Naples Provisional
There were a few stamps sold in Naples in 1861, after the start of the Kingdom of Italy, but before the new kingdom produced its own stamps. They all depict a silouette or effigy of the new king, Vittorio Emanuele II. The image of the king is made by embossing the paper. This was used to reduce the possibility of forgeries, or at least to not make it as cost effective to print your own stamps.
These stamps were used in the Naples region and in Sicily. The primary currency of these regions was the piastra, a large silver coin. In common use was the grano (grana plural), a silver coin, of which 120 were worth a piastra. The tornesel – tornese in Tuscan – was the name of the copper coins, which were worth half a grana. On some of these stamps you’ll see the values are in grana and tornese. Some have values shown as C, centesimi (i.e., cents). I’m not sure how this equates to the currency of the region. When the new kingdom takes hold, though, the lira is introduced along with the centesimo (i.e., one-hundred centesimi equals a lira). Perhaps these stamps in cents were introduced after that point and the ones in grana and tornese were from before the new currency.
Note
The catalog numbers of these stamps are in sequence from the previous page, Peninsular Sicily. The stamps on both pages were issued for use in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. The ones of this page were issued in 1861 after Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered the kingdom on behalf of the king of Sardegna, Vittorio Emanuele II. However, it was not yet part of Sardegna and the face amounts were in the currency of the region: grano or the plural, grana; and the more minuscule, tornese for the lowest amount. They were printed in Torino and are embossed with the king’s silouette.
Contains 8 spots: own 8 – 8 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Nov 17, 2023
Stamp Details
The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.
spot |
own |
catalog |
subject |
description |
comment |
Provisional Government
✓ |
17 |
½t (feb 1861) |
|||
✓ |
18 |
½g (feb 1861) |
|||
✓ |
19 |
1g (feb 1861) |
|||
✓ |
20 |
2g (feb 1861) |
|||
✓ |
21 |
5g (feb 1861) |
|||
✓ |
22 |
10g (feb 1861) |
|||
✓ |
23 |
20g (feb 1861) |
|||
✓ |
24 |
50g (feb 1861) |
Footnotes
Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.
