We
saw already for other Duchies, like Lombardy-Venetia and Modena, that the
plate faults are a characteristic of these stamps. Tuscany is not an exception
and presents itself with a large number of faults during its issue. The plates
of the two issues of the "Marzocco", that were printed with
the same stereotypes, went often through some "maintenance"
interventions due to the wearing of the stereotypes or of the shift of their
position on the plate.
The job of repair, repositioning and substitution of the prints not always
were done with the due attention and for this reason several plates got permanent
damages.
Some of these damages were due to the reshuffling of the stereotypes on the
plate, may be due to heavy hammer hits to force them in position (see fig.
1-2-3-4 of the below scheme); in other cases we are dealing with fusion
faults or wearing of the plates.
Some fault is present in several issues and on all their values. Let's not
forget that in fact the starting point was always a plate with its value part
mobile, therefore the same stereotypes were used to print all the plates for
all the values. If one plate was carrying a fault and was not substituted
that plate was leaving its "mark" on all the different values. Much
less is instead the number of plate faults found in the issues of the Provisional
Government, just some border slightly irregular and some recurrent printing
faults (Fig. 1).
 |
 |
|
Fig.
1: constant plate fault
in the Provisional Government issue
|
|
Several authors studied these faults and published their works. A pamphlet
very interesting and clear, from which I extracted the below images, is the
one made in 1980 by Cesco Giannetto and published by "Centro Filatelico
Internazionale" in Milan.
In the table here below I present the main and more evident faults that can
be seen on the stamps and I have outlined in red color the specific detail
in discussion: others faults do exist: they are of minor importance or not
repetitive (Fig. 2).
Fig.
2: a little constant plate fault
in the 2 Soldi value
There
are also three images of official printing essays already showing the faults
(Fig. 3 to 5).
At the end, I used the usual Java applet where is possible to select the desired
stamp and see the fault.
 1 - Upper left corner pressed down |
 2 - Left border dented |
 3 - Lower left corner presed down |
 4 - Lower right corner pressed down |
 5 - "L" faulted and deformed |
 6 - "T" faulted and deformed |
 7 - "N" faulted and with a spot |
 8 - "CO" broken by a line |
 9 - First "L" looking like a "T" upside down |
 10 - Printing fault between leg and shield |
 11 - Color line under the nose |
 12 - Back partially missing |
 13 - Big missing part on the centre |
 14 - Small mssing part on the centre |
 15 - White bent row on the back |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Fig.
3-4-5: three official essays of the 2 Crazie,
where plate faults are already well evident The first one with fault nbr 15, the second one with fault nbr 10, last one with fault nbr 3 |
|
Select the image from the left list to see the stamp
|
|
