Postage Due
These stamps, not the first one, were used when mail was sent without enough postage. If someone handed in an envelop at the post office, of course, they wouldn’t accept it without the correct postage. However, if someone put an envelop in a public mail box, rather than return the envelop to the sender, they would put postage due stamps for the deficient amount and deliver it, expecting the recipient to pay the cost of them. If they didn’t pay, only then would the envelop be returned to the sender.
Private Mail Service
In the late 1920’s, there were apparently some businesses that started offering letter delivery services, competing with the Italian post office. Given the beauracratic and controlling nature of the Italian government, they did not like this and forbade it at first. As a compromise, they agreed to allow such private delivery services, providing the post office was given a cut. This was accomplished and verified with the inclusion of a special stamp: a Recapito Autorizzato, which is an archaic term for Authorized Delivery. Stanley-Gibbons’ Italy catalog translates it to mean, a Concessional Letter Postage stamp (i.e, the private company was given a concession to deliver mail).
The first stamp on this page is a Recapito Autorizzato stamp. Its face value, ten cents, is less than what the Italian post office charged. I find these stamps and other special stamps that Italy used to be interesting. Basically, these private companies were predecessors to Federal Express and these were the stamps they had to use.
Note
Unfortunately, I have none of these. I don’t like blank pages. But I’ll get these, eventually – when I have the money.
Contains 14 spots: own 0 – 0 unused, 0 used.
Stamp Details
The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.
spot |
own |
catalog |
subject |
description |
comment |
Private Delivery
RA1 |
10c (05 1942) |
New Postage Due
S1 |
5c (01 1940) |
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S2 |
10c (01 1940) |
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S3 |
20c (01 1940) |
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S4 |
25c (12 1939) |
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S5 |
30c (01 1940) |
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S6 |
40c (01 1940) |
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S7 |
50c (12 1939) |
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S8 |
60c (01 1940) |
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S9 |
1₤ (01 1940) |
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S10 |
2₤ (01 1940) |
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S11 |
5₤ (01 1940) |
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S12 |
10₤ (01 1940) |
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S13 |
20₤ (01 1940) |
Footnotes
Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.
