act_as_state_machine (or aasm) to manage integer state?

I have already done my model and i have managed state with an external table where with paperclip i appended an icon for every state.

But now i have some trouble with aasm, it seems it can't use integer value as state, does anyone have had some similar case?

  aasm_column :state_id   aasm_initial_state :"1" #To print

  aasm_state :"1" #To print   aasm_state :"2" #Waiting   aasm_state :"3" #Selected

i've also tried to use something like this but naturally when i attempt to use transaction to change state i get an error

  aasm_column :state_id   aasm_initial_state :"1" #To print

  aasm_state :"1" #To print   aasm_state :"2" #Waiting   aasm_state :"3" #Selected

when i attempt to use transaction to change state i get this error: You have a nil object when you didn't expect it! The error occurred while evaluating nil.name

D:/Marco/Progetti/Ruby/Rails232/Sviluppo/eMissive/vendor/plugins/rubyist-aasm-baceb4b53e296cd45ac3acbd5df291e14b2993aa/lib/state.rb:14:in `==' D:/Marco/Progetti/Ruby/Rails232/Sviluppo/eMissive/vendor/plugins/rubyist-aasm-baceb4b53e296cd45ac3acbd5df291e14b2993aa/lib/aasm.rb:123:in `aasm_state_object_for_state' C:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ruby-debug-ide-0.3.1/lib/ruby-debug/command.rb:119:in `find' D:/Marco/Progetti/Ruby/Rails232/Sviluppo/eMissive/vendor/plugins/rubyist-aasm-baceb4b53e296cd45ac3acbd5df291e14b2993aa/lib/aasm.rb:123:in `each' D:/Marco/Progetti/Ruby/Rails232/Sviluppo/eMissive/vendor/plugins/rubyist-aasm-baceb4b53e296cd45ac3acbd5df291e14b2993aa/lib/aasm.rb:123:in `find' D:/Marco/Progetti/Ruby/Rails232/Sviluppo/eMissive/vendor/plugins/rubyist-aasm-baceb4b53e296cd45ac3acbd5df291e14b2993aa/lib/aasm.rb:123:in `aasm_state_object_for_state' D:/Marco/Progetti/Ruby/Rails232/Sviluppo/eMissive/vendor/plugins/rubyist-aasm-baceb4b53e296cd45ac3acbd5df291e14b2993aa/lib/aasm.rb:129:in `aasm_fire_event' D:/Marco/Progetti/Ruby/Rails232/Sviluppo/eMissive/vendor/plugins/rubyist-aasm-baceb4b53e296cd45ac3acbd5df291e14b2993aa/lib/aasm.rb:62:in `review!' D:/Marco/Progetti/Ruby/Rails232/Sviluppo/eMissive/app/controllers/admin/letters_controller.rb:195:in `print' D:/Marco/Progetti/Ruby/Rails232/Sviluppo/eMissive/app/controllers/admin/letters_controller.rb:176:in `print'