Express

Starting in 1903, Italy began to offer express mail service. This is an expedited mail delivery service. It costs extra, but your mail is delivered faster. This concept was established by the Universal Postal Union, which is now part of the United Nations. The U.P.U. was established in 1874: Italy joined three months later. As a result of this membership, Italians were able to use express service for sending mail quickly internationally.

Looking at the years these stamps were issued and values on these stamps, as well as the overprinting of the face values, it would seem that Italy took a while to decide on the price for express mail – within Italy and internationally.

Note

Those last two express stamps that I’m missing, aren’t easy to find. I don’t think there were many of them with this overprint. As a result, when I do find them, they’re overly expensive for my budget. It may be a while before I’m able to finish this page.

Contains 11 spots: own 9 – 9 unused, 0 used.
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

Express Mail - Overprinted

1.1	✓	E1	Vittorio Emanuele III	25c (nov 1907) special, pink
1.2	✓	E2	Vittorio Emanuele III	30c (jul 1909) special, red & light blue
1.3	✓	E3	Vittorio Emanuele III	50c (apr 1921) special, brownish red

Colonial Express

2.1	✓	E4	Mercury	60c (jun 1924) special, red & brown
2.2	✓	E5	Mercury	2₤ (jun 1924) special, red & blue
3.1	✓	E6	Mercury	70c (jun 1926) special, red & brown
3.2	✓	E7	Mercury	2.50₤ (jun 1926) special, red & blue
4.1	✓	E9	Mercury	1.25₤ (feb 1927) special, brown & carmine
4.2	✓	E11	Mercury	1.25₤ (may 1937) special, red & brown
5.1		E8	Mercury	1.25₤ (mar 1935) special, brown & dark carmine
5.2		E10	Mercury	1.25₤ (oct 1935) special, red & brown

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.