Italy 1945, 30l Definitive - A Little Advice Needed

Gents
Do we have any Italy experts out there? I have been working on an old collection I picked up at auction for some time now, and have just got to Italy. On the second page of the collection were two mint (very lightly hinged) blocks of 6, one of SG659, 5 lira blue; and one of S667, 30 lira blue. When I looked in my old SG Stamps of the World it gave a CV of £110 for the 30 lira stamp! When I recovered I went to the computer and the SG on-line catalogue gives the stamp today at £275, making my block potentially over £1600 cat val!!
So, knowing that there must be an explanation for this sudden un-expected windfall, I need your help. I have done some pics of front and back, the stamps look right (pics aren't very good as my camera has a mind of it's own!) and the watermark seems to be a wheel, so that seems OK as well. Does anyone know anything about this issue, that would mean I have not hit the jackpot?? (That last bit said with tongue firmly in cheek!)
Fingers crossed, looking forward to your thoughts!

Hi David, well you got my attention...checking my scott catalog I find only one example of the 30 cent blue "torch" stamp...Scott #488 from 1947-48..catalogs $67.50 mint and 25 cents used..guess which one I have ? Of course I have been known to overlook things..lets see what others say !

David, I read you now..sorry about that..you were talking about two different value stamps..it looks like you have something there !!

Hi philb,
Thanks for getting back!
Before I posted the thread I googled this issue (to make sure I wasn't asking dumb questions!) and came across this site:-www.italianstamps.co.uk/republic/firstdef/index.html
The stamps are detailed on there and the only date given is 1945.
I don't have a Scott catalogue, but my old SG catalogue only mentions these for 1945.
So maybe there are re-issues in 1947-8? The plot thickens!

Are all of the stamps hinged, or just the top two in each block? I don't have a catalogue handy, but thought to bring it up because there might be a never hinged bonus, or conversely, the price you gave was for never hinged copies.

The years in which there were never hinged bonuses vary by country. For instance, most of Germany stamps listed have never hinged bonuses up until the 1950s, whereas only select US stamps list never hinged bonuses beyond 1934 (Sc #771).

This doesn't answer your immediate question, but does add another question mark to your potential windfall :)

I get the exact same as Philby in my 2009 Scott.

They look good/genuine to me. Only obvious faults I see are in the top 2 stamps.

In the 2011 Scott, they are $175 each for hinged. It doesn't list individual NH price, but based on the set, you can expect the NH price to be about 2x the hinged price.

Congratulations! I'm not sure I have a mint copy of that stamp or not, let alone having 6!

k

No, not a reissue, but a later issue. The 8l and 30l stamps were not issued until 1948. Most of the other stamps in the set were issued in 1945-1946, and 2 stamps in 1947.

Rileysan, khj,
Yes, just the top two in each block were hinged, but they were done so well that the hinge practically fell off and now you can hardly tell they were hinged at all! As I said, my pictures are not very good.
Have just had another look at the website I mentioned, the 30 lira was first issued October 1947 according to that.

Good Find David !!

Must have been Dennisons!

Certainly looks like a decent find. This particular collection had already yielded some nice stuff, including a penny black and a 10 shilling blue sea-horse from the British section. There was also some really nice early West German and Allied Occupation. But this is the best so far!
Just one more question - if I was to sell, would anyone recommend splitting the block, or should I leave it intact? Hypothetical question at the moment, of course.

David, I am sure there will be people that do not agree, myself I would split the block and sell the singles over time..not all at once !!

You may already know this, but if you break up the block, keep in mind the following:

-- the block appears folded between the 1st and 2nd rows from the top; also, the perfs are noticeable not even/straight; so guide your tear carefully and adjust appropriately if you are a "right-handed" or "left-handed" puller; if you are not careful, you can end up with 2 stamps with short perfs or 4 stamps with uneven perf edges

-- the middle row of stamps has a relatively smaller top margin (especially at left), which will be more evident after the block is broken apart; you may want to try to compensate for that when you tear, as longer teeth will always give an illusion of a wider margin

JMT. Again, nice find!

Boy, that honey hides right out in the open. That is a pretty common design, and I don't look twice at them when going Italian stamps. I didn't realize that there was a stamp in that design with that kind of catalogue value.

There doesn't seem to be much premium for blocks of four, according to the Unificato listing (but with blocks priced only by the set, and not by the individual issues). I infer from that (perhaps incorrectly) that splitting a block of six isn't fatal (assuming you have nerves of steel).

Even breaking it into two singles and a block of four would likely be easier to sell than a block of six. The block of four could always be broken down further if necessary or useful.

I would say you are correct.

Personally, I don't like to break up high dollar items (but yes, I have done so before). However, I wouldn't worry about destroying a "rare" multiple. Trust me, there are several dealers with full panes of these things.

But agreed, I would be more concerned about accidentally damaging the perfs while breaking them apart.