St. Ben & Umberto II
In the Sixth Century, St. Benedict took over an Apollo temple and turned it into a Christian church, dedicated to St. Martin of Tours. Over time more chapels and buildings were added until it became Monte Cassino Abbey, a territorial abbey.
The stamps on the first three rows are in commemoration of the 14 Century of the Monte Cassino Abbey: the cloister, the founding, and the death of St. Benedict.
The first set of stamps here commemorate the fourth Tripoli fair. I need to research what went on at these fairs and why there were so many of them in Tripoli. At first, I think they were once a year, but after a while there seem to have been more than one a year.
The Prince Marries
The crown prince of this time, in 1930, Umberto II married Maria José of Belgium – who became the last Princess of Piedmont. In May 1946, they became king and queen of Italy, but for only about a month before King Umberto II abdicated with the start of the Italian Republic.
The three stamps at the bottom depict the royal couple, showing them at the time of their marriage. The stamps were issued in 1930, sixteen years before their coronation as king and queen.
Note
This page is done, but I think I could write a little more about the Prince – and about the Princess. Maybe I’ll do that later. I’ve just been so busy working on redesigning these pages, I haven’t had the energy to do more.
Contains 10 spots: own 10 – 10 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Jul 10, 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 |
St. Benedict
✓ |
54 |
20c (oct 1929) |
|||
✓ |
55 |
25c (oct 1929) |
|||
✓ |
60 |
10+2₤ (oct 1929) |
|||
✓ |
56 |
50+10c (oct 1929) |
|||
✓ |
57 |
75+15c (oct 1929) |
|||
✓ |
58 |
1.25+0.25₤ (oct 1929) |
|||
✓ |
59 |
5+1₤ (oct 1929) |
Umberto II
✓ |
61 |
20c (mar 1930) |
|||
✓ |
62 |
50+10c (mar 1930) |
|||
✓ |
63 |
1.25+0.25₤ (mar 1930) |
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.
