The birth of Italian Social Republic stamps

 

The issues of stamps by political and public authorities of the Italian Social Republic can be chronologically subdivided into three periods: a military period to which belong all the issues of the Republican National Guard (GNR), a transitory period that refers to the issues of the Kingdom, especially the Imperial set of 1929 with the ones that were overprinted with the Fascist symbol, and in the end the last and conclusive period with the use of its own clichet. We must not forget that before the transitory period there was a time of experimentation with the aim of creating the aesthetics of the stamp, consisting in choosing among several types of overprinting on the stamps, in order to find the proper ones. To this period belong all those stamps named «Proofs or Essays» , which had no regular circulation and therefore must be considered in every respect "Not issued". We must consider also the philatelic characteristics of some stamps, which were overprinted only for speculative purposes of collectors. But the rivalries between local Fascist hierarches, pushed some cities, in particular way Florence and Verona, to issue stamps that were unsuitable for the postal service , moreover these issues were limited, in order to make them more valuable , therefore for speculative purposes. Such speculations had an effect mainly on overprinted stamps such as to originate overprinted varieties of all types and colors by mixing them with some minor ones, thus confusing many collectors and inducing counterfeiters to create overprinting of all fancies . In the immense outline of this distinct philately, perhaps taken into too little consideration, I wanted to introduce some historical elements which I believe to be essential in order to understand all the historical and political motivations that lead to the issue of stamps.