Newspaper stamps - general introduction
I will
deal with the newspaper stamps in a kind of different way in comparison with
what I did for the previous issues. I will limit here myself to a general introduction,
going in details on the subject inside the card of each single stamp.
The Lombardy-Venetia newspaper stamps can be divided in 4 different groups:
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Mercury
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From 1851
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Small
blue and lily heads
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From 1858
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Small gray
head
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From 1861
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|
Small Eagle
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From 1863
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Some characteristics are common to these stamps. First of all they were not sold to the general public but only to the editors to be placed on the newspapers. Second, none of them carries the indication of the value: in fact they were of common use in the whole Austrian-Hungarian Empire and therefore, as new, they are the same as the ones present in an Austrian stamp collection. It is not then correct to define them as "stamps for the Lombardy-Venetia newspapers". We mean instead "used" in Lombardy-Venetia when from the cancellation we can validate the use in this territory. They were used to ship newspapers in all the Empire territory with the same tax independently from the distance. In most cases they were cancelled at the arrival even if some Offices were equipped to cancel them at the shipment (for instance: Venice). We are aware of few cases of their use as regular mail stamps.