Italy

24th February 1862

↓ - Changes of Administation - Innovations


	Italy Sc17 SG1

Perf 11½ x 12, no watermark, typographed, head embossed.
Printed by F. Matraire, Turin

Description	Date issued	Scott#	SG#	Mi#	Y&T#	Notes
10 centisimi bister	24th Feb 1862	17	1	9	1	YT bistre
10c yellow-brown		17a	1d	9b	2	SG yellow bistre; Mi gelbbraun; YT bistre-jaune
10c brown		17b	1b	9a	2a	SG bistre-brown; Mi braun; YT brun
10c dark olive brown		17c
10c dark brown		17d	1a			SG deep bistre
10c olive bister		17e	1c			SG olive-bistre
10c reddish orange		17f
20c dark blue	1st Mar 1862	18
20c blue		18a	2c	10	3	SG blue; Mi blau; YT bleu
20c pale blue		18b
20c pale milky blue		18c	2a			SG indigo
20c gray blue		18d	2b			SG violet blue
20c deep dark blue		18e
40c red	10th Apr 1862	20	3a	11	4	SG rose-red; Mi karmin; YT rouge
40c pale rose		20a	3c			SG rose
40c bright carmine red		20b	3b			SG deep red
80c orange	3rd Oct 1862	21	4a	12	5	SG orange-yellow; Mi gelb; YT jaune-rouge
80c bright yellow		21a	4c			SG yellow
80c dark yellow		21b
80c olive yellow		21c

The colours named are from Scott: matching the colour descriptions from Gibbons is normally pretty straightforward but in this case is largely guesswork. There is no SG4b.

Italy’s 24th February 1862 #1 had a rather complicated gestation. The Italian states were united by 1860 under Sardinia’s King Victor Emmanuel II but national stamps were not issued for two years. During that period the states’ stamps were still used, gradually replaced by the stamps of Sardinia and then the 1862 national stamps that were the Sardinian issues with perforations.

Changes of Administration


Italian Social Republic	Allied Military Government	The Republic
1944 Sc1 SG57	1943 Sc1N1 SG583	1946 Sc478 SG678

Following Italy’s surrender in 1943, Mussolini established the Italian Social Republic, which used Italian overprints. Allied Military Government stamps were issued in 1943 and the Republic was established in 1946.

Innovations


World's First Airmail	World's First Parcel Post stamp	World's First Pneumatic Post	World's First Stereoscopic stamps
1917 SG102 Sc-C1 Express o/p	1884 Sc-Q1 SG-P38	1913 Sc-D1 SG-PE96	1956 Sc718-19 SG940-41

Italy has the distinction of the first ever airmail, a 1917 overprint.
They also brought to the world parcel post (1884), pneumatic post (1913, five cities linked by pneumatic tubes) and stereoscopic stamps (1956, special glasses required).