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Postage stamps and postal history of San Marino

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A 1877 San Marino stamp

The postal history of San Marino can be traced to October 7, 1607, with the introduction of public postal services.[1] The republic's postal needs were handled by a post office in nearby Rimini, Italy; the first San Marino post office opened in 1833.[1]

History

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When postage stamps were introduced in the mid-19th century, San Marino signed a postal treaty with Italy to use Italian stamps for its mail.[1] On March 2, 1877, a new agreement was signed between the two countries that enabled San Marino to issue its own stamps.[2]

The first commemorative issue of San Marino marking the commissioning of the Palazzo Pubblico in 1894

The first San Marino postage stamps were a definitive stamps consisting of two designs covering seven denominations.[3] The stamps, which depicted the coat of arms of the republic with the Three Towers of San Marino at Monte Titano (except the 2-centesimi stamp), were created by the design firm Fratelli Pellas in Genoa and printed on Italian watermarked paper by the Officina Carta e Valori in Turin.[2] The first Commemorative stamps were introduced in 1894.[2]

Over the years, the attractive designs and unusual shapes – many are triangularly shaped – of San Marino's stamps have been extremely popular with philatelists around the world.[4] It is estimated that 10% of the republic's revenue is generated by the sale of its postage stamps to international collectors.[5] The government of San Marino has the world's only philatelic minister of state, Simone Celli, who carries the title (in Italian) La Segreteria di Stato per le finanze, il bilancio e la programmazione, l'informazione, i rapporti con l'azienda autonoma di stato filatelica e numismatica (State Secretariat for Finance, Budget and Planning, Information, Relations with the Autonomous Philatelic and Numismatic Company).[6]

List of people on stamps of San Marino

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Further reading

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  • Balsimelli, Francesco. Posta, francobollo, filatelia con particolare riguardo alla Repubblica di San Marino. Milan: Pubblicazioni rotariane, 1970 19p.
  • Colla, Giorgio and Luigi Sirotti. Storia Postale: Repubblica di San Marino: dall'epoca napoleonica al 1892. Rome: Sassone; Dogana: Filatelia Sammarinese, 2001 171p.
  • Filanci, Franco and Alessandro Glaray. Il servizio postale della Repubblica di San Marino. s.l.: Sirotti, 1977 279p.
  • Glaray, Alessandro and Franco Filanci. Repubblica di San Marino: storia postale dalle origini alla fine dell'800. Turin: Notiziario ASIF, 1972 142p.
  • Morganti, Giuseppe. La Filatelia. San Marino: AIEP; Rimini: Guaraldi, 1993 31p.
  • Repubblica di San Marino: catalogo dei francobolli 1877 - 1988. San Marino: Azienda Autonoma di Stato Filatelica e Numismatica, 1989 127p.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "120th Anniversary of the First Stamps of San Marino". Republicca di San Marino Azienda Autonoma di Stato Filatelica e Numistatica. 1997. Archived from the original on 2002-06-21. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
  2. ^ a b c "Stamps San Marino, Philately San Marino". Il Portale della Repubblica di San Marino. Archived from the original on 2012-06-21. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
  3. ^ Melville, Fred J. (1907). "The Postage Stamps of San Marino". The Connoisseur. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
  4. ^ Thomas M. Eccardt (2005). Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe. Hippocrene Books. p. 42. ISBN 0-7818-1032-9.
  5. ^ Europe Review 2003/2004. Kogan Page Publishers. 2006. p. 313. ISBN 0-7494-4067-8.
  6. ^ "Segreteria di Stato per le Finanze". www.finanze.sm. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
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