Semi-State Entities

These stamps are a little drab, but their original purpose is a bit interesting. From what I can determine, there were a few government affiliates that qualified for free or nearly free postage. At first, they need only indicate who they were and their exemption on the envelop to forego affixing a stamp. This seems to have been similar to how members of the U.S. Congress need only sign their name in the top right corner in lieu of stamps.

There were obvious problems with this method. So in 1924, the government issued these sets of stamps with the name of each qualifying organization overprinted on it. The agency was allocated however many the government determiend they would require for the year. In turn, the agency would pay a flat fee of one-thousand Italian lira. In addition to using a stamp or stamps for the correct normal postage, the envelop had to be printed with the name of the agency and state that the correspondence was for official use and all. Also, the envelop had to be given to the post office unsealed so that a postal worker could inspect the contents for compliance before sealing it.

You can see an example of all of this in the image here of an envelop. Click on the image to enlarge. Notice the required text in the bottom left corner. It says, “Correspondence between the offices of the National Fund and that with the insured is exempt from stamp duty as long as it is presented to the post offices in open envelopes”. By the way, I love the handwriting.

The post office used these stamps, or at least issued them, for only one year before the program was abandoned. I’m not sure what they did instead. There were several agencies that were granted these stamps, though. My album has only five pages of these stamps. There were many more agencies than the ones that the Lighthouse stamp album people decided to include. If I was a more avid collector, I might add my own pages for the other stamps, to collect all of them. But the five pages that are here are more than I care to own. As I mentioned above, I’m tempted to remove these pages, or keep only one page for a sample – just this page since I have one set here.

The organizations for the stamps on first and fourth rows of this album page were libraries. They’re described on the Libraries page, two pages ahead.

Note

There are a few pages of these simple stamps that were used to raise funds for various public institutions. They’re quite expensive and I’ve been tempted to remove them from my album and foregoing collecting them. But I gave in recently and bought my first set. It will take me a long time to get all of these, but I guess I’ll go for them.

Contains 16 spots: own 4 – 4 unused, 0 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Dec 17, 2022

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

Overprint Bologna Library

1.1	✓	ES1	Bologna Library	5c (mar 1924) entities, green
1.2	✓	ES2	Bologna Library	10c (mar 1924) entities, carmine
1.3	✓	ES3	Bologna Library	30c (mar 1924) entities, red brown
1.4	✓	ES4	Bologna Library	50c (mar 1924) entities, violet

Overprint War Vets.

2.1	ES5	Invalid War Vets. - Rome	5c (nov 1924) entities, green
2.2	ES6	Invalid War Vets. - Rome	10c (nov 1924) entities, carmine
2.3	ES7	Invalid War Vets. - Rome	25c (nov 1924) entities, lilac brown
2.4	ES8	Invalid War Vets. - Rome	30c (nov 1924) entities, red brown
3.1	ES9	Invalid War Vets. - Rome	50c (nov 1924) entities, violet
3.2	ES10	Invalid War Vets. - Rome	1₤ (nov 1924) entities, light blue
3.3	ES11	Invalid War Vets. - Rome	3₤ (nov 1924) entities, dark lilac red
3.4	ES12	Invalid War Vets. - Rome	5₤ (nov 1924) entities, dark brown

Overprint Milan Library

4.1	ES13	Milan Circulating Library	5c (mar 1924) entities, green	longobardi (€ 650) 4 stamps in set.
4.2	ES14	Milan Circulating Library	10c (mar 1924) entities, carmine	ibīdem
4.3	ES15	Milan Circulating Library	30c (mar 1924) entities, red brown	ibīdem
4.4	ES16	Milan Circulating Library	50c (mar 1924) entities, violet	ibīdem

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.

remaining stamps & stories in sub-album

page	story	note	need

Main Page	✓	✓	12
Libraries	✓	✓	4
Redeemed & Protected	✓	✓	8
Unemployment	✓	✓	8

More Details
Overprint	Catalog	Own
Semi-State Entities
Assoc. Biblioteche - Bologna	ES1 - ES4	✓
Assoc. Naz. Mutil. Inv. Guerra - Roma	ES5 - ES12
Bibliot. Circolanti Milano	ES13 - ES16
Worker’s Comp. & Pension
Cassa Nazionale Assic. Inf. Lavoro	ES17 - ES23	✓
Cassa Nazionale Assicuraz. Sociali	ES24 - ES29	✓
Libraries
Consorzio Bibliot. - Torino	ES30 - ES33	✓
Federaz. Italiana Biblioteche Pop.	ES34 - ES37	✓
Gruppo D’Azione Scuole - Milano	ES38 - ES41	✓
Lega Nazionale - Trieste	ES42 - ES45
Redeemed & Protected
Opera Italia Redenta - Roma	ES46 - ES49	✓
Opera Naz. Protez. Assist. Inv. Guerra	ES50 - ES57
Patronati Scolastici	ES58 - ES61	✓
Unemployment
Ufficio Nazionale Colloc. Disoccup.	ES62 - ES68	✓
Assoc. Naz. Mutil. Inv. Guerra - Roma (Anno 1924)	ES70 - ES77
Vigilanza Obbligo Scolastico	ES69	✓