Italian Stamp Question

That's very interesting, thanks, got it now. So in essence this is a Yugoslavian stamp even though it says Italia on it?

Yes, sort of.

I believe it was originally occupied by the Italians, and then later on by the Germans when things weren't going so well for the Italians.

Interesting. A bit of history there as well. But I guess the stamp itself was actually produced by the Italians since without the overprint it was an Italian airmail stamp.

Used are priced more highly than mint more often than you might think. Typically it happens from out of the way places, with little demand for postal services, or few collectors to bother collecting the stamps when they are used, or both.

Here's a fairly extreme example (which has nothing but an alphabetic connection to your Italian query ). The stamps of the Indian State of Idar were only valid for postage within the State, and it was a fairly small place, with a small literate population anyway. On top of that, the catalogues refused to list its stamps for years, because they were considered purely philatelic, with no actual postal use.

In fact, the stamps were used - occasionally. This 1 Anna stamp of 1944, for the basic letter rate, is catalogued in the Gibbons British Commonwealth catalogue at £3.50 mint, but you could probably find it for a dollar or two. Used are another matter: Gibbons values them at £65, and used on the original cover ...



Gibbons suggests a multiple of 3x.

Yes, that is correct.

Thanks Tony. Interesting. But in general, it is still hard to grasp why a used stamp is more valuable at times. Is it because people feel more confident the stamp is real that way on old and valuable stamps where fakes might be produced?

Well, marcbkk, in the case of Idar, used - and even more so, covers - are valued because they demonstrate that the stamps were actually used.

To a general, worldwide collector, that might be a meaningless consideration, but to a specialist in out-of-the-way places like Idar, being able to demonstrate actual postal use of the stamps is important.

There's also the rarity factor. You can buy complete booklets (of 8 sheets of 4 stamps) of that 1 Anna violet for a few tens of dollars. The mint stamps are dirt common, relatively speaking . But the used aren't. If you're a specialist, you want the common of course, but you want the uncommon as well.

Ah, thanks Tony. That makes sense. Sometimes used makes it more rare. Whereas often with first issue stamps of a country finding unused is trickier since they were mainly produced for postage and very few people were collectors at the time.

My favourite specialisation, the Indian State of Barwani, demonstrates this beautifully.

The first stamp of Barwani reported in the in the philatelic press was this



issued in 1921. It's a very uncommon stamp mint (£160 in Gibbons), but a real rarity used. (I don't yet have one.)

However, Barwani actually issued at least two stamps before this, but they escaped the notice of the philatelic world for 80 years or so. Oh well, Barwani isn't exactly in the Top Ten most popular countries ... or the Top One Thousand, or ...

Anyway, these first two issues are major rarities, and completely unknown mint. Only a handfull of used are known. This is an example of the (real) first stamp of Barwani:



So yes, first issues are often more expensive mint. But in the end, it still comes down to supply and demand. If there's greater demand for used than the supply will bear, the prices for used will be higher.

So: if you ever decide to specialise in a country, or period, or issue, you'll certainly want to have your stamps used as well as mint, and probably on the original envelope as well. And it's all downhill from there

Hahah. Great stuff. And I love your caveat at the end about how its all downhill from there.

You may not know my background, but my father recently gave me his stamp collection which, the last time he touched it, was about 35 years ago. So I am just going through it, trying to identify everything that is there, what is of value, and then decide what I will do with it, either keep it or sell it or maybe just keep part of it. I may just sell off some of the more general stuff to people who might want it. Again, I'll see. Not in any rush. Just getting my feet wet here for now and almost everything I am hearing is new to me so many thanks. It is a decent sized collection though and I find a lot of it very beautiful. Reliving a bit of my father's foot steps at the same time.

By the way, I did not bother to bring back to Asia (where I am based) my father's collection of covers and first day covers when I was just visiting him in NYC. I figured I would pick that up and get into that on my next trip. It sounds like I should have though and there could be a lot of value there too. Maybe I will see if I can get them sent over from him somehow.

Yes, do get 'em sent over. In my corner of the stamp collecting world, we take a fairly dim view of first day covers (strictly for the unsophisticated) but covers used in the normal course of business, and without any philatelic 'taint', can be of great interest. And of considerable value. If you have the time and energy, try reading some of the articles on Australian commercially used covers by Rodney Perry under the Rod's Columns tab here http://www.rap.com.au/rhome1c.asp

I think I will do that Tony, thanks.

By the way, on the subject of Italian overprints, has anyone ever seen one like this. I couldn't find any overprints in Scott on Italian stamps which had the word Corona in it.

Cheers...

Italy ~ districts acquired from Austria.

yugoslavia #NB19
Same page # in 2010 Scott's
Look at the end of the Yugoslavia listings in Volume 6,page #1151.
David