Tag: Italy stamp

International meets have to be hosted somewhere. Rome had an Olympic stadium, so was a good a place as any. The nice thing is that when a country plays host, they make a special effort to send a competitive team. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Thou perhaps a little cartoonish, Italy did a good job with todays stamp. Showing 3 competitors in close competition was done well considering the close confines of a postage stamp. The clever thing is that the fellow on the stamp that looks most Italian is winning. Yet they did not go overboard with flags emblems to make it so obvious.

Todays stamp is issue A737, a 300 Lira stamp issued by Italy on September 4th, 1981. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the opening of the World Cup in Rome that day. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

I mentioned that Italy made a special effort at the games and that yielded a sixth place fining in both the male and female portions of the games. The individual country that came in first for both males and males pretending they are females was East Germany. Just Kidding, but East Germany really won. More modern championships generally have the USA win the medal count with it’s majority African American team followed by several countries in Africa. The most recent I found had united Germany in ninth and Italy not on the list.

One interesting thing about the 1981 event in Rome was that teams from East, West and South showed. Remember the USA boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, the Soviet Union skipped the 1984 Olympics, and Africa was just at the start of sending competitive teams. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/02/usa-olympic-stamp-1980-childhood-philatelist-dreams-of-getting-rich-from-the-boycot-dashed/. The East dominated in Rome.

One event the Italians medaled in was the hammer throw. The hammer is not a construction hammer but a 16 pound steel ball attached to a grip by a cable. The sport has recently opened to alleged women who throw a nine pound ball. Giampaulo Urlando won the Bronze for Italy. He later played/ was disqualified at the 1984 Olympics for being caught having injected testosterone. I would make a transsexual joke here but I have probably done enough of those in this article.

Well my drink is empty, just in time, and I have probably had enough. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

There was a lot of fighting in the latter years of the war in Italy, although it involved surprisingly few Italians. As such, the post war Italian future would be decided by the Allies who won the campaign. Thus what Italian authority was still around did much to announce it was still here and there was a future to look forward to, with jets! So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

It is pretty bold to suggest Italian air mail would soon be transported on jet aircraft. Italy flew a jet in 1940, but was unable to get any in service before the end of the war. The Italian jet engine design did not produce enough thrust to be an advancement on piston types and later designs were predicated on Germany supplying engines, which they never did. The prototype had made a flight in 1941 from Milan to Rome with a fuel stop in Pisa. This aircraft indeed carried a bag of mail and was met in Rome with much fanfare. So for Italy, jet airmail was more than a dream, but a reality. The surprising part is that it took six years for there to be a stamp commemorating it. Well, it was a busy time.

Todays stamp is issue C114, an 50 Lira airmail stamp issued by Italy from post war 1945-1947, while the country was transitioning from Kingdom to Republic. It was a 9 stamp issue in various denominations showing clasped hands over an artist conception of the Caproni Campini CC 2 aircraft. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents, whether mint or used.

The Italian government switched sides in World War II in 1943 though most of the country was under German occupation. Most of the organized resistance to the Fascists were Communists. Remember it was them that found Mussolini as he fled. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/03/29/italy-1941-hitler-interviews-mussolini-about-his-future-role-as-a-colonial-governor/  . That was not the Italian government that America wanted. Alcide De Gasperi was from the Italian minority in the Austrian Tyrol region that passed to Italy after World War I. He spoke German with his family at home his whole life. He was part of a small right of center party closely associated with the Catholic Church. He had broke with Mussolini and was subsequently jailed by him. The Church had seen to his release and made a place for him in Vatican City. King Victor Emmanuel II picked him as Prime Minister at the suggestion of the Americans. Unusually for Italian politics, he was the head of many coalition governments for almost 10 years. De Gasperi sought to minimize punishment for Italy having been Fascist and in turn he worked hard to see  Communists would not seize power in Italy. He also gave Germans from his old region of Tyrol rights in modern Italy. Over time it became increasingly hard to keep the left out of government. By 1953 De Gasperi was resorting to super majorities to blunt left power and the Catholic Church was declaring it a mortal sin to vote Communist. Many thought this undemocratic and De Gasperi was forced to resign.

The Camproni Campini CC2 was the first successful public flight of an airplane powered by a jet engine in 1940. Germany had flown a jet plane the year before but kept it a military secret. The Italian jet sat two. The indigenous Italian jet design is called a motorjet and combined a ducted fan with an afterburner. They could not get enough airflow through the engine and with the afterburner it was both fuelish and suffered from low thrust. They played around with the idea of a separate piston engine to force more airflow into the motorjet but that wasn’t practical. The design was refined later to take a German turbojet as the Reggiane Re 2007 but Germany refused to supply any of their jet engines. Work of course slowed after 1943. One of the prototypes of the CC2 survived the war but disappeared after being shipped to Great Britain for study. Post war, Secondo Campini emigrated to the USA where he worked with Tucker automobiles on a turbine powered car and Northrop where he worked on converting their experimental flying wing bomber to jet power. Northrop much later built the flying wing B2 stealth bomber. The world remembers the German jet and rocket experts post war, but Italy had a few as well.

Well my drink is empty and there would be quite a wait in 1947 for airmail delivered by jet. So perhaps there is time for another drink. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Saint Francis is today remembered as the saint who cared for animals and the environment. This is of course a Godly thing to promote, and Saint Francis is a good vessel for such beliefs. As recently as 1926, he was remembered still as the Patron Saint of the Italian nation state, and his persona was one who lived as Jesus. So slip on your simple tied robe get on your feet and walk the Holy Italian path. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Imagine a six stamp issue remembering Saint Francis of Assisi with no animals. Unthinkable today. Yet here we have Saint Francis with monasteries as he was a physical builder for the church. They also display his visions of Christ and on this stamp, the scene around his death. As Patron Saint of Italy the stamp makers could have had him with later flags or represent his time as a soldier. They wisely restrained from such modern repurposing. That would come in later years.

Todays stamp is issue A82, a 1.25 Lira stamp issued by the Kingdom of Italy on January 30th, 1926. It was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations honoring the 700th anniversary of the death or Saint Francis of Assisi. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 90 cents used.

Saint Francis was born into a wealthy merchant family around 1180 AD. His father was away in France at the time of his birth on business. That business was successful and upon his return to Assisi, he renamed his son Francesco, which means the Frenchman in Italian. As a young man he was a soldier and worked in his fathers fabrics business. While praying in a dilapidated church, An icon of Jesus came to life and instructed him to rebuild his church which was falling down. He then took merchandise from his fathers business and tried to give it to the church which refused the stolen money. His father then brought him up on charges and he abandoned his birthright in exchange for clemency. Saint Francis now took on his modest clothes for which he was famous and began traveling around preaching to the poor and seeking help in renovating churches. In his travel he was gradually joined by his own 12 disciples. He traveled to Rome and the Pope gave him permission to form an Order of minor Friars. He later opened a second for Nuns and a third order open to church laity. All of which were successful. He attempted to take his message abroad, but here he was less successful. Trips to Morocco and Jerusalem had to be called off because of ship issues. There was also a trip to Egypt to try to convert the Sultan in order to influence the Crusades. The Sultan did not convert but also did not have Saint Francis killed as he expected if he fell short.

In his later years he stepped back from the orders but continued to travel and preach. During one trip he had a vision of experiencing the Crucifixion of Christ and became only the second Christian after Saint Paul to have stigmata from the vision. Stigmata were wounds corresponding to what Jesus experienced on the cross. He died shortly after and the Pope made him a Saint two years after death.

In 1979, Pope John Paul declared Saint Francis Patron Saint of Ecology, his teaching on kindness to animals was already well known. The current Pope is the first to take the name Francis, in this case in honor of the simple life in service of the poor. Saint Francis seems to lend himself to many repurposing to what the current generation wants to talk about. Perhaps this is okay. He tried to model his life and those of his orders to follow as close as possible the life of Jesus. Jesus had transcending teachings on many subjects.

Unfortunately, I am one of the many who fall short of this ideal so I will close. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Even for Italian fascists, this stamp does not age well. At first Italy was an important ally of Germany and Mussolini’s rise to power was an inspiration to Hitler. Italians fortunes in the war went very badly and the King removed Mussolini and had him arrested. Only to have him “saved” by the Germans and named a figurehead of their occupied Italy. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp displays Hitler and Mussolini as equals. They were not even in early victorious days. Though he fashioned himself as the leader, il Duce, Mussolini was just a Prime Minister that the King could and did have him removed when things turned bad. There was a coup attempt against Hitler in 1944 as things went bad, but it failed because Hitler retained all his power. One wonders to what extent even Hitler realized the difference.

Todays stamp is issue A235, a 25 Centessimi stamp issued by the Kingdom of Italy in 1941. It was part of a five stamp issue in various denominations. There were additional denominations prepared but not actually issued. The post war Italian government auctioned them off to stamp dealers with the proceeds going to charity. According to the Scott catalog, this stamp is worth $2.25 used. The post war charity issue are worth $35 and of course are all mint.

Benito Mussolini was born the son of an active socialist. The name Benito was after a left wing Mexican President. As a young man, he himself was active in socialist politics especially when he emigrated to Switzerland to avoid Italian military service. He returned to Italy when there was an amnesty for draft dodgers but soon was working in the then Italian areas of Austria Hungary. Over time he became well read and multilingual and his politics became more right wing as a result of World War I. Like Peron in Argentina, his rise to power attempted to draw support from both the left and the right. As with Peron, in power he was a figure of the right. With him has Prime Minister, he signed alliances with Nazi Germany and  Japan.

The Italian army proved to be a big liability once the war started. Their equipment was not up to date and Italian industry had no ability to correct that. Italy’s attempts to invade Greece from Albania  and Egypt from Libya were failures. An even bigger mistake was sending over 200,000 troops to fight alongside the Germans in Russia. The force had little military capability and really fought alongside Romanian and Hungarian in what the Germans hoped would be quiet flanks near Stalingrad. They weren’t as this was where the Soviets counterattacked. The German client state troops folded like a cheap suit and the German position at Stalingrad was surrounded and the defeat was the turning point of the war. Barely half of the Italian troops made it back to Italy in early 1943. By then the Italian presence in Africa was at an end and the allies invaded Sicily.

Italian King Victor Emmanuel II removed Mussolini as Prime Minister and had him confined in a mountaintop hotel. In a daring raid, Germany landed commandos from gliders on the mountaintop recovering Mussolini and flying him off the mountain in a small Storch airplane. A haggard Mussolini was flown to Hitler and his new role as a colonial governor was explained to him. Germany had occupied the Italian boot and would contest the Allies in Italy for the rest of the war.

In April 1945 Mussolini attempted to again head for Switzerland where he hoped to fly to sanctuary in Franco’s Spain. He left his wife and children behind, perhaps as a continued presence in post war Italy. He was instead found by communist partisans, shot, hanged and his body desecrated publicly. His remains were later dug up by his supporters and Italy had a crazy corpse hunt on his hands. When the government finally found his remains they were at a loss as to what to do with them. Eventually in 1957, a right of center Italian government contacted Mussolini’s widow Rachele and turned over his remains for a Catholic burial in his hometown. By then, she was running a restaurant in her hometown. She was eventually granted a pension but for years was denied on the excuse that Mussolini had not taken a salary as Prime Minister. She died in 1979. This stamp equates Hitler with Mussolini, but the extent that he was part of the system allowed his family some normalcy eventually. Hitler had no descendants, but his henchman had no future in postwar Germany.

Well, my drink is empty and so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Italy had long struggled between two masters a Pope to guide spiritual matters and the politics around a King uniting Italy. An Italian King was now in power finding a way to live beside a Pope in the Vatican. Something that had not happened since ancient Rome. It was a great time to rediscover the middle ages poet Dante, both Catholic and Italian, who wrote  of love, political passions, chivalry and spirituality in a way all Italians could understand. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Dante was a classically liberal figure. He wrote, uniquely for his time in the language of Florence, his home town. He described the language as Italian and that was a break from Latin, the language of the Church and the scholars. Yet here we have him 600 years later remember fondly by a right of center Italy and even a Pope named Benedict. This is possible for three reasons. Dante had touched a common thread in the Italian soul. He had also put forward the idea of a good universal King to insure peace on Earth. This fit into the self imagined image of a colonial era Italian King. He also included much spirituality, Catholic spirituality, so over time the Church had to embrace him. This goes some way to the reverence shown Dante at the time, and the frequency he appears on Italian stamps. The 700th anniversary of Dante’s death is coming up in 2021, it will be interesting to see if he will be remembered or will his image be succumbed to the post modern deconstruction.

Todays stamp is issue A63, a 40 Centesimi stamp issued by the Kingdom of Italy on September 28th, 1921. It was part of a 3 stamp issue in various denominations remembering the 600th anniversary of the death of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $32 used. There was a  grey version of the 15 cent stamp that was not formally issued but proofs got out in tiny numbers. An imperforate, used version of it is worth $6100.

Dante was born around 1265 in Florence, then a city state with a republican government. Dante received an excellent education for the day that included much knowledge of ancient Rome. The times saw him contracted into marriage to a girl at age 12. He had already become smitten with another girl and his unrequited love for her provided much impetus for his romantic poems. His wife played no part in these. His Italian poetry was lyrical and in a ryming 3 line style that was much copied later.

He was also a politician and part of the ruling class of Florence that were then known as Guelphs. As happened in much of Italy over the next centuries. The Guelphs became devided over loyalty to the Pope or to the Holy Roman Emperor. The Black Guelphs supported the Pope and gained control of Florence. Dante was a White Guelph and spent the rest of his life in exile in various other city states. This helped his writing by giving him a wider knowledge of what unites Italy and pushed along his thinking about the separate nature of a worldly King who could moderate disagreements between his different peoples and a Pope who could guide the individual in his spiritual journey toward everlasting life.

Dante’s master work written in exile was The Comedy, renamed Devine Comedy only after his death. As per usual with Dante, it came in three parts. A journey guided by the Roman Poet Virgil and his early in life unrequited love through hell, purgatory and heaven. Hell, (inferno) is the best remembered now but purgatory the most romantic and heaven the most spiritual. It must be remembered what a revelation Dante’s style of writing was in the middle ages. it was a pointing forward toward the Renaissance with a return to knowledge and culture. Ironically, Dante somewhat fell from favor during the High Renaissance when his style was considered simplistic. Similarly today Dante is less remembered as his romance and chivalry seem dated and his politics and religion not inclusive. There are also claims today that his work was derivative of earlier Persian works. I obviously don’t agree but that the stamp wouldn’t be done the same way today only makes it more interesting as it gives insights as to thinking from the stamps time and place. Why I collect.

Well my drink is empty and with the stamp being worth $32 I can afford another round to celebrate Dante. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

To paraphrase the Beatles, Come together, right now under me. The Beatles had to be more popular than Jesus to pull that off. In Italy, Sardinian King Victor Emanuel II only had to be more popular than the Pope. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp shows so much influence of the original British penny black stamp of 1840. The leaders profile taken from a medal. The gummed paper. The corner letters from where on the sheet the original stamp was from. Another demonstration how right the British design was, especially in a European century dominated by royals.

Todays stamp is issue A5(numbered off of previous Sardinian issues), a 15 Centesimi stamp issued by the Kingdom of Italy in 1863. The stamp showed King Victor Emmanuel II and was a single stamp issue. Controversially  at the time, the King was still styling his name as for when King of Sardinia. Many thought he should be the first as the first King of Italy, not just that Sardinia conquered Italy. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $7 mint. A version with the stamp image mistakenly printed on both sides is worth $17,500. Only one of those is known to exist.

As a member of the Royal House of Savoy, Victor Emmanuel II inherited his fathers throne of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Piedmont. He was very much in favor of a united Italy but to achieve that he had to fight Austria, Papal Forces in Rome and the 2 Sicily Kingdom. He had to do more than fight, he had to be able to win at the negotiating table. The fighting with Austria did not go well and was awkward as his mother and wife were Austrian. The King was able to work around that by siding with Britain and France in the Crimean War in order to get concessions from Austria at the subsequent peace conference. He shared a mistress, Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglioni, with Napoleon III and was able to work out an agreement through her for French forces to pull out of Rome where they were defending Papal interests and allow Sardinia Venetia and Lombard from Austria. In return France got Nice and Savoy. This took a while to play out and were helped along by Austria being defeated by Prussia in 1866 and France following suit in 1871.

In addition to eight children via his Queen and two more by his morganatic second marriage to his favorite mistress. Victor Emmanuel fathered 6 further children by 4 other mistresses. He was excommunicated by the Catholic church. Not for all this womanizing but rather for ending Papal control of Rome, confining the Pope to Vatican City. Combined with the conquering of the 2 Sicilys, a united Italy with Rome as his capital was achieved. After the success, the King somewhat faded, He was more adept dealing in big country power games then dealing with unruly ministers and legislators. He died in 1877, soon after his excommunication was reversed.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Countess of Castiglione. She was famous at the time for coquettish Queen of Hearts outfits and pictures where she scandalously showed bare feet and legs. In addition to the King of Italy and the Emperor of France, she also had interactions with German/Prussian Chancellor Bismarck. Perhaps we should withdraw the Beatles song “Come Together” and replace it with “The Lady is a Tramp” in this article. Maybe not though. “Come together, right now, over me” seems to fit the Countess. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

When the price for expanding empire gets too high, there is a price to pay. It was the King’s duty to look out for his people. Though his powers were limited, his liabilities for failure were unlimited. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

There is a good deal of family resemblance in the House of Savoy the Sardinian and then Italian Royal House. With King Unberto’s resemblance to his son later King Victor Emanuell III a stamp can become more interesting. The son looks the same only with thinner hair and a slightly trimmed mustache. With research then this stamp turns out to be much older and more valuable. Well the Savoys usually go for Austrian wives and Royal bloodlines narrow, and so the stamp collector benefits.

Todays stamp is issue A25, a 60 Centesimi stamp issued by the Kingdom of Italy in 1889. It featured King Umberto I and was part of a 6 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $42.50 used. The used version of the 2 Lire stamp of this issue is worth $1075.

King Umberto I succeeded his father in 1878. The House of Savoy had previously ruled the Kingdom of Sardinia until Italy united in 1870. In doing so, Rome was taken from Papal control and named the capital. This created a deep division in Catholic Italy, indeed Umberto’s father had been excommunicated and only restored to the communion of Christ on his deathbed. Umberto, a political conservative did not have an ally in the Church as he might have hoped. Instead he made friends where he could, with the Austrians and the Germans. This made sense from his genealogy, but Austria possessed land that Italy claimed. This did not put him as one with his people. He did have colonial dreams in North and East Africa, but this required expensive draftee armies that had to deploy and fight in a far away desert.

It is easy to see how the King might have found some opposition and a group of socialists aligned with the Church is what he faced, At the vanguard of this opposition were a group of left wing anarchists that plagued the advanced world at the time. Umberto’s first run in with an anarchist was during a parade in Naples the year he ascended the throne. A dagger was thrust at him but he was able to divert it with a quick move from his sabre. The Prime Minister nearby was hit. In 1897, he was again the recipient of an attempted stabbing in Rome.

Anarchy was spreading. The costs of war in Africa were adding up and the socialists were able to tie it to an increase in the cost of bread. A strike in Milan at a Pirelli tire factory spread and the area was declared under marshal law. Troops were brought in and when the crowd did not disperse the Army fired on and perused the crowd. Hundreds died and many more participants were jailed in the following military tribunals. The commanding general did restore order but was condemned on the left for his harsh tactics. When King Umberto decorated the General he angered the left further, and indirectly signed his own death warrant.

An Italian immigrant in the USA was outraged by the events in Milan and traveled back to Italy to exact his revenge. He shot and killed the King in Monza in 1900. The murder of Umberto inspired the American anarchist who assassinated President McKinley the next year. Interestingly, while all the attackers of  King Umberto were caught, none were put to death. Italy had banned the death penalty.

Well, my drink is empty and while I pour another I have a modest proposition. Anarchists should consider banning the death penalty. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Both in Germany and in Italy there was a movement to put aside city states and unite the people. Poets like Foscolo provide the inspiration if not the means. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamp today aims to do what stamp issuance is all about. The issue was put together by the Dante Alighieri Society to honor and celebrate important Italian cultural figures. The society had outposts around the world and of course stamp issues get around the world as well. The higher denominations even had a surcharge that went to the society. Post war, with the end of Italian Royalty, the various chapters were untethered from Italy itself but allowed to continue promoting Italian culture. This lessens the impetus behind them but also better separates them from politics.

Todays stamp is issue A126, 30 Centesimi stamp issued by the Kingdom of Italy on March 14, 1932. It was part of a 12 stamp issue in various denominations that honor Italian cultural figures from the past. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.60 used. The used version of the 10 +2.5 Lira stamp featuring Dante himself is worth $450.

Ugo Foscolo was born in 1778 to a Greek mother and a threadbare Venetian nobleman working as a Doctor in the Greek Isles. Upon his fathers death at age 10, the family moved back to Venice and Ugo’s knowledge of ancient and modern Greek allowed Ugo to receive a first rate literary education.

In 1797, Venice, then a city state republic fell to Napoleon. Ugo was in favor of this as he hoped that Napoleon could unite Italy. He even volunteered to fight for Napoleon. At the same time he began writing poetry that described the noble but fruitless struggles of Italians to unite their people. His work was very popular and was strongly influenced by the ancient Greeks and also fellow traveler Goethe in Germany.

After being captured in battle fighting for Napoleon he began traveling to Milan where he came into contact with other Italian literary figures. He also was involved with a memorandum to Napoleon that suggested a form for a united Italian government. The memorandum was ignored. In this period he wrote “Dei Sepolcri”, his masterpiece. It told the story of literary greats from the past rising from their tombs to do battle for their countries in the present.

After the fall of Napoleon in 1815, Ugo made his way to London where he was vetted by high society for his previous work. He became somewhat sloppy with money and personal relations, then spent time in debtor’s prison. This reduced his stature much and upon release he ended up teaching Italian at a girl’s boarding school. He never married but ended up with one English daughter as a result of his many affairs. He died in England at age 50.

His status rose a great deal in the 1870s. The newly united Italian kingdom under King Victor Emmanuel sought to use the fame of Italian cultural figures to convince the Italian people to be loyal to the new Italian state. This was somewhat at odds with the Catholic Church and the efforts can be seen as creating an alternate line of secular Italian Saints. Ugo Foscolo’s remains were returned to Italy in 1871 with pomp and circumstance and placed beside such notables as Machiavelli, Galileo, and Michelangelo.

Well my drink is empty so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Welcome readers to The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We have an interesting story to tell where a country tries to solve a real problem earnestly, but ends up the butt of a joke.

The stamp today is somewhat undermined already by it’s designers. The goal is to get people to drive more prudently. However look at the traffic intersection. The only prudent thing to do at that intersection is to avoid it and find another route. Imagine your Fiat has just been returned after Tony fixed it again and you are looking forward and Italian tune up to get it’s liquids flowing. Instead you are faced with poorly designed roads and unrealistic government suggestions. Makes you want to vote for the other guy next time around.

Todays stamp is issue A399, a 25 lira stamp issued by Italy on August 7th, 1957. The single stamp issue was part of a campaign for more prudent driving. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents in it’s used condition.

Safety stamps are primed for humor. The best ones are a series from West Germany. Among the helpful tips on these stamps are don’t fall into an open manhole and don’t stick your hand in a circular saw. The human drawings are even cartoonish to enhance the effect. Though I like the oversized stop signal at the crossroads of life on this stamp. It just is not as good.

The Italians have more than their share of traffic deaths and indeed Rome is the most dangerous city in Europe for traffic deaths. So if I have gone too far in making light of this stamp issue, I apologize to my dear readers. I would suggest that better road designs and working for higher car safety standards might be more useful uses of government energy on the subject.

Well my drink is empty and my auto safely garaged for the night so I will open up the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. Drive Safely and always wear your seat belt.

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We have an interesting story to tell. A story of fascists on the run, Austrian sailors mistaken for Turkish pirates, and an everlasting old ass.

The stamp today is Italian. It is gummed but also possesses a cancellation. From 1944, it is too early to be a Mincus farm out stamp. There was a philatelic conference in Venice in 1945 that included overprints of this issue, so it may have to do with that. Any clarification on this from the commenters is welcome.

This is issue A10, a 25 centesimo stamp issued by the Italian social republic on December 6th, 1944. It is worth 55 cents in its cancelled state according to the Scott catalog. The stamp is part of a three stamp issue commemorating the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Bandiero brothers in 1844. This was the last stamp issue of the Italian social republic.

The Italian social republic was formed in late 1943 in the part if Italy that was controlled by Germany after the Allied invasion of Italy. King Victor Emmanuel had removed Mussolini from power after the invasion and intended to turn him over to the Allies. In the mean time, he was held under arrest at a hotel. The Germans pulled off a daring glider raid on the hotel and took custody of Mussolini. Hitler then appointed him a figure head of the German occupied area of Italy. The social republic ended in late April 1945 when Mussolini, his mistress, and some loyalists were captured by Communist rebels while making for Switzerland. They had hoped to be able to fly to Franco’s Spain and sanctuary. Instead they were shot, then hung, and then had their corpses desecrated.

Enough about this strange postal region of Italy. The two people depicted on this stamp are Atillio and Emilio Bandiera. Sons of an Austrian admiral, the brothers were themselves Austrian sailors who became enthralled by the idea of Italian unification. At this time, around 1840, Italy was a collection of city states with no central government. At the time the Austria Hungarian Navy was staffed almost entirely by ethnic Italians. This makes more sense if you remember that today Austria and Hungary are landlocked countries and the ports they controlled then are in present day Italy.

As the Bandiera brothers began working for Italian unification, they were banished to Corfu. While there, they began corresponding with Giuseppe Mazzini. He was another leader in the unification movement who was in exile in London. Mazzini was anti communist, pro religion, and believed rights had to be earned through deeds. Prince Metternich described him as the most influential revolutionary in Europe. On the other hand, Karl Marx thought him an everlasting old ass.

Either or both ways, the Bandiera brothers were inspired to put together a team of 20 men, make for Cozenza, free political prisoners there, and issue political demands. This all went wrong. The political prisoners proved hard to find and they were turned over to police by locals who mistook them for Turkish pirates. Eight of the group including the Bandiera brothers were executed. There were rumors the group was betrayed by one of their own or that British intelligence was reading Mazzini’s mail in London and let Austria Hungary in on the plot. In any case, the execution where they shouted vive Italia as they fell, became a rallying cry for Italian unification that happened a generation later. As the Mussolini share of Italy shrunk as the Allies made their way up the Italian boot, it is perhaps understandable for the social republic of Italy to hijack the Bandiera brothers story to argue for a new unification under them.

Well, my drink is empty so it is time to open the conversation in the below comment section. How is the Italian social republic remembered in Italy? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.