The 1st and 2nd issue - general introduction
Note:
please note that I preferred to unify the introduction and presentation of the
1st and 2nd issue parts because they are identical in the drawing and different
only for the type of printing and for the issue period. I hope to be forgiven
by the specialists....
The date of issue of the Parma postage stamps (like the one of the Modena)
goes back to June 1st 1852.
The stamps, rectangular, represent the Borbonic Lily enclosed in a circle with
lines in the background with on top the Duchy Crown. All this is enclosed in
a double rectangle containing at top the label "STATI PARM." and at
the bottom the value indication, on the left and on the right there are two
greek lines. Before this set another drawing has been prepared representing
the lily enclosed in a coat of arms but the Vienna experts suggested to avoid
it because too easy to be copied and falsified.
The minting die, unique and without the value, has been engraved by Donnino
Bentelli: from the minting die the brass stereotypes for the typographic printing
have been obtained .The printing was done in sheets of machine made paper with
a matrix assembled on wood, comprehending 80 prints in 4 groups of 20 (4 rows
of 5 pieces; the value indication was inserted using mobile characters. Between
each group there is an inter-space of about half-centimeter. The printing was
done by Stefano Rossi-Ubaldi from Parma in the rooms of the Postal Administration
(even if probably the Postal Administration itself made the first printing run).
The outcome of the value was not at all great Several printing runs were done
with different inking uniformity, both for the chromatic shades, very variable,
and for the ink type, often too fluid, that created printings practically not
understandable and indistinguishable in the details (particularly for the samples
in white paper, it is not rare to find pieces with labels or part of the drawing
absolutely not visible)
These stamps were printed both in black on colored paper and in colored on white
paper.
The whole is as follows:
|
Value
|
Color
|
Printing
& paper
|
Used
from
|
Issue
|
|
5 centesimi
|
Yellow
|
Black
on colored paper
|
June
1st, 1852
|
1st
issue
|
|
5 centesimi
|
Orange-yellow
|
Colored
on white paper
|
December
31st, 1853
|
2nd
issue
|
|
10 centesimi
|
White
|
Black
on white paper
|
June
1st, 1852
|
1st
issue
|
|
15 centesimi
|
Pink
|
Black
on colored paper
|
June
1st, 1852
|
1st
issue
|
|
15 centesimi
|
Vermilion
|
Colored
on white paper
|
December
30th, 1853
|
2nd
issue
|
|
25 centesimi
|
Violet
|
Black
on colored paper
|
June
2nd, 1852
|
1st
issue
|
|
25 centesimi
|
Brown
|
Colored
on white paper
|
May
28th, 1855
|
2nd
issue
|
|
40 centesimi
|
Blue
|
Black
on colored paper
|
June
3rd, 1852
|
1st
issue
|
In relationship with
the values printed on colored paper, this one, as said, was not homogeneous
in the various printings. For the 5 centesimi we have yellow or orange yellow
or greenish yellow. For the 15 centesimi we can find it in pink, light pink
and pale pink. For the 25 centesimi is enough uniform and for the 40 centesimi
is bot in blue and light blue. The thickness is not constant too, especially
for the values of 10 and 15 centesimi.
Between the most known varieties there is the variety called "with
wide greek line"; in fact for a defect of the stereotype reproduction,
samples with one of the two (or both) vertical greek lines clearly wider (see
"Going Deep" section) can be found. There are also double
printings, offsets, tête-bêche couples (is the 9th piece of the
lower left group of the 15 centesimi on white paper: it's very rare) and printing
essays used as postage stamps.
The quantities of the amount printed are known just by guess. They are
with some approximation the following (other sources give
for some cases different numbers):
|
5 centesimi
|
Black
on colored paper
|
455.000
|
|
5 centesimi
|
Colored
on white paper
|
96.000
|
|
10 centesimi
|
Black
on white paper (*)
|
385.000
|
|
15 centesimi
|
Black
on colored paper
|
680.000
|
|
15 centesimi
|
Colored
on white paper
|
160.000
|
|
25 centesimi
|
Black
on colored paper
|
160.000
|
|
25 centesimi
|
Colored
on white paper
|
80.000
|
|
40 centesimi
|
Black
on colored paper
|
130.000
|
As can be noticed,
the samples printed on white paper are much more rare.
They were placed out of validity July 31st 1859, as all the Parma stamps.