Unlike the rare Type I (Scott #5), which has a complete design, the Type II is identified by complete top and bottom frame lines but with the "balls" and lower plume ornaments at the bottom missing or "burnished off"

Interesting points

1) Scott #7 was printed from several plates (I Early, I Late, II, III, and IV). Notably, Plate III consisted only of Type II stamps and was retired early, making examples from this plate particularly scarce
2) The reason for the different "types" is that the original design was too large for the 200-subject printing plates. Engravers had to trim the outer ornaments of the design at the top or bottom to fit them onto the plate.
3) While it could be used for various rates, its primary "workhorse" role was paying the 1¢ fee for unsealed printed circulars (the 19th-century equivalent of "junk mail") and "drop letters" delivered within the same town.

How to read plate positions?

The first indicator is a number indicates its position on the plate, so 3RIE would have come from the third stamp on the plate. The number can range from 1 to 100, there being 100 stamps on each plate.

The second indicator is either the letter R or L, R indicates the stamp came from the right pane, L for the left pane. The stamp was printed in sheets of 200, each sheet was further divided into two panes of 100. Hence 3RIE would have come from the right pane as the second indicator in 3R1E is the letter R.

The third indicator can be from numbers I (1) to XII (12). This indicator is always shown in roman numerals. There were twelve plates, there are no stamps from plate VI (6) as it was destroyed before printing began (no doubt it was flawed). For example stamp 4RIL would have come from plate one (1).

The last or fourth indicator is either the letter E or L. The letter 'E' indicate an early state of the plate, the letter 'L' indicates the late state of the plate. This indicator only applies to PLATE I, as it is the only one that has an early and late plate. The early plate is the original plate. After 11 months the plate became worn and 199 of the 200 positions were recut. 113 positions on the plate had both top and bottom lines recut, 40 positions had only the top line recut, 8 positions had only the bottom line recut, 11 positions had a double recut at the bottom and 4 positions had a double recut at the top.

How many plates were there?

There were twelve plates of the 1¢ Franklin made, plate six was never used, probably due to it being damaged in it's creation. Most of the plates were used for both the imperforate and perforated design. Some only produced one type or the other. For instance, plate 12 produced only perforated stamps and the early state of Plate 1 produced only imperforate stamps whilst plate I late (reconstruction) produced both imperforate and perforated stamps. Plate 4 was the last of the imperforate plates to be used.