The 2nd issue - general introduction

The 2nd issue of the Tuscany postage stamps, in date 1857; it is in reality just a change of watermark.
There are no Decrees or official acts that state the birth; as often was the case at that time, if the variation did not imply evident changes for the people, it was not necessary to issue an official Decree.
In relationship to the general technical characteristics, I invite you to go to the first issue introduction, without repeat them here.
As said, the main variation was the watermark and even in this case the reason is not known: it is guessed that it has been done to avoid pieces printed without the watermark. But this is just an hypothesis.
The new watermark is constituted by a carpet of waiving lines that cross each other with at the center in diagonal the label "II E RR POSTE TOSCANE" (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: the "lines" watermark as it presents itself in the sheet and in the stamp (the photo of the sheet is taken from the magazine "Vaccari Magazine", nr. 24, November 2000)

The paper used was of worse quality in comparison with the one of the first issue and it is not rare to find pieces cut by the watermark pressure. The shade of the paper is less variable also for the lesser period of use of these stamps and therefore for the less printing runs. It is always of whitish or grayish color, average thickness or thin. Always in relationship with the shade, there is who sustains that it was placed in water while others claim that the paper was instead colored when still in paste. Personally I feel to sustain this second hypothesis because the soaking of paper in water I believe that it should have brought severe damages to the paper itself. The colors are generally softer in comparison to the corresponding ones of the first issue.
To be noticed also the fact that these stamps have in general a smaller dimension that the previous ones (fractions of millimeter) not because different stereotypes have been used but because the paper got shrunk during the printing and drying processes.
As said, there are no official Decrees of the issue and therefore I present there the scheme of the values issued specifying the first date of use known as this time.