From publicity envelopes to franked lettercards

We all know that advertising is the soul of commerce, now as ever. It’s no coincidence that our grandparents even used the postal system itself for advertising books, hotels, bed linen, beds, non-prescription drugs and confectionery.  Nevertheless, this choice was not without its critics, as proven by the demise of advertising stamps in 1925. Cast aside, invalidated, some of them made fun of (such as the “Have you tried it?” on the Abrador, instinctively associated with the stony profile of Victor Emanuel III) or never used in the postal service (such as the express stamp for the scandalous “Baci” chocolates by Perugina).

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The material up for auction is not the kind of thing you come across every day.

Whether it’s the groups of letters, making up around fifty lots overall, sent by the soldiers who were approaching Rome to conquer the city in 1870; or the block of four pale blue 15 centesimi without the “horseshoe” overprint (Sassone catalogue 25A, lot 592, starting price 40,000 euros). Or likewise, considerably fine documents from the Austrian Levant such as lot 180, franked with one Egyptian stamp and one from the Levant but sent through the French postal services in Alexandria (starting price 15,000 euros), or the blue 2 pence with Queen Victoria used as a block of four (lot 1040, 5000 euros) or as a strip of seven (lot 1039, 5000 euros).

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The Papal Sovereign’s postal service is brought up to date

Goodbye to bajocchi and scudi: it was June 18th 1866 – as specified in the book “Stato Pontificio 1852-1870” by A. Barcella, G. Bizzarri, A. and M. Zanaria  – and Rome officially adopted the decimal metric system. With it, it took on a currency system based on the lira, which was divided into centesimi or cents. This event meant that new stamps were required. They were issued more than a year later, however, on September 21st 1867.
The seven denominations issued make up what philatelists know as the second of three series that were actually produced by the papal sovereign’s postal service. The stamps in this series are identical to the previous issue, except for the crossed keys and the papal tiara – however this time they were depicted in different frames and on paper in a selection of much brighter colours.

As with the first series, which was issued in several stages between 1852 and 1864, this issue is also imperforate.
It contained seven basic denominations instead of the original eleven: the highest value was the 3 centesimi, which is known to exist in two shades: pink grey (it is more valuable new: the Sassone 2008 prices it at five thousand euros, considering it with incomplete gum); and grey (in this case, the most valuable are used stamps, on piece or on letter – priced at 12,500, 15,000 and 150 thousand euros respectively).
The green 3 centesimi is also worth a mention. It was never issued, due to a change in the rate for franking printed matter, which dropped to 2 centesimi following an agreement with the Italian post office.

With only 6 existing pieces known of, valued by Sassone at 200,000 euros (for the defective pieces alone), this is the crowning glory of the Papal State collection and indeed of all the Italian States.
Zanaria has a wide range of guaranteed pieces: the pink grey, either new at 1500 euros  or used at 1850 euros  as well as the used grey at 4500 euros, the sheet corner 10 centesimi, new with gum intact, at 2500 euros compared to an evaluation in excess of 3600; and, of course, the prestigious 3 centesimi.