Italo Balbo Cover

Well, I'm almost to 50 posts, so I thought I would pull out one
of my favorite covers from my collection. This one is the Italian
Fascist General, Italo Balbo, who led several mass flights, this
one being Rome to Rio De Janeiro. It was signed by the various
pilots, which makes it all the more interesting. I assume his
signature is somewhere, but I haven't tried to place it yet. I
have no idea how my Grandmother decided to make this cover part
of her collection, but very thankful that she did. Years later, I
obtained a book, "The Mass Flights of Italo Balbo" which has more
detail and is quite an interesting read.

Very nice piece of postal history -- wow, what a busy cover with all those signatures!

Here is Balbo's signature if you want to look for it:

i would give my left pinky for such an item...i enjoy items from the Chicago Century of Progress and Italy and colonies stamps from the 1930's to 1950's !!

It's too bad, but my only other Century of Progress cover
is one with (3) stamps, but was never delivered. Bummer.

What? Not good enough for your right pinky, huh?

k

Aaaaaaaaaay...i have Century of progress to show...i hate to keep taking the Balbo Italy c48 and c49 out of the album to scan..but that can be done also !!

this isn't my best one..but being a staunch APS member I better show it !!

That's a great Balbo cover! It appears to be addressed to the man himself in Rio Janeiro. I wonder if he was a stamp collector?

Nigel,

Not sure if Balbo was a stamp collector, but my book explains:

"Initially the 7.70 lire stamp issued for the 1930 Atlantic crossing
was not sold to the public, but instead was used to frank 100,000
covers prepared by the ministry of Aeronautics. All of the covers
were addressed by hand, with a few exceptions which were typed, to
General Balbo, General Valle or to the Italian ambassador to Brazil
in Rio de Janeiro, Vittorio Cerruti. Many of the covers were signed
by the flight's pilots including Generals Balbo and Valle. When they
were eventually placed on sale, those covers bearing Balbo's
signature were priced at 500 lire, those with Valle's signature at
400 lire, and those with only the pilot's signatures at 300 lire.
Eventually most of the covers and stamps for the cruise were
destroyed by the post office. It is estimated that about 5,000
covers franked with the 7.70 lire stamped existed in 1931. Fewer
exist today, but it is difficult to establish their number. There
were 500 kilos of mail that were carried by fourteen planes. Since
the aircraft remained in Brazil, the covers were returned to Italy
by surface carrier."

It then goes on to detail that only five or six covers were franked
with a 50 centesimi stamp instead of the 1.25 lire value.

Of course, there is also the special seven star version of the 7.70
lire which is much more rare ... but not what I have.

So I think I have the most common version, but still a neat little
piece. When I eventually give it to my grandkids, I may have to
explain more about Fascists than anything else ...

Wow ! a hundred thousand covers...thats a lot by any standards...well, its the first one I have seen !!

Great information Partime! Thanks for giving us so much interesting background on this.

Thanks for the comments. I had to check my book twice, and, yes
it does say 100,000 covers. They must have thrown away quite a few.
Also, I have been unable to find Balbo, but I think I have Valle
just above Rio de Janeiro.

Theres one on ebay now for $1,500...a lot of money if a hundred thousand covers were created

I guess there could well have been 100,000 items carried in total by the 14 planes but as you say if there were only 5,000 covers with the special 7.70 stamp and these can be divided up into those with Balbos's signature, Valle's (such as yours) and the rest with the pilots' signatures then I wouldn't be surprised if they sell for high prices. Michel states that only 20,000 of these 7.70 lire stamps were produced.

the 20 thousand figure sounds very realistic for a special high value airmail..the 2008 scott catalog values the stamp C27 at 225.00 unused..450.00 mint never hinged and 925.00 used...of course a cover with the signatures is something very different !

A little more reading reveals the following:

"At the conclusion of the flight, the official prepared covers ere
placed on sale to the public. On the following June 27, the
Philatelic window at the Rome post office offered the stamp for sale.
Fifteen hundred stamps were sold at face value, one to a customer.
The stamps were then withdrawn and again placed on sale on August 15.
At the end of July 1931, it was announced that most of the remaining
stamps would be burned by the post office and that some would be kept
for later sale to collectors. The post office would periodically
place the stamp on sale at the Rome post office always at increased
prices. The final sale occurred on November 6, 1937.

Approximately 180,000 to 185,000 of the original 200,000 stamps
issued were destroyed by the post office. It is estimated that
about 5,000 covers and 5,000 stamps are still in existence."

So, the book may contradict itself when it says that 100,000 covers
were originally created. In any case, it does say that only 5,000
covers are still in existence. I would assume that the 5,000 stamps
are all unused.

I also want to add that in 1930 he was sent to Libya as Governor
General, a post he held until his death in 1940, when his plane was
brought down over Tobruk, Libya, supposedly by accident.