5 centesimi	Black
20 centesimi	Blue
40 centesimi	Pink

In origin also a value of 80 centesimi was planned, but it was not done.
The subject is the Vittorio Emanuele II effigy, in profile, facing right, obtained from the circulating gold coins, inserted in a colored oval. All around there is a double rectangular frame with the labels (from left) "FRANCO", "C. POSTE 0.5" "BOLLO", "C. CINQUE". Obviously the labels "0.5" and "CINQUE" change depending on the values. Around that there is a frame made by small pearls. In the curved corners formed by the oval with the first frame and in the 4 corners of the double rectangular frame, there are small decoration ornaments.
The issue was supposed to be printed in typography, but due to the hurry to do the work the assignment of the job went to a lithographer from Turin Francesco Matraire, for the payment of "5 Lire each 1,000 delivered stamps and 2.50 Lire for each steel cancellation tool". He was the designer, engraver and producer of the issue. He did the drawings in lithography on stone because he did not have any typographic machines. The drawing war engraved very skillfully, and interesting, in independent way for the three values, so they differ in several small details. The printing was made in sheets of 50 pieces, divided in 2 groups of 25 (5x5) placed side by side and separated by a group inter-space of about 5.5 millimeters. It is known the existence of some couple with inter-spacing; it's a great rarity.
And let's discuss the headaches.
The used printing system was not constant; at the beginning Matraire duplicated the original matrix as many times as the stamps (therefore 25 duplications for each of the two groups). This originated sharp and well-detailed printings, typical of the very first printing runs. Later on, to go faster, also because the demand of stamps was probably growing, he prepared a composition of 25 pieces without starting from the original engraving. From this new matrix that he kept as main stone he obtained others for the various printing of 50 and 100 parts each sheet (2 or 4 groups of 25), printing the entire block in one step (and therefore 2 or 4 steps for each sheet). These subsequent duplication operation were not identical and constant in time, to the point that some signs, some of them really minor, allow for their identification Besides that the quality of the plates so obtained was clearly worse in comparison with the first printing run. There are also some revisions made directly on the stones that sometimes make the situation even worse. The printing stones wear out forced sometimes to substitute completely some element. In the general cards of the various stamps there are no details on the printing runs classification and on the duplications, often not even mentioned by catalogues due to the subject complexity: I will limit myself on the description of the typical stamps. For the curious ones the subject will be discussed more extensively in the section "Going Deep". To be complete in my exposition I have to report that a recent study by F. Lucini maintains that the qualitative difference between the different printings isn't due to the two different system used but only to the fact that, at the beginning, the paper ready to be printed was moistened: with this system the colour fixed itself better on the paper with an aesthetically better result; afterwards this system was given up to "speed" the production. Unfortunately I haven't the technical competence to form an opinion about this problem.....

Matraire took care of inserting two small secret signs in his work, to distinguish them from eventual forgeries. They are two small pearls of the frame that are completely white: they are above "TE" of "POSTE" and the seventh from the bottom on the right side (Fig. 1). It happens frequently that, due to the inking these pearls look similar to the others.

Fig. 1: the two pearls always white, secret sign of the engraver

The stamps are printed on machine made paper, of average thickness, of very good implementation and enough constants in time, without watermark. The color shades that we find are variable.
The quantity printed is unknown but from the very detailed Rattone manual we can find the parts sold, as follows (data are absolutely indicative):

5 centesimi	<250.000
20 centesimi	<900.000
40 centesimi	<90.000

There are neither particular varieties nor reprints: the ones circulating on the market are forgeries.
They were valid up to September 30th 1853.