Today in Postal History
This folded letter was struck with CDS in the town of Cuneo.
Cuneo is
about 75 km south of the destination of Torino (Turin).
The province of Cuneo has some beautiful
scenery.
The folded letter is franked with a single of the 20c. King
Victor Emmanuel II of 1855-63.
This is the correct flat rate for letters at the time.*
These imperforate stamps have a typographed
frame in color and a colorless, embossed portrait in the center.
I believe this one to be the indigo of 1857-58 (Scott 12d).
The other color choices are: light blue ('60-61),
Prussian blue ('59-60), sky blue ('55-56), and cobalt ('55).
Sassone lists a very dark blue 15C and a similar ultramarine indigo
15Bb.
It is suggested that the very dark blue is most likely.
The 1859 indigo Sassone 15Ab and dark indigo 15Ac
generally have clearer prints than this one appears to have. *
Note that someone has pencilled in a 13 VI 1860 at some time
in the past.
Clearly, the CDS show LUG which is short for Luglio (July) rather
than Giugno (June).
*Thanks to Paolo Bagaglia for his added comments regarding the rate, the stamps, and my typo.
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