FLOAT 100 · Stamps · No. 69
Naples 'Trinacria' (1/2 Tornese Provisional)
Garibaldi wanted cheap newspapers, Naples had no stamp at the new rate, so a printer punched a 'T' over the 'G' on a Bourbon plate and printed it in blue; the result, used for about a month, is one of the great rarities of the Italian states.
- Year
- 1860
- Maker
- Provisional Government (Dictatorship) of Naples
- By price in stamps
- 81 of 100
- What it is
- Naples 1/2 tornese blue, the 'Trinacria,' Sassone 15, a used example
- Issued
- Earliest known use November 6, 1860, accepted as the issue date
- Made by
- Altering plate II of the 1858 Bourbon 1/2 grano: the currency letter 'G' was punched over with a 'T'
- Name
- From Trinacria, the ancient Greek name for Sicily, whose three-legged emblem sits in the arms
- In use
- About one month, until the plate was re-engraved as the Savoy Cross, first used December 6, 1860
- Purpose
- Prepaying postage on newspapers at Garibaldi's halved rate
- Plate
- 100 subjects, each 'T' added by hand, so every position differs
- Forged
- All Naples stamps have been forged; the master forger Jean de Sperati copied the related Savoy Cross
A pink kingdom
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies issued its first stamps for the mainland, Naples, on January 1, 1858. All seven values, from 1/2 grano to 50 grana, were printed in the same rose color. According to the stamp writer L. N. Williams, the choice was political. Patriots were using the red, white and green of a future united Italy wherever they could, and King Ferdinand II's government feared that stamps of different colors could be combined on letters to make the forbidden tricolor.
The 1/2 grano paid postage on newspapers. Its design was a square with two circles, the inner one split into the arms of the Two Sicilies: a horse for Naples, three legs with a Medusa head for Sicily, and three Bourbon fleurs-de-lis. The band around it read BOLLO DELLA POSTA NAPOLETANA, with a 'G' for grano at the foot. One hundred grana equaled 200 tornesi, or one ducat.
The engraver Giuseppe Masini cut the dies and hid a secret mark, a letter of his name, in the border of each value. The stamps were printed in Naples by the De Masa (or De Maio) family of printers on paper watermarked with Bourbon fleurs-de-lis. The 1/2 grano was printed from two panes of 100, called plate I and plate II.
Garibaldi's newspaper rate
In May 1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily with his Thousand. King Francis II, on the throne since May 22, 1859, fled Naples, and Garibaldi's forces took the city on September 7. Garibaldi governed as dictator until early November, when power passed to Victor Emmanuel II after a plebiscite.
Williams describes Garibaldi as a believer in a free press. One of his first acts in Naples was to halve the postage rate for newspapers. A postal notice made prepayment compulsory and set the rate at 1 Italian centesimo, almost exactly half a Neapolitan tornese. It said stamps of that value were ready at the head post office and the main tobacconists, and would be used until Italian currency came in and the arms on the stamps could be changed.
No such stamp existed. Since two tornesi made one grano, the quick fix was to change the currency letter. The printer took plate II of the 1/2 grano and punched a 'T' over each 'G.' The work was done by hand, one subject at a time, so each of the 100 stamps on the plate differs from the others. The new stamp was printed in blue, a shade some collectors call Savoy blue, to tell it apart from the rose 1/2 grano.
One plate, three stamps
The Trinacria's earliest known date of use, November 6, 1860, is accepted as its date of issue. It lasted about a month. In that time an engraver worked over the plate again, scraping out the Bourbon arms on all 100 subjects. With a straightedge and a burin he cut in a white Cross of Savoy on a ground of vertical lines. Traces of the old arms still show on the cross.
The Savoy Cross was first used on December 6, 1860, in pale and deep blue shades, and remained current until February 1861, when the first stamps of the royal Italian post for Naples appeared. Williams calls the plate a very rare case in stamp production: one metal plate, altered twice by hand, used for three entirely different stamps.
Both blue stamps were used almost entirely on newspapers, which were usually thrown away, and that is why so few survive. Sound examples are scarce, and unused ones much more so. Some Trinacrias still show part of the old 'G' beside the 'T,' where it was not fully removed. A Trinacria with that feature, from the Ferrary and Burrus collections, was offered in a 2026 sale of a large group of these stamps.
From two pounds to a rarity
Collectors wanted the two blue stamps of Naples almost from the start. Both were in the first stamp auction ever held in Great Britain, in London on March 18, 1872. The Trinacria brought £2 and the Savoy Cross 9 shillings. By 1898 a standard British handbook valued a fine unused Trinacria at £50 and a used one at £15 or more, and the Savoy Cross at £5.
Because each of the 100 plate positions has its own 'T,' specialists can plate individual stamps. Sale listings often give the position, for example a used Trinacria with an expert's certificate, sold in Italy in 2022, identified as position 34 of the 100-stamp plate as reconstructed by specialists. Uses on wrappers, circulars and printed matter are scarcer than plain used stamps, and covers are rare.
Forgeries are a constant problem. A stamp encyclopedia notes that all stamps of Naples have been forged, and gives tests for the genuine stamps: the right engraved look, the scratches and layout lines left on the reworked plate, blurred inked areas where white should be, and no engraved lines outside the frame. Jean de Sperati, the most skilled forger of the 20th century, made several types of the related Savoy Cross.
A stamp of the Risorgimento
The Trinacria is a small record of a political turning point. It carries the arms of a Bourbon kingdom that had just collapsed, a currency letter changed by hand, and a color tied to the house of Savoy. It was made to serve a revolutionary's cheap-newspaper policy in the few weeks between Garibaldi's arrival and the handover of Naples to Italy.
For specialists, the stamp and its successor tell the story of the plate itself: the 1858 1/2 grano, the November 1860 Trinacria and the December 1860 Savoy Cross, all from the same 100 subjects. A large group of these stamps, including mint, used, newspaper and cover examples, was offered in 2026, more than 150 years after the plate was last used.
The numbers
- Catalogue
- Sassone 15 (the Savoy Cross is Sassone 16)
- Issue date
- November 6, 1860 (earliest known use)
- Period of use
- About one month, until the Savoy Cross of December 6, 1860
- Color
- Blue, sometimes called Savoy blue
- Plate
- Plate II of the 1858 1/2 grano, 100 subjects, 'T' punched over 'G' by hand
- Paper
- Watermarked with Bourbon fleurs-de-lis
- Engraver of the original die
- Giuseppe Masini
- Rate
- Newspapers, 1/2 tornese, about 1 Italian centesimo
Timeline
Naples issues its first stamps, seven values all in rose, including the 1/2 grano for newspapers.
Francis II becomes king of the Two Sicilies.
Garibaldi sails from Quarto with the Expedition of the Thousand.
Garibaldi's forces take Naples; his dictatorship begins and the newspaper rate is halved.
Earliest known use of the 1/2 tornese Trinacria, accepted as its issue date.
Garibaldi's regime in Naples ends.
Earliest known use of the Savoy Cross, cut into the same plate.
Italian stamps for the Neapolitan provinces replace the blue newspaper stamps.
In Britain's first stamp auction, in London, a Trinacria sells for £2.
A British handbook values a fine unused Trinacria at £50 and a used one at £15 or more.
A large group of Trinacria and Savoy Cross stamps, including ex Ferrary and Burrus pieces, is offered at auction.
The world in 1860
The Pony Express begins service from Missouri to California.
Garibaldi's forces capture Palermo.
Garibaldi defeats Neapolitan troops at Milazzo.
Piedmontese troops defeat papal forces at Castelfidardo.
At the Volturnus, Garibaldi defeats the last organized army of the Two Sicilies.
At Teano, Garibaldi hands southern Italy to Victor Emmanuel II.
Abraham Lincoln is elected president of the United States.
Price record
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Naples 'Trinacria' (1/2 Tornese Provisional) is number 81 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (69 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Naples printed all its 1858 stamps in one color so patriots could not combine them into the red, white and green of a united Italy.
- Every one of the 100 Trinacrias on the plate is different, because each 'T' was added by hand.
- The same plate produced three different stamps in less than three years: the 1/2 grano, the Trinacria and the Savoy Cross.
- At Britain's first stamp auction in 1872, a Trinacria sold for £2.
- The engraver Giuseppe Masini hid a letter of his own name in the border of each 1858 value.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026