Express

Express mail service is an expedited mail delivery service. It costs extra, but 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.

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 last three stamps on this page are Recapito Autorizzato stamps. Their 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

I almost have all of the express stamps for Somalia. I just have two left. Those are a bit rare and expensive. I’m also missing the authorized delivery stamps at the bottom. Those are easier to find available at stamp dealers, but cost much more. So, this page may not change for quite a while.

Contains 11 spots: own 7 – 7 unused, 0 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Dec 15, 2024

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

1.1	✓	E1	Vittorio Emanuele III	30b (jul 1923) special, red
1.2	✓	E2	Vittorio Emanuele III	60b (jul 1923) special, red & blue
2.1	✓	E3	Express Mail	30b (jun 1924) special, red & brown
2.2	✓	E4	Express Mail	60b (jun 1924) special, red & blue
2.3	✓	E5	Express Mail	70c (oct 1926) special, red & brown
3.1	✓	E6	Express Mail	2.50₤ (oct 1926) special, red & blue
3.2	✓	E7	Express Mail	1.25₤ (feb 1927) special, red & brown
3.3		E8	Express Mail	1.25₤ (may 1940) special, red & brown	mariotti (€ 175) only 1 stamp.

Private Delivery

4.1	RA1	Recapito Autorizzato	10c (jan 1939) special, brown & dark brown
4.2	RA2	Recapito Autorizzato	10c (aug 1941) special, grey brown
4.3	RA2a	Recapito Autorizzato	10c (aug 1941) special, grey 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.