The
coat of arms "original"
and the "revisited" one
By introducing the first issue of the Lombardy-Venetia it has been highlighted how do exist several types and sub-types of various stamps, that differ for small details.
Between the various elements that get a "maquillage" one of the most important, if not the most important, is the central coat of arms.
The usage of the printing plates, that were used to produce a huge number of parts, brought a quick and very visible wear of the plates themselves, from which came out a constant degrading of the final quality of the stamps that became more and more bad looking and muddy to the viewer.
For this reason the "original" coat of arms and, in particular, the background dots were remade: this operation is called "revisiting" or "re-engraving" operation.
Here in schematic way I show what type of coat of arms can be found in each value.
Stamp Type/Subtype Paper type Coat of arms type 5 centesimi - Handmade Original 5 centesimi Recto - verso Handmade Original 10 centesimi - Handmade Original 10 centesimi - Machine made Cleaned 15 centesimi 1st Handmade Original 15 centesimi 2nd - vermilion Handmade Original 15 centesimi 2nd - pink Handmade Original 15 centesimi 3rd Handmade Cleaned 15 centesimi 3rd Machine made Cleaned 15 centesimi 1st Ribbed Original 15 centesimi 2nd Ribbed Original 15 centesimi 3rd Laid Cleaned 30 centesimi 1st Handmade Original 30 centesimi 2nd - dark brown Handmade Cleaned 30 centesimi 2nd - lilac brown Handmade Cleaned 30 centesimi 2nd Machine made Cleaned 30 centesimi 1st Ribbed Original 45 centesimi 1st Handmade Original 45 centesimi 2nd - slate blue Handmade Original 45 centesimi 2nd - blue Handmade Cleaned 45 centesimi 1st Ribbed Original 45 centesimi 2st Machine made Cleaned
The more obvious question is now how to distinguish the two coat of arms types...
I show here two stamps: the left part has the original coat of arms while the one to the right has the revisited one (Fig 1 - 1a).
Fig. 1: "ORIGINAL" coat of arms Fig. 1a: "CLEANED" coat of arms
Here listed are the main differences between the two coats of arms:
In the high part of the original coat of arms we can see a clean thin white line without the presence of dots on the background, in the revisited one this line is often non existent and occupied by dots; sometimes nevertheless this white space is found also in the revisited coat of arms (for instance in 30 centesimi of the second type is often there). In the original coat of arms the two dots under the eagle right paw are always connected creating a small curved line. In the revisited one the two dots are always separated. This is may be the main detail to identify the two types. In the original coat of arms the lower curve of the shield and the first external leave are often (but not always) connected and form a thick and full of color curve; in the revisited coat of arms that curve looks sometimes not full and we can see some white space between the shield and the first leave of the border.
Several other very small details differ between the two coats of arms but the elements just mentioned, together with all the others that characterize the first issue stamps (type, sub-type, color, printing, spacing, paper etc) make the identification relatively simple.
It should anyway outlined how in samples with very heavy or smeared inking the drawing details tend to connect to each other and to be not so identifiable. Even in this case a bit of experience and the possibility of comparison between several samples are very useful (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2: an original coat of arms that... is not so original!
In cases like this one the determination of the coat of arms type
should be made by considering other elements (paper, type, printing etc)
This sample shows also the variety "coat of arms in relief" described in another "Going Deep".