5 CENTESIMI

As stated in the general introduction I will limit myself to list and represent (when I have available the images) only the basic color families, leaving out all the infinite catalogues shades that I list a at the end of the page just for knowledge and completeness (click here to go to this section now). I adopted the scheme used by most catalogues to divide the shades on the basis of the year of issue. In the "Going deep" section is explaned how to distinguish the compositions used during the different printing runs.
We must underline that not all the authors are in agreement to consider the 4th composition a real new composition, but simply a variation of the third one.... and other authors think that there are five compositions.....
ATTENTION: the stamps here presented do have just an INDICATIVE value in relationship to the color shades: any system composed by scanner + monitor + video will give back colors even quite different from the ones I have chosen. For this reason the scans in this page CANNOT be used as absolute reference but only as approximate indication of the shades.

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We can group schematically the 10 cents shades as follows:
(NOTE: some color shades are present in different years, printed with different printing runs)

Shade	Used from	Composition	Image
Green yellow	July 1855	1st	- - -
Emerald green	July 1855	1st	Fig. 1
Pea green	August 1855	1st	- - -
Myrtle green	February 1857	1st	Fig. 2
Dark green	February 1857	1st	Fig. 3
Yellow green	July 1857	1st	Fig. 4
Brilliant yellow green	March 1859	2nd	Fig. 5
Yellow green	August 1858	3rd	Fig. 6
Yellow green (def. printing)	June 1859	3rd	Fig. 7
Olive green	October 1859	3rd	Fig. 8
Olive green	March 1861	4th	Fig. 9
Dark green	February 1862	4th	Fig. 10
Yellowish/olivaceus green	March 1862	4th	Fig. 11
Green	July 1862	4th	Fig. 12
Bright/deep green	January 1863	4th	Fig. 13

 

Fig. 1: emerald green shade, 1st comp.	Fig. 2: deep myrtle green shade, 1st comp.
(Back to the color-table)

 

Fig. 3: dark green shade, 1st comp.	Fig. 4: bright yellow green shade, 1st comp
(Back to the color-table)

 

Fig. 5: brilliant yellow green shade, 2nd comp. (it is quite impossible to show this peculiar shade that is clearly visible with radiant light)	Fig. 6: yellow green shade, 3rd comp
(Back to the color-table)

Fig. 7: yellow green shade (def. printing), 3rd comp.	Fig. 8: olive green shade, 3rd comp.
(Back to the color-table)

Fig. 9: olive green shade, 4th comp.	Fig. 10: dark green shade, 4th comp.
(Back to the color-table)

 

Fig. 11: yellowish green shade, 4th comp.	Fig. 12: green shade, 4th comp.
(Back to the color-table)

Fig. 13: bright green shade, 4th comp.
(Back to the color-table)

Catalogued color shades (as per Sassone, in branchets the composition)

Shades of 1855
Pale yelow green (I)
Yellow green (I)
Dull yellow green (I)
Pea green (I)
Emerald green (I)
Yellowish emerald green (I)
Dark emerald green (I)
Graysh emerald green (I)

Shades of 1857-58
Myrtle green (I)
Bright myrtle green (I)
Dark myrtle green (I)
Dark green (I)
Yellow green (I)
Dark yellow green (I)
Bright yellow green (I)
Olivaceus yellow green (I)
Yellow green, confused printing (I)

Shades of 1859
Brilliant yellow green (II)
Yellow green (III)
Bright olive green (III)
Olive green (III)
Bright graysh olive green (III)
Yellow green, defective printing (III)
Dark olive green (III)

Shades of 1861
Olive green (IV)
Bright olive green (IV)
Graysh olive green (IV)
Yellowish olive green (IV)

Shades of 1862
Dark green (IV)
Yellowish green (IV)
Pale yellowish green (IV)
Olivaceus green (IV)
Bronze green (IV)

Shades of 1863
Dark green (IV)
Green (IV)
Pale green(IV)