Announcements
In Italy, the stamp made its first appearance on June 1, 1850. In that year,
the Kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto issued its first series called the Aquila Bicepte, which included five different values.
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Within a few months, the other pre-unification Italian states also issued stamps:
on January 1, 1851, the Kingdom of Sardinia printed its first series, the 20 centesimi (for the entire State) and the 5 centesimi (for the city);
on April 1, it was the turn of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, with a series of six values in crazie that depicted the marzocco, the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy;
on January 1, 1852, the Papal State and in June of the same year, the Duchy of Modena and the Duchy of Parma.
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The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in 1858, was the last of the ancient Italian states to adopt the postage stamp. It did so with a series of 7 values in grana, all pink. Of these, the ½ grana rosa (Trinacria) became a great rarity after the Garibaldi government established in Naples took back the printing plate and transformed the value into ½ tornese and used blue instead of pink. This stamp, which remained in circulation for only one month, is considered among the rarest in Italian postal history.
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Following the unification of Italy, the first Sardinian stamp (the 5 centesimi black of January 1851) is also considered the first truly Italian stamp.
Under the government of Camillo Benso di Cavour, Count Giovanni Battista Barbavara di Gravellona, director general of the Sardinian Post Office, was appointed director general of the Italian Post Office in 1861. The first post-unification issue was on February 24, 1862, when the 10 centesimi bistro with the effigy of Vittorio Emanuele II was put into circulation, similar to the Sardinian one of 1855 but with perforation.
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In April 1863, the first stamp for the Italian post was issued and on which the wording “francobollo italiano” appeared for the first time: the 15 c. value designed by the printer and engraver of the Kingdom of Sardinia Francesco Matraire.
The first Italian stamp.
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