Red Cross
In June 1859, Jean-Henri Dunant of Switzerland, went to Soferino, Italy to see the French emperor, Napoleon III, who he was told was there at the time. He wanted to talk to him about doing business in Algeria. When he arrived, he discovered a battle had just ended. It was part of the second Italian war of independence, also known as the Franco-Austrian war, involving the two empires: France and the Austro-Hungarian empires. About 40,000 troops were killed or seriously injured. There was little or no medical services available for the wounded. Dunant was upset by what he saw and dropped his business plans and helped to organize medical assistance for the injured. Aftewards, he wrote a book called, A Memory of Soferino. That led eventually to the Geneva Convention of 1864 regarding the treatment of the injured in battle, which then led to the formation of the Red Cross. The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Dunant for his work in this area.
The stamps on the top row of this album page are commemorating the Red Cross, which had been established about thirty years before. Notice, however, that the first one depicts the flag of the Kingdom of Italy and the other three show the eagle of the House of Savoy, the king’s family. The only reference to the Red Cross is the text at the bottom of each, Croce Rossa. To me, this speaks to the egotistic nature of the king, Vittorio Emanuele III. But, maybe I’m reading too much into it.
More Elephants & Lions
This is the fifth set of Benadir elephant and lion stamps, although it’s referred to as Benadir Pictorials IV. With these stamps, the overprints change the amount of besa, as well as states the equivalent in Italian cents – or lira for the last one. The 2-cent and 20-cent values are not included in this set, though.
Note
This page is full, as you can see. I recently bought the Benadir Pictorials IV set of stamps, the ones for the last two rows. I’m glad to have them. I’m not sure why they kept tweaking these stamps, the price and overprinting. But I do like the colors.
Contains 10 spots: own 10 – 10 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Feb 5, 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 |
Red Cross
✓ |
19 |
10+5c (jul 1916) |
|||
✓ |
20 |
15+5c (nov 1916) |
|||
✓ |
21 |
20+5c (nov 1916) |
|||
✓ |
22 |
20+5c (jul 1916) |
Benadir Pictorials IV
✓ |
24 |
3b | 5c (feb 1922) |
|||
✓ |
25 |
6b | 10c (feb 1922) |
|||
✓ |
26 |
9b | 15c (feb 1922) |
|||
✓ |
27 |
15b | 25c (feb 1922) |
|||
✓ |
28 |
30b | 50c (feb 1922) |
|||
✓ |
29 |
60b | 1l (feb 1922) |
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.
