Forgeries for postal use

One of the most characteristic facts of the Napolitan issue is the huge numbers of forgeries of that time to cheat the postal service. In the overall panorama of the Old States and of the old international philately this is not an exclusive characteristic; what if indeed noticeable is the amount really huge of samples produced. Just for the value of the 20 grana the forgeries of that time are more common than the original pieces!
The printing of these forgeries, very coarse, is very easy to detect both for the engraving not precise and approximate as well as for the color shades completely different. They have been printed in engraving using plates probably made of copper containing only one impression: this is evident from the fact that there are no multiples of these forgeries as well as there are no pieces showing parts of adjacent stamps.
Several were the forgery types prepared for the various values and often the plates were also revisited with improvements.
They were printed on hand made paper found on the local market, papers of different types, without watermark; some occasional partial manufacturer mark can be found but the original watermark was never cloned.
The margins of these pieces are often irregular and narrow, most probably because they were cut one by one: so, to find pieces with good margins is not an easy task.
The forged values were the 2, 10 and 20 grana: most of these parts were used in Naples and so huge diffusion lets to think that there was probably some complicity by not so honest postal workers.
The oldest known date of use is June 18th 1859 (2 grana) and the most recent is September 29th 1861 (20 grana)
Some parts are, as said, rather common, while other are very rare: very rare when brand new and
on envelope not so common.

Here are in detail these forgeries: because I don't have of my own original samples of all types I will use some example, even if not of high quality, obtained from catalogues and books: I will be very grateful to everybody who can offer to me images of missing examples.
Note: I identify only the main elements needed to distinguish the different types even if the number of peculiar details is huge, just because of the coarse manufacturing quality. I will leave on the side also the color details and the printing type because as can be seen from the images they cannot be confused with the original. Very detailed explanations can be found in the unbeatable works of Emilio Diena (cfr. section "Bibliography").

2 GRANA

Three type are known and catalogued.
The first one present the missing dots after the "G" and has the number "2" in very high position and bent to the left. Two varieties are known: the first one has the background white, without any color spot while the second one, more common, has the background in the whole full of spots and color dots (Fig. 1).
The second type presents the dots after the "G" even if sometimes not so visible (specially the lower one). The number "2" is in lower position, bigger and straight (Fig. 2).
The third type, obtained from the matrix revisited of the first type, is again without dots (as in the first type) but the number "2" is bigger and different. The first "N" of "NAPOLETANA" is also smaller (Fig. 3).

Fig. 1: first type, second variation	Fig. 2: second type
Fig. 3: third type (picture from "Catalogo Sassone Specializzato" ed. 2002)

10 GRANA

Five types are known and catalogued.
The first type has a color dot after the last "A" of "NAPOLETANA" and has the top right corner smoothed (Fig. 4).
The second type has a color trait inside the "O" of "10" and the top right corner not smoothed (Fig. 5).
The third type has the words "BOLLO DELLA" more close to the frame line underneath, in comparison to the original stamp, the "0" of "10" is perfect and does not stretch out of the corner of the upper frame (Fig. 6).
The fourth type has the two dots after the "G" not in line, with the lower one shifted to the right; the "G" has a peculiar shape too (Fig. 7).
The fifth type has the dots after the "G" missing or just barely visible; on the top, outside the stamp, on the right of "A" of "POSTA" there is always a color dot very evident (Fig. 8).

Fig. 4: first type	Fig. 5: second type (picture from "Catalogo CEI" ed. 2001)

Fig. 6: third type	Fig. 7: fourth type
(pictures from "Catalogo Sassone Specializzato" ed. 2002)

Fig. 8: fifth type

20 GRANA

Seven (!) types are known and catalogued.
The first one has the "D" of "DELLA" very small in relationship with the other letters and the vertical traits at left of this word is very spaced; very often has a dot after the "O" of "BOLLO". It is the rarest of all the forgeries (Fig. 9).
The second one has a color dot between the "P" and the "O" of "NAPOLETANA"; at the left of the "D" of "DELLA" the vertical line of the triangle enters in the white part of the frame; the lower left angle with lines bent to right; to the left of the letters "OL" of "NAPOLETANA" in the external border, there is an engraving mark. Two varieties of this forgery do exist: the first one has more clear printing, lower border white and left margin with vertical row of color separated from the stamp border; the second one has the bottom margin with a color line and the left margin colored line touches the stamp edge (Fig. 10-10a).
In the third type the left external vertical line goes beyond the horizontal one at the top; the triangle traits under the word "POSTA" are more close to each other and form almost a colored big spot (Fig. 11).
In the fourth type le numbers "2" and "0" are clearly more spaced; as in the previous type the vertical left external line goes beyond the horizontal one even if for a smaller length (Fig. 12).
The fifth type has the horizontal upper external frame line that goes beyond the vertical one; the upper horizontal lines of the two upper triangles are at different height (the left one is lower) - Fig. 13 -
The sixth type has the word "DELLA" placed apart from the lower border raw and more close to the upper one; the internal rhombus of the frame has the lower left line that goes beyond the tip of the rhombus itself; the group of letters "GRA" is very much to the right and close to the rhombus line of the internal frame (Fig. 14).
In the seventh type the "0" of "20" is small and open at top; the "G" of "GRA" has a particular shape with the horizontal trait that ends at right well beyond the vertical with the upper curved part of the letter (Fig. 15).

Fig. 9: first type
(picture from "Catalogo Sassone Specializzato" ed. 2002)

Fig. 10: second type, first variety	Fig. 10a: second type, second variety

Fig. 11: third type	Fig. 12: fourth type
(pictures from "Catalogo Sassone Specializzato" ed. 2002)

Fig. 13: fifth type	Fig. 14: sixth type

Fig. 15: seventh type