Valor

Medaglia d’oro al valor militare (i.e., Gold Medal of Military Valour) was establish in 1793 by Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia of the Savoy house. It was given for outstanding gallantry in war by junior officers and soldiers. In 1815, Vittorio Emanuele I of Sardinia replaced it or renamed it the Military Order of Savoy. However, it wasn’t awarded very much until it was revived in 1833 by Carlo Alberto I. In 1861 his son, Vittorio Emanuele II, renamed it the Military Order of Italy.

During the time of the Kingdom of Italy, the medal was awarded to only three-hundred sixty-eight people. There were three that weren’t Italians: one of whom was an American pilot, DeWitt Coleman who was killed at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto during World War I. As an Italian-American, I take pride in that.

These stamps are to commemorate the hundred years since the medal had be reinstated by Carlo Alberto I. The stamps depict scenes of several soldiers fighting in Italy’s wars. I’m not sure if they’re showing specific soldiers, though. Most of them were used for ordinary postage. A few of them, though, were semi-postal stamps. In addition to the regular postal amount, there’s an additional charge which was used for some sort of chartiy – probably some pet project of the Fascist party of the time.

Note

This blank page has been bothering me for a while. There’s something satisfying about completing a page, and something very unsatisfying, very disconcerting about having a blank page in one of my stamp albums. Fortunately, I managed to find a set of these stamps for sale from one of my favorite dealers in Milan at an affordable price. So they’re on their way to me. Soon this page will be finished.

Contains 11 spots: own 11 – 11 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Jan 22, 2024

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

Medal of Valor

1.1	✓	81	Infantry with Periscope	15c (jan 1935) comm., sepia
1.2	✓	82	Grenadiers	20c (jan 1935) comm., orange red
1.3	✓	84	Bersagliere	30c (jan 1935) comm., lilac
2.1	✓	85	Infantry with Periscope	50c (jan 1935) comm., dark green
2.2	✓	86	Artillery Cannon	75c (jan 1935) comm., carmine
3.1	✓	87	Militia	1.25₤ (jan 1935) comm., blue
3.2	✓	89	Forward Observer on Radio	2.55+2₤ (jan 1935) semi-postal, brown red
3.3	✓	90	Caring for Injured	2.75+2₤ (jan 1935) semi-postal, yellow brown
4.1	✓	80	Carabinieri Police	10c (jan 1935) comm., grey black
4.2	✓	83	Alpine Soldiers	25c (jan 1935) comm., green
4.3	✓	88	Cavalry on Horses	1.75+1₤ (jan 1935) semi-postal, violet

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.