Lake Lugano
You can find the story behind these stamps and the place from whence they came, Campione d’Italia, on the previous page. The stamps on this page are identical to the set of five on the top of that page, except that those have a perforation of 11 and these 11 ½ pin holes per 2 centimeters. That’s not a big difference, but that’s how it is sometimes with stamps and what makes some rare and more expensive.
Incidentally, although I’ve never been to Campione d’Italia, I was invited to visit someone who lived there about six years ago. It was a beautiful Russian woman I dated briefly – just one date, actually. She moved to Campione a few months after we went out that one time. We chatted on-line a few months later, renewing my interest in her and hers in me, it seemed. So, I asked her to do dinner. She agreed to meet, but said she wouldn’t come to Milan. She suggested we have dinner in Campione.
At that time, I didn’t have an Italian passport and had overstayed my welcome in Italy. To meet her in Campione for dinner, I would have had to rent a car, drive a few hours to get there and a few more back. That wasn’t the worst part. It would have required me to cross the border of Italy and Switzerland four times in one day, having my passport looked over by as many as eight border agents. I didn’t usually worry too much about passport control, being American, but that was a little too excessive scrutiny for me. One of them would have tagged me and had me deported. Perhaps I’ll go see Campione one day – with my wife.
Note
I’ve been thinking for about nine months that it would be nice to be able to get these few stamps, to complete this page. It would help complete this album – or at least have the last pages of this album done. I’ve only seen them for sale twice: one dealer is asking six-hundred euros and the other wants about eight-hundred. That’s a lot to pay for five stamps – especially when I already have them, but with a slightly wider perforation (see previous page).
Recently, though, I was flipping through the pages of an on-line auction catalog for a dealer in Florence. I found these stamps with a starting price of less than half of the lower priced one I found – which is still pricey, but I didn’t think I’d do better. I had only a few hours to get in a bid, but I put in a bid and won. It’s nice to have this page finished.
Contains 5 spots: own 5 – 5 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 |
First Issue: Campione
✓ |
1A |
0.05Fr (jun 1944) |
|||
✓ |
2A |
0.10Fr (jun 1944) |
|||
✓ |
3A |
0.20Fr (jun 1944) |
|||
✓ |
4A |
0.30Fr (jun 1944) |
|||
✓ |
5A |
1Fr (jun 1944) |
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.
