Watermarks

Watermarks are to be divided by Pettigiani in two main groups:

- wavy rays or rayos ondulados - strraight rays or rayos rectos

This is a very old distinction - it even goes back to the 1908-1911 period - and in fact mainly refers to the rays that are not horizontal - in line with the letters.

mainly describing the diameters of the sun we get the following types: - sol rayos ondulados - wavy rays I sol redondo de 10mm de diametro - round sun, diameter 10mm II sol redondo de 11mm de diametro - round sun, diameter 11mm III sol muy chico de unos 8,5mm de diametro - smaller sun, diameter 8.5mm IV sol ovalado de 11x10,5mm de diametro vertical y horizontal respectivamente - oval sun, 11mm high, 10,5mm wide V sol un poco achatado chico, de unos 8,5 a 9mm de diametro - small sun somewhat flattened, diameter 8,5 a 9mm VI filigrana irregular poco visble - irregular watermark hardly visible

in the other types the letters themselves can be more precisely described, this can not be done in "VI"!

- sol rayos rectos - straight rays VII filigrana poco visbile debido al grosor del papel - watermark hardly visible due to the thickness of the paper VIII filigrana visible debido a que el papel que es traslucido - watermark visbile due to the translucency of the paper

Fully in line with the idea that the reader shouldn't be bothered too much by discussing the direction of paper, the position of the watermark is seen relative to the longitudinal axis of a stamp!

Is the line of RA parallel to the long side of the stamp Pettigiani calls it "May" [mayor]; if it is parallel to the short side of the stamp he calls in "men" [menor]. Dario Bardi uses "M' and "m" here.

The methodological mistake both Bardi and Pettigiani make is that the prime importance of the direction of paper relative to the stamp's shape is for the printer. He decides - on good grounds - how the direction of paper [or grain direction] should run relative to the machinery he has. The lay-out of the printer's sheet - by reasons of efficiency - defines the relative position to the shape of our stamps!

The grain direction relative to the shape of the stamp can only have two positions - generally speaking this is not true as we can have other than rectangular shapes or the sheet is to make a slight slope in some printing processes:

- M - the direction of printing is parallel to the long side of the stamp - m - the direction of printing is parallel to the short side of the stamp

Denoting it this way we can also deal with the no watermark stamps! Neither Bardi or Pettigiani can do that!