Italian Parcels

Italian parcel post stamps at this time had an interesting, practical design. They were sold in pairs as you see here. If you click on the image of the album page you’ll see a larger version of it. You can see the text written on them. The left one of each says at the bottom, Sul Bolletino (i.e., On the Shipping Bill). The right ones say at the bottom, Sulla Ricevuta (i.e., On the Receipt).

Basically, when someone would buy one of these pairs, they would pull them apart and put the left one on shipping bill or label to show the post office they paid for the shipment. The right half is attached to the receipt. I’m not sure, though, if that receipt is immediate given to the sender, or if it’s attached to a post card that acts as the receipt and will be mailed back to the sender after the recipient receives it.

Note

There are three sets of parcel post stamps for this album page. The first set says, Somalia Italiana. The second set is overprinted with just Somalia. The third set is overprinted with Somalia Italiana and the face amount in the local currency: besa and rupie.

As you can see, I have the third set of stamps. The other two sets are more expensive. I’ve put off buying those for a while.

Contains 29 spots: own 9 – 9 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

Parcel Post Pairs - Overprint I

1.1	PP1	Parcel Post	5c (jan 1917) parcel post, brown
1.2	PP2	Parcel Post	10c (jan 1917) parcel post, blue
1.3	PP3	Parcel Post	20c (jan 1917) parcel post, blackish grey
2.1	PP4	Parcel Post	25c (jan 1917) parcel post, red
2.2	PP5	Parcel Post	50c (jan 1917) parcel post, orange
2.3	PP6	Parcel Post	1₤ (jan 1917) parcel post, violet
3.1	PP7	Parcel Post	2₤ (jan 1917) parcel post, green
3.2	PP8	Parcel Post	3₤ (jan 1917) parcel post, yellow
3.3	PP9	Parcel Post	4₤ (jan 1917) parcel post, grey
4.1	PP10	Parcel Post	50c (jan 1923) parcel post, orange
4.2	PP11	Parcel Post	1₤ (jan 1923) parcel post, violet
4.3	PP12	Parcel Post	2₤ (jan 1923) parcel post, green
5.1	PP13	Parcel Post	3₤ (jan 1923) parcel post, yellow
5.2	PP14	Parcel Post	4₤ (jan 1923) parcel post, grey

Parcel Post Pairs - Overprint II

6.1	PP15	Parcel Post	25c (feb 1923) parcel post, red
6.2	PP16	Parcel Post	50c (feb 1923) parcel post, orange
6.3	PP17	Parcel Post	1₤ (feb 1923) parcel post, lilac
7.1	PP18	Parcel Post	2₤ (feb 1923) parcel post, green
7.2	PP19	Parcel Post	3₤ (feb 1923) parcel post, yellow
7.3	PP20	Parcel Post	4₤ (feb 1923) parcel post, grey

Parcel Post Pairs - Overprint III

8.1	✓	PP21	Parcel Post	3b (jan 1923) parcel post, brown
8.2	✓	PP22	Parcel Post	5b (jan 1923) parcel post, brown
8.3	✓	PP23	Parcel Post	10b (jan 1923) parcel post, blue
9.1	✓	PP24	Parcel Post	25b (jan 1923) parcel post, red
9.2	✓	PP25	Parcel Post	50b (jan 1923) parcel post, orange
9.3	✓	PP26	Parcel Post	1r (jan 1923) parcel post, violet
10.1	✓	PP27	Parcel Post	2r (jan 1923) parcel post, green
10.2	✓	PP28	Parcel Post	3r (jan 1923) parcel post, yellow
10.3	✓	PP29	Parcel Post	4r (jan 1923) parcel post, grey

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.