Looking at how many positions have changes to the three periods in the lower legend, it becomes obvious why using these is unreliable for the plating of the Cuba 1864 1 Real. For example, 12 of the 40 stamps in Block 4have some form of deformation on at least one of these three periods. I use some of these for my plating, but only in conjunction with other, more distinctive plate positions. Below is a piece showing a single and a vertical pair of the 1864 1 Real. The left stamp of the vartical pair is one of the missing period plate varieties.

II-8

III-3

III-5

IV-1

IV-5

V-1

V-6

VI-8

Recommendations for further browsing (including the present one):

7: Plating the Cuba 1864 1 Real : I am able to plate 168 of the 170 positions. This article also includes images of the Cuba 1864 Issue, a web page dedicated to the path I followed to plate this stamp, the two RL positions, several distinctive positions,and plate positions with reduced periods in the lower legend.

77: Cuba 1864 Issue : I show the major values in mint blocks of four. Missing is the rare 1/2 real on salmon paper, for which I havo only a few used specimens. I include a second block of the 1 real, printed in bright blue. Here I show the major values in blocks of four, the color varieties of the 1/2 real on salmon, 1/2 real on white, 1 real, and 2 reales. The 1/4 real was printed in a small run and seems to have just one color: black. I also show specimens cancelled with the regular canceller and other cancellers. This issue was replaced in 1866 by a similar issue in a different currency.

In addition, I have several articles dedicated to the Cuba 1855-1863 first issue.