Military Postage
These stamps were intended for use by the military, hence the overprinting with P.M. for Posta Militare (i.e., Military Post). Intially, they were distributed to Italian troops in Albania and Greece because of fraudulent activities there with local administrators. Because of this factor, Sassone’s catalog says they should be located in my Occupations album. However, starting in 1944 they were used through out Italy for normal use – I’m not sure if the general public used them too. Therefore, Sassone places these stamps with the regular Italian Kingdom stamps. Still, I’ve decided to put this page in my Occupations album.
Originally,I had mistakening located this page in my sub-album for the National Republican Guard, the military and police of the German controled Italian government in the north form 1943 to 1945. It sat there for three years before I researched them and discovered they were issued by the Kingdom and not the G.N.R. Part of my confusion was that Colnect had an issue date of July 1943 – which I was using in my database. But Sassone says they’re from November 1942 – long before the forming of the Italian Socialist Republic. Otherwise, I would have noticed my mistake earlier. So I changed my database and moved this page.
Note
These stamps are the same as the ones from 1930 located in my Kingdom album, Fascist Definitives, except that they’ve been overprinted with the initials, P.M. They were overprinted again in 1945 during the reign of Umberto II as Lieutenant of the Realm (see Definitives). There were also printed by the Italian Socialist Republic (see Socialist Republic) in 1944 and for use by their Republican Guard (see Natl. Republican Guard) in 1943.
This one-page album is a little awkward to me in the line-up. If these stamps had been intended for use only in Albania, I could put them in an album for that occupation – once I add pages for it. Since they were used also in Greece, I won’t put it in an Albania album. For now it’s here by itself.
Contains 20 spots: own 20 – 20 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Jul 18, 2025
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 P.M.
✓ |
M1 |
10c (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M2 |
5c (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M3 |
15c (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M4 |
20c (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M5 |
25c (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M6 |
30c (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M7 |
50c (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M8 |
1₤ (nov 1942) |
Air Mail: Overprint P.M.
✓ |
M9 |
1.25₤ (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M10 |
1.75₤ (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M12 |
5₤ (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M11 |
2₤ (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M13 |
10₤ (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M14 |
50c (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M15 |
1₤ (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M16 |
2₤ (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M17 |
5₤ (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M18 |
2₤ (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M19 |
10₤ (nov 1942) |
|||
✓ |
M20 |
1.25₤ (nov 1942) |
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.
