Postage Stamps of Italy

by Tony Clayton


Trieste Zone A


AMG Venezia Giulia <<-- : -->> Trieste Zone A Postal Staionery
Trieste Area Index
Main Index


First Trieste Zone A definitives, overprinted in Trieste

Most values of the series were issued on 1st October 1947, but the 8 lire, 10 lire orange and 30 lire came out on 1st March 1948. The 10 lire grey was replaced as it was extensively forged at the time.

The 30 lire is the key stamp of the set.

30 lire

30 lire
Sassone 15


1949 First Free Elections in Trieste.

20 lire

20 lire. Normal brown-red shade (top); scarce wine-red shade (bottom)
Sassone 42


Second Trieste Zone A definitives, overprinted in Rome

The smaller definitives come with three types of overprint.
The first, X/A, dating from October 1949, was used on the 3l and 20l, and has a close G-F
The second, X/B, dating from November 1949, was used on the 1l, 2l, 5l, 6l, 8l, 10l, 15l and 20l, and has a wider G-F
The third, X/B1, dating from May 1950, was used on the 1l, 2l, 3l, 5l, 6l, 10l, 15l and 20l, and the hyphen is towards the left.
Distinguishing between them on two of the designs is assisted by different overprint positions.

3 lire

3 lire, overprint type X/A
Sassone 58

3 lire

3 lire, overprint type X/B1
Sassone 58

6 lire

6 lire, overprint type X/B
Overprint above hand
Sassone 60

6 lire

6 lire, overprint type X/B1
Overprint on hand
Sassone 60

10 lire

10 lire, overprint type X/B
Low overprint
Sassone 62

10 lire

10 lire, overprint type X/B1
High overprint
Sassone 62


Trieste Fair, 1950

Two Democratica stamps, the 15 lire and 20 lire, were overprinted with a special design for the Trieste Fair held from 27th August to 10th September 1950. At least one sheet of the 20 lire was printed with inverted overprint.

20 lire

20 lire used, overprint inverted
Diena Certificate
Sassone 82a


Leonardo da Vinci, 500th Birth Anniversary, 1952

Three stamps were issued in this set: 25 lire orange on April 16th, 60 lire blue on December 31st, and 80 lire carmine, also on 31st December.

There are two types of the 60 lire blue. In the first, Type 1, the engraving was rather weak, especially for the angel at the top left and the rocks at the top of the picture. In Type 2 this was corrected by deeper engraving.

This variation is found for Italy as well as Trieste Zone A. In the latter case Type 1 is rare. For Italy, despite identical catalogue values, I have yet to find an example of Type 1.

leonardo stamps

On the left is Type 1, while on the right is Type 2.
Sassone 145

leonardo stamps

Close-ups of the relevant parts, Type 1 at the top.


In the case of the 80 lire, there are a range of varieties. Two types of paper were used, one being white in colour, and the other parchment coloured. The usual perforation is 13¼ line, but extremely rare copies are known with a comb perf 14. The latter is probably the rarest stamp in the Trieste Zone A series that was actually issued.

leonardo stamps

Left: parchment paper, line perf 13¼. Centre: white paper, line perf 13¼. Right: comb perf 14.
Sassone 146, 146var and 146A

leonardo stamps

80 lire comb perf 14, nicely used.
Sassone 146A


Air Mail

The 50 lire violet air mail stamp was first issued with the Trieste overprint on 1st October 1947. On the 5th December 1949 it was re-issued with a smaller overprint printed in Turin.

On the 13th August 1954 it was reissued on whiter Type 3 winged wheel paper with a modified overprint having a noticeably shorter hyphen and a larger space between the G and the F. The main design also has a finer screen than in the original printing. As the use of Trieste stamps ceased 3 months later, this is a scarce stamp.

50 lire

Original overprint
Sassone 22

50 lire

New overprint
Sassone 22

50 lire

Modified new overprint
Sassone 22A

50 lire

Overprint comparison
Sassone 22A above, 22 below

100 lire

100 lire with overprint shifted to the left
Sassone 23f


Express

The 15 lire and 30 lire express stamps were first issued with the large Trieste overprint on 1st October 1947. Two further values, 25 lire and 60 lire, were issued on 1st March 1948. Later that year a commemorative 35 lire stamp celebrating the Centenary of the 1848 Revolution appeared.

The 60 lire was reissued with the smaller Turin overprint on 27th September 1950.

On 4th February 1952 the 50 lire appeared, with an even smaller Turin overprint, and with Winged Wheel Type 1 watermark. In December 1953 it was reissued with Winged Wheel Type 3 watermark on whiter paper.

15 and 25 lire

15 and 25 lire with Trieste overprints
Sassone 1 and 2

30 and 60 lire

30 and 60 lire
Sassone 3 and 4

35 lire

35 lire Risorgimento Commemorative
The King's troops defeat the insurgents in Naples, May 15th 1848
Sassone 5

60 and 50 lire

60 and 50 lire with Turin overprints
Sassone 6 and 7

50 lire

Gutter Pair of 50 lire with Type III Winged Wheel watermark.
Sassone 7/I


Recapito Autorizzato Issues

There are four main varieties of the Trieste Zone A 20 lire Recapito Autorizzato stamp first issued in 1952.

The first has the watermark Winged Wheel Type I, and occurs with only one orientation, DB, where the point on the winged wheel points down and is on the right when seen from the back (DB stands for destra bassa). The overprint is type X/C (type X sub-type C) as shown in the illustration below, and has a longish hyphen. The issue date was 4th February 1952.

I DB

First type
Sassone 5

I DB

Watermark Winged Wheel Type I DB

The second and third have the watermark Winged Wheel Type III, also with overprint type X/C, but with two orientations, DB as above, and also a very rare SB (sinistra bassa) with the wing point also pointing down but on the left side, again as viewed from the back. The issue date was 15th April 1952.

Winged Wheel Type III is rounder and far more distinct than Type I.

III DB

Type III DB

III SB

Type III SB

The fourth and scarcest variety was issued on 5th October 1954, just 41 days before the Trieste stamps were withdrawn from use on 15th November 1954. This also has the watermark Winged Wheel Type III (orientation DB), but a new overprint was used, type X/D, with a noticeably shorter hyphen, as shown in the illustration below.

Recapito

Fourth Type
Sassone 5A


Details of the overprints for comparison:

Recapito

Top: Type X/C overprint; long hyphen.
Bottom: Type X/D overprint; short hyphen.


Parcel Stamps

The first issue of parcel stamps in 1947 had A.M.G. on one line with F.T.T. below on each of the two halves. These were replaced in 1949 with stamps overprinted AMG-FTT on one line. In 1952, some values appeared with Winged Wheel type 3. Finally, in 1954, a new 100 lire value was issued which comes in two forms, one comb perforated and the other line perforated.

The high values of the first set are difficult to find, with the 200 lire scarcest of all.

Parcel

Top: 200 lire
Bottom: 300 lire

Sassone 10 and 11


Postage Due Stamps

The first issue of Postage Due stamps in 1947 had A.M.G. on one line with F.T.T. below in large type, and used the earlier Lieutenancy issues. Further stamps issued until 1949 had the more recent Italian designs overprinted in Trieste as before.
These were replaced with stamps overprinted in Rome with AMG-FTT on one line. Two overprint types were used on stamps with watermark Winged Wheel type 1, X/B and X/C, which are illustrated below. In 1954 the watermark was changed to Winged Wheel type 3 for 4 values (5, 20, 50 and 100 lire), and a new 25 lire value was added as well.
Finally, in 1954, the 25 lire was reissued with a new overprint with a small hyphen - these are very scarce indeed as the use of Trieste stamps ceased very soon after.

1 lire

1 lire, overprint X/B
Sassone 16

100 lire

100 lire, overprint X/C
Sassone 27


AMG Venezia Giulia <<-- : -->> Trieste Zone A Postal Staionery
Trieste Area Index
Main Italian Stamps Index


Stamps of Italy - Trieste Zone A
Copyright reserved by the author, Tony Clayton
v12 27th September 2022
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