The 10 cent stamp of the definitive series “Democracy” was issued on October 1st 1945 and remained valid for franking until December 31st 1948, for a total of three years and three months. The update of the postal rates introduced on February 1st 1946 represented an important increase, due to high post-war inflation: all rates were doubled and, if necessary, rounded towards the higher unit. This cancelled all the fares requesting stamps in cents of Lira: the 10 cent Democracy became basically useless only four months after the date of issue, like the 20 cents, the 40 cents, the 60 cents and the 80 cents.
When the stamp was issued, there was no postal fare as low as 10 cents, being the lowest one 20 cents. This implies that no Postal History object can be regularly franked with one and only 10 cent stamp; the only examples are objects which were then subject to taxation (because insufficiently franked), objects for which the sender tried to use a non-authorized combination of discounted rates (sometimes irregularly accepted by the Postal Service), or philatelic objects not intended to be delivered through the postal service and franked with a symbolic low-value stamp to collect special cancellations.
Padova, October 19th 1945 for Turin
Fermo, December 21st 1945 for Porto San Giorgio, with arrival on the same day.
Teramo, Novembre 12th 1945 for Penne S. Andrea, with arrival on following day.
Trento , February 25th 1947 for Milan.
Montelparo, July 15th 1946 for Ascoli Piceno, arrival on following day.
Santa Maria di Catanzaro, April 6th 1946 for Reggio Calabria, arrival on April 8th.
Amandola, April 29th 1946 for Ascoli Piceno.
Ragogna, June 1st 1946 for San Daniele del Friuli, with arrival on the same day. The object traveled on June 1st 1946, Saturday: the following Sunday June the 2nd and Monday June the 3rd Italian citizens (Italian women also, for the first time) were asked to vote for Monarchy or Republic in the post-war Referendum. The object was then registered by the addressee on June 3rd, with a stamp which is not linked to the postal service.
Civitella dei Pazzi, April 3rd 1947 for Rome, arrival on the following day dove giunse il giorno successivo.
Guardiaregia, September 12th 1947 for Pescara.
