwards which exist (from plate 12 onwards – 206 in total) and the new series of Penny Reds from 1855 (a total of 106, but excluding plate 77) There are also a very small number of other values.
Stamps created and issues during the reign of Queen Victoria. Consists largely of registration sheets of stamps, Mulready postal stationery and items produced in connection with the 1879 Tender for the production of the 1d value. On completion of each printing plate, six proof sheets were produced in the issued colour on watermarked paper, one of which was submitted to Somerset House for approval. This registration sheet is known as the imprimatur sheet (meaning 'let it be printed'), and its endorsement authorised the use of the plate. The collection of registration sheets is not complete, and existing sheets had samples removed by officials at Somerset House, these stamps are identified by the term 'missing check letters' in the descriptions, referring to the corner letters which guarded against forgery and which identifiy the position of the stamp on the sheet. Registration sheets are not gummed and are normally imperforate.
You may wish to obtain more information from the BPMA here: http://catalogue.postalheritage.org.uk/dserve/dserve.exe?dsqServer=localhost&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Overview.tcl&dsqSearch=%28AltRefNo=%27POSt%20150%27%29
Source:
https://postalheritage.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/stamp-registration-or-%E2%80%9Cimprimatur%E2%80%9D-sheets-in-the-bpma-collections/
http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/archive-philatelic
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