Fascist Definitives
At this point in Italy’s history, the Fascists had been in power for seven years. The states are reflecting their fasces symbol and ideals. In this new collection of definitive stamps, you can see that their interests are outnumbering that of the king.
There are twenty-two stamps on this album page, all issued in April 1929, except the first one, which is an older issue and not really part of this set. The stamps show the faces or heads of people and legends: three of Caesar Augustus Octavia; four of Julius Caesar; four of Romulus and Remus with a she-wolf; four of Italia herself; and six of the king, Vittorio Emanuele III – the only living person. In summary, that’s fifteen stamps depicting past founders and leaders of the Roman empire, along with a supposed minor deity, compared to six of the king who used to be the only image on definitive stamps. And that one older stamp, it’s the king’s crest flanked by two fascist symbols: a metaphor of who’s really in charge these days.
They were begining to send a message to the king and his subjects: the Fascists are building the Italian empire – previously known as the Roman Empire – and the king is on his way out and Italy is becoming a republic.
Following along with the world domination visions of Germany and Adolph Hitler, Italy under Benito Mussolini did try to mold Italy into an empire. They also did establish a republic in 1943, which you’ll see from the stamps in my second album. And the king was forced into ending the monarchy and relinquishing control over Italy in 1946 when it became the Italian Republic.
Note
Recently, I bought these stamps. These aren’t my favorite looking definitives, but I’m glad to have completed this page in one order. It’s drudgery trying to fill in and replace the ones on pages like page 4 and page 5, I did’t want to go through that with this one. Fortunately, the cost of this large set was not much.
Contains 22 spots: own 22 – 22 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Oct 28, 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 |
Imperial Images
✓ |
242A |
2c (dec 1930) |
|||
✓ |
243 |
Romulus & Remus |
5c (apr 1929) |
||
✓ |
244 |
7½c (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
245 |
10c (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
246 |
15c (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
247 |
20c (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
248 |
25c (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
249 |
30c (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
250 |
35c (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
251 |
50c (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
252 |
75c (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
252A |
1₤ (jul 1942) |
|||
✓ |
253 |
1.25₤ (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
254 |
1.75₤ (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
255 |
2₤ (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
256 |
Romulus & Remus |
2.55₤ (apr 1929) |
||
✓ |
256A |
Romulus & Remus |
3.70₤ (nov 1930) |
||
✓ |
257 |
Romulus & Remus |
5₤ (apr 1929) |
||
✓ |
258 |
10₤ (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
259 |
20₤ (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
260 |
25₤ (apr 1929) |
|||
✓ |
261 |
50₤ (apr 1929) |
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.
