Italian Post Horn Stamps

This post features my Italian post horn stamps. The post horn is a small (usually) coiled horn that was sounded to announce the arrival or departure of a mail carrier. Consequently, it became an international symbol of the postal service beginning in the eighteenth century. The post horn, moreover, appears on postal logos, letter boxes, postal vehicles, and stamps around the world. For example, you can learn more about the post horns on my main blog post dedicated to the topic. You can also see some of my post horn stamps from Austria, Hungary and Sweden

This blog is a bit of a vanity project as it allows me a place to post all of my personal stamps. It also means that I don’t have complete runs of all of these series, but it is what I have and what I know. Certainly, I will continue to add to these pages as my collection and knowledge grows.

1946 Parcel Post – Post Horn Stamps

Italy produced a lot of different denominations of post horn stamps for parcel post use between 1946 and 1966. As a result, collecting all of the denominations can be fun (and infuriating). Indeed, a few of the denominations are actually quite expensive (I do not own any of those). Learn more about the topic at this blog.

The Italian stamps are unusual as they are se-tenant stamps, basically two stamps printed together and connected. The left side is designated as the Sul Bollettino and it is the half that features the post horn (there were other motifs also employed during this period). Specifically, the right stamp, the Sulla Ricevuta, is the receipt and features the denomination of the stamp in the middle and a star on the right. When they were used on parcel post, the two halves were often separated.