Italian Occupations
This album contains stamps issued in territories that Italy, specifically the Kingdom of Italy occupied. Most of them are either stamps that were already in use and printed in those territories prior to occupation, but were overprinted by the Italian government with text and numbers to indicate occupation and usually the new face value of the stamps for use in the Italian postal system. They don’t include stamps issued or used prior to occupation or afterwards.
Military occupation of a land is typically a first step towards annexation and eventual colonization. Colonization includes the settling of Italians in occupied lands to make them more sympathetic to being part of the Kingdom. In some cases (e.g., Fiume), Italian citizens may have settled in the area prior to occupation. Their large numbers can lead to military involvement and occupation for their protection. These stamps, though, are from Italian occupied territories that never became colonies.
Note
Although I’ve had for years a smattering of stamps from occupied territories, less than ten of each, this is a new album in my collection. They weren’t easy to come by in the U.S., at least not where I was located. But my problem was mostly that I didn’t quite understand what they were and my focus was primarily on U.S. stamps.
Leuchtturm doesn’t make pre-printed pages for these stamps. I’m having to research the stamps in catalogs and elsewhere to determine which ones to collect, which go together, what are their sizes, etc. Then I go through the meticulous process of creating pages for them in Adobe Photoshop. I match the style of the Leuchtturm pages I have already, and print them on paper I bought from Leuchtturm.
The result is nice, but I don’t always have the sizes right, which I sometimes don’t know until I get the stamps. And sometimes I inadvertently don’t include a stamp on a pge. Plus, I don’t have good equipment for cutting the plastic stamp mounts. After I get all of the stamps and have them on my pages – or at least one of each type – I’ll redo the layout and print and mount them again. So please excuse the roughness in these early stages.
remaining stamps & stories in sub-album
page |
story |
note |
used |
need |
ordered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
St. Anthony of Padua (Aegean Islands) |
✓ |
✓ |
9 |
||
Express (Aegean Islands) |
✓ |
✓ |
2 |
||
Main Page (Albania) |
✓ |
✓ |
15 |
||
Airmail (Albania) |
11 |
||||
New King (Albania) |
22 |
||||
Mothers & Children (Albania) |
15 |
||||
Main Page (Austro-Hungarian Empire) |
✓ |
✓ |
22 |
||
Trentino (Austro-Hungarian Empire) |
30 |
||||
Venezia-Giulia (Austro-Hungarian Empire) |
39 |
||||
Dalmatia (Austro-Hungarian Empire) |
14 |
||||
Cefalonia & Itaca (Cefalonia) |
✓ |
✓ |
22 |
||
Corfu & Paxos (Corfu & Paxos) |
✓ |
✓ |
20 |
||
Main Page (Fiume) |
✓ |
✓ |
11 |
||
Antonio Grossich (Fiume) |
✓ |
✓ |
3 |
||
Venetian Navy (Fiume) |
✓ |
✓ |
1 |
||
First Anniversary (Fiume) |
✓ |
✓ |
7 |
||
Express Mail (Fiume) |
✓ |
✓ |
4 |
||
Postage Due (Fiume) |
✓ |
✓ |
7 |
||
Main Page (Fiumano Kupa) |
✓ |
✓ |
14 |
||
Maternity & Infancy (Fiumano Kupa) |
✓ |
✓ |
11 |
||
Imperialism (Fiumano Kupa) |
✓ |
✓ |
12 |
||
Hitler & Mussolini (Fiumano Kupa) |
✓ |
✓ |
5 |
||
Main Page (Lubiana Province) |
35 |
||||
Slovenia Air (Lubiana Province) |
18 |
||||
Postage Due (Lubiana Province) |
20 |
||||
Main Page (Montenegro) |
24 |
||||
Yugoslavian Scenes (Montenegro) |
24 |
||||
Balkan Air (Montenegro) |
25 |
||||
Lakes & Coast (Montenegro) |
17 |
||||
Prince-Bishop Njegoš (Montenegro) |
20 |