March on Rome

The words fascism and fascist bring to mind negative connotations, as well as Benito Mussolini and his followers – which included his most famous admirer, Adolph Hitler.

The origin of the term is the symbol of fascist movement: fasces. The word fasces comes from the Latin word meaning bundle. Back in the Roman times, they would take a bundle of wooden rods, insert in the middle a metal rod with an axe head, usually a double headed axe. They would tie these rods and axe together tightly with rope or leather straps. During battle, a large man would carry it by the staps, swinging it back in forth with great force. Such a warrior with a fasces weapon was devastating and a sign of power within a squad of Roman soldiers. Hence, it became the symbol of strength. This is why many governments use it and why Mussolini’s political party, known as the Black Shirts used it as their logo.

You can see examples of fasces on the stamps in the first two rows of this album, very prominantly on the first three stamps. Notice the date of issuance is 1923, just two years after Mussolini founded the National Fascist Party and one year after his party took control of the Italian Parliament and he became prime minister. From this point forward in this stamp album, you’ll see plenty of stamps with the fasces symbol. They appear for the rest of the album because this album ends at the end of World War II when the Fascist party was ended and outlawed by the replacement government.

Note

This page is finished. It took a little time to get the definitives of the king, but I have them now. I’m pleased.

Contains 12 spots: own 12 – 12 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Feb 4, 2025

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

Fascist March on Rome

1.1	✓	65	Fasces	10c (oct 1923) comm., dark green
1.2	✓	66	Fasces	30c (oct 1923) comm., purple
1.3	✓	67	Fasces	50c (oct 1923) comm., red
2.1	✓	68	Eagle on Fasces	1₤ (oct 1923) comm., blue
2.2	✓	70	Fasces	5₤ (oct 1923) comm., blue & black
2.3	✓	69	Eagle on Fasces	2₤ (oct 1923) comm., brownish

Vittorio Emanuele III

3.1	✓	47	Vittorio Emanuele III	15c (apr 1920) definitive, slate
3.2	✓	49	Vittorio Emanuele III	20c (sep 1921) definitive, orange
3.3	✓	48	Vittorio Emanuele III	60c (jul 1918) definitive, carmine
4.1	✓	77	Coat of Arms	1c (may 1924) definitive, dark brown
4.2	✓	78	Coat of Arms	2c (jul 1924) definitive, orange brown
4.3	✓	79	Vittorio Emanuele III	5c (jul 1924) definitive, green

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.