Are These Polish Or Italian?

Google translate says it's "post office of Polish settlements".
I assume it was issued by the Polish post office. In Italy???

Polish issued in England .

Thanks. It seems they were issued in 1946 for use by the Polish army camp in Italy.

According to the documentation in the Witt Collection, part of a set of 9 cinderellas issued in 1946. Printed in Rome, and sometimes called the "Polish Legion in Italy" issue. 5 of the stamps were later overprinted.

Are they considered cinderellas even if they were actually used for postal purposes?

Whether they ever had any accepted postal validity, I'll leave that to others more familiar with that issue to discuss.

Has anyone ever seen one properly canceled on a non-philatelic cover? Are they listed in any of the major catalogs? I admit I never checked Michel.

Interesting articles, especially the 2nd one.

Thanks, Rod!

Thanks for those articles . The Polish Government in Exile first was in Paris in 1939 then with the fall of France in 1940 ,the Polish moved to England for the rest of the war .The POLISH ARMY was put under the control of the British Military . During the war and the occupation after the war it doesn't make sense that they would be allowed to have their own postal system . These were created by someone in the Polish Exile Government to make a quick buck and I can't belive that some field general in Italy would take it upon himself to do it . It had to be someone in the Exile Government in England who created them

The fact is, as shown in the picture in the 2nd article, that the stamps did serve postal usage, even if retrogradely they were declared non-postal by the postal authorities.
With all due respect to Buzzetti, they looked like postage stamps, served as postage stamps, hence they were postage stamps.

Just because Cinderella goes through the mail or is cancelled by favour doesn't make it a "postage stamp".

Many cinderella stamps went through the mail.

At other times, I think that a friendly postal clerk may cancel the back of your hand if you brought him/her a bag of cookies.
Don

That's fine until they throw you into the big, grey sack behind the counter ...

If you want to dig deeper into the Polish 'cinderellas' of WW2, check out this book:

"Aleksander Stocki: Enigmatic Philatelist"

http://www.royreader.plus.com

Thanks ClassicalStamps.

GeoffHa, they may throw you in the mail sack, but no doubt will affix a postage due stamp, to make sure they get something out of it or at the minimum an undeliverable handstamp. HAHA!