the numbers that appear on a printing <#plate>. These numbers are a part of the <#pllay=plate layout> and most typically appear one or more times on each printed <#pane>. Numbers were once assigned to BEP-printed plates sequentially, in ever ascending order, with the same number never being assigned twice. Such plate numbers appeared on <#sheet=sheets> printed at the <#bep=BEP> from 1894 through 1980, when the practice was changed. Beginning in 1980, plate numbers are <#repnum=Representative Numbers>.