Italian Monuments

At this point in Italy’s history, the Fascists and Mussolini in control of the government and the country. There’s the king, but he didn’t have much power to stop them from doing what they wanted. The set of four stamps on the top and the other set of four on the bottom of this page of the album depict historic sites in Italy: like St Angelo Castle in Rome, near the Vatican. Incidentally, that castle was featured in my latest novel, The Pages of St. John. These stamps include the initials, M.V.S.N. This stands for the Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale (i.e., the Voluntary Militia for the National Security), better known as the Black Shirts or just the fascist paramilitary.

You’ll notice on these stamps that there are two amounts on each. For example, the first one has 40 cents printed on the top right and 20 cents on the bottom right corner. To buy this stamp from the post office at the time, you would have to pay the total, 60 cents. The 40 cents is for postage and the 20 cents was for some fund set up and managed by the Fascist party, supposedly for some special purpose like feeding the elderly or restoring these castles and other buildings. I suspect they kept it for the continued growth of their paramilitary.

Note

I’m not pleased with the layout of these stamps on this album page. I’m not sure how I can arrange them, differently. I could put one set with one stamp on the top row and three on the second row. I could do like I did on the Somalia pages. In that album, I have each set on different pages with other stamps – not all three sets together. I may do that, redesign this page along with the neighboring ones, when I have time.

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

Milizia Social Security Fund (MVSN) I

1.1	✓	116	St. Angelo Castle	40+20c (apr 1927) semi-postal, brown & black
1.2	✓	117	Claudius Aqueduct	60+30c (apr 1927) semi-postal, red & brown
2.1	✓	118	Campidoglio	1.25₤+60c (apr 1927) semi-postal, blue & black
2.2	✓	119	Porta del Popolo	5+2.50₤ (apr 1927) semi-postal, black & slate green

Milizia Social Security Fund (MVSN) II

3.1	✓	138	St. Angelo Castle	30+10c (mar 1929) semi-postal, black & carmine
3.2	✓	139	Claudius Aqueduct	50+20c (mar 1929) semi-postal, violet & black
4.1	✓	140	Campidoglio	1.25₤+50c (mar 1929) semi-postal, blue & dark brown
4.2	✓	141	Porta del Popolo	5+2₤ (mar 1929) semi-postal, olive black

Milizia Social Security Fund (MVSN) III

5.1	✓	170	St. Angelo Castle	30+10c (oct 1930) semi-postal, green & black green
5.2	✓	171	Claudius Aqueduct	50+10c (oct 1930) semi-postal, violet & black green
6.1	✓	172	Campidoglio	1.25₤+30c (oct 1930) semi-postal, brown & dark brown
6.2	✓	173	Porta del Popolo	5+1.50₤ (oct 1930) semi-postal, dark blue & 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.