Inventory Problems
Italy began offering parcel post service in 1884 with the issuance of the stamps shown on the Parcel Post album page. As with the documentary stamps mentioned on the previous page, the Government Printing Works in Torino seems to have printed too many them – more than the demand for them; perhaps because the public had not then come accustomed to using the post office for package delivery. At same time, the demand for regular postage had increased. So, it made use of the overstock by printing new values on them, repurposing them to two-cent general postage. You can see these stamps, the overprints, in the first two rows of stamps on this page of the album.
To meet the higher need to regular postage, or at lease certain values, they also changed the face value of the few definitives that had printed. You can see those in the third row here. They overprinted them, changing them to two-cent and twenty-cent stamps.
New Definitives of Umberto I
The remaining rows of stamps on this album page are new definitives depicting Umberto I. It seems they slowly got caught up with their inventory needs.
You’ll see on printed a few of these stamps a coat of arms. This is for the House of Savoy, the king’s family. Are the heart of all of their coats of arms and is a simple crest consisting of red with white bands crossing it. You’ll see this crest on most of the stamps from Italy and still today on many official buildings and public vehicles (e.g., street cars).
Note
This page is finished. I have all of them on this album page, and they’re all unused. For a long time, on the third row, the second and third stamps were used, albeit fairly clean: the cancelations hadn’t blotted out the stamps. However, I recently bought replacements for them. I tried for a long time to find just those two, but couldn’t. So I bought a set of the three on that row. The one unused I had in that set – the first one in the third row – is not very valuable. Buying all three and discarding one isn’t too much of a waste, although I hate doing that. And the set I found for sale cost much less than the buying individually the two I needed. I’ve been keeping the stamps I’ve replaced, hoping to find someone who will take them.
Contains 18 spots: own 18 – 18 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Apr 6, 2023
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 Overprints
✓ |
50 |
Umberto I |
2c (dec 1890) |
||
✓ |
51 |
Umberto I |
2c (dec 1890) |
||
✓ |
52 |
Umberto I |
2c (dec 1890) |
||
✓ |
53 |
Umberto I |
2c (dec 1890) |
||
✓ |
54 |
Umberto I |
2c (dec 1890) |
||
✓ |
55 |
Umberto I |
2c (dec 1890) |
Repricing Definitives
✓ |
56 |
Umberto I |
2c (may 1891) |
||
✓ |
57 |
Umberto I |
20c (jun 1890) |
||
✓ |
58 |
Umberto I |
20c (jun 1890) |
New Definitives
✓ |
59 |
Savoy Coat of Arms |
5c (nov 1891) |
||
✓ |
60 |
Umberto I |
10c (jul 1896) |
||
✓ |
61 |
Umberto I |
20c (jun 1895) |
||
✓ |
62 |
Umberto I |
25c (mar 1893) |
||
✓ |
63 |
Umberto I |
45c (mar 1895) |
||
✓ |
64 |
5₤ (may 1891) |
|||
✓ |
65 |
Savoy Coat of Arms |
1c (jul 1896) |
||
✓ |
66 |
Savoy Coat of Arms |
2c (jul 1896) |
||
✓ |
67 |
Savoy Coat of Arms |
5c (feb 1897) |
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.
