Duchy of Modena
The Duchy of Modena and Reggio was founded in 1452. It was located in Northwestern Italian peninsula, in what’s now the region of Emilia-Romagna. It was ruled initially by the House of Este. Starting in 1814, it was ruled specifically by the Austria-Este branch of the family. The Este dynasty was a great sponsor of the arts, making it a cultural center during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Newspaper Stamps
The stamps on this page relate to newspapers. It seems that as a tax on newspapers, you had to buy a stamp from the post office for each newspaper. But that seems odd. It may be that if the newspaper was delivered by the post office, perhaps from locations far away, you had to buy a stamp. That would account for the postage due newspaper stamps – the four at the bottom.
Still, I wonder how that went: a newspaper publisher would send a newspaper in the mail to a subscriber. If they forgot to include the stamp, it would be delivered with a postage due stamp and the postman would collect the cost of the stamps from the subscriber upon delivery? Seems cumbersome and odd. Nevertheless, there are many things they did in the early years that seem strange now. I’ll have to research this.
Provisional Government
After the Second Italian War of Independence in December 1859 Modena was joined with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza to form the United Provinces of Central Italy. This later was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardegna in March 1860, which later became the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
Note
These stamps have a simple design, but I like them. I particularly like the color of the papers on which they were printed. As a result, I’ve been drawn lately to bidding on them at auctions.
One of them that I bought recently at auction is especially interesting – at least to me. It’s the second stamp on the third row. The face amount says, “Cnet. 5” – instead of “Cent. 5”. In those days, printers used a font of letters and numbers. Someone put these letters in the wrong order. There’s something appealing about that mistake, although I don’t usually like stamps with errors.
Contains 23 spots: own 14 – 14 unused, 0 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Jun 29, 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 |
Duchy
1 |
3c (1852) |
||||
2 |
10c (1852) |
||||
✓ |
3 |
15c (1852) |
|||
✓ |
4 |
25c (1852) |
|||
5 |
40c (1852) |
||||
6 |
40c (1852) |
||||
✓ |
7 |
5c (1852) |
|||
✓ |
8 |
5c (1855) |
|||
✓ |
9 |
10c (1857) |
|||
10 |
40c (1855) |
||||
✓ |
11 |
1l (1853) |
Newspaper Postage Due
G1 |
Crest Eagle |
9c (1853) |
|||
✓ |
G2 |
Crest Eagle |
9c (1853) |
||
✓ |
G3 |
9c (1855) |
|||
✓ |
G4 |
10c (1857) |
|||
G5 |
10c (1859) |
Provisional Government
12 |
5c (1859) |
mariotti (€ 195) |
|||
13 |
15c (1859) |
mariotti (€ 294) |
|||
✓ |
14 |
15c (1859) |
|||
✓ |
15 |
20c (1859) |
|||
✓ |
16 |
20c (1859) |
|||
✓ |
17 |
40c (1859) |
|||
✓ |
18 |
80c (1859) |
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.
