The sub-pages of this section are not translated into English: all links lead to pages in Italian.
Postal objects
This part of the site hosts pages dedicated to the main postal objects in use in Italy between 1945 and 2001. All mentioned sub-pages are in Italian and are dedicated to:
– the basic fare letter, within Italy or for foreign destinations, with their equivalent postal stationery, the lettersheet and the air mail lettersheet;
– the courier, the object which replaced in 1999 the letter: ordinary and priority, with a page dedicated to precursors launched in 1997,
– postcards, within Italy or foreign destinations,
– printed matters, within Italy or foreign destinations,
– open envelopes (manuscripts, visiting cards and invitations, invoices),
– acknowledgements of receipt (listed both according to postage rate or used forms),
– Justice Administration Documents, a special registered document travelling with an acknowledgement of receipt which must be registered as well,
– some special rates for publishing houses: book orders and summary of invoices for journals,
– some special rates allowing to send small goods through Post Service (and not Parcel Service): samples with no value, pharmaceutical samples, small parcels, vinyl recordings,
– objects sent by private carrier through authorized delivery,
– a page is also dedicated to senders or receivers which had the right to use discounted fares.
The above list focuses on the so-called “Servizio Corrispondenze”, which is the Mail Service, and does not include the “Servizio Pacchi”, the Parcel Service. The above mentioned small parcel, in fact, was an object with limited dimensions and weight that could be treated by the “Servizio Corrispondenze”.
For each object there is a list of all postage rates variations between 1945 and 2001, with the most common additional services such as registration or express delivery. For each listed rate, if provided with an hyperlink, there is a specific sub-page showing examples of different postal objects franked with the specific rate during the specific period. Express delivery and registration taxes are mentioned for most of the objects, whereas other services (cash on delivery, poste-restante, air mail, etc) are listed and linked only if my collection contains objects to show.