The
Roman States stamps, as many others of the Old Italian States, were printed
on paper without watermarks. In several cases indeed is possible to find strange
vertical lines, similar to thin segments, printed as watermark method.
This variety, not common but very undervalued by collectors, is present in
the stamps of the first issue; it's possible to find it also with some variations
in others old stamps.
The origin of these marks, that were defined "Stitch watermark",
should be found in the system of paper fabrication.
The paper dough was in fact put in planes and stretched with cylinders covered
with fabric.
The fabric of the cylinders did have a vertical stitching (it is not possible
to obtain a cylindrical fabric without stitching).
For that reason where the dough was pressed against the stitching this left
its own mark, under the form of a less thickness of the paper in that area.
Now, looking in transparency the stamps with this characteristic, this minor
thickness shows up as a set of segments clear and almost parallel.
To
this time we are aware of this unwanted "watermark" in the
first issue values, from half to the eight Baj.
I tried to show at best the front/back image of a piece with evident stitching
watermark, despite the difficulty to show it: the 3 red arrows indicate the
3 marks present on the piece (Fig. 1).
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Fig.
1: front/back of a 2 baj with evident "stitch watermark"
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