Postal history and postage stamps of Campione d'Italia
The postal history of Campione d'Italia deals with the small Italian exclave Campione d'Italia in the Swiss canton of Ticino . Due to its special history and location, the place issued its own postage stamps for several years and thus forms its own philatelic collection area. This is particularly popular with Swiss and Italian philatelists . In stamp catalogs , Campione d'Italia is often treated as an independent country.
Early development
After Ticino joined Switzerland in 1798, Campione stayed with Lombardy at the request of the residents . As a result of the Napoleonic wars , the place fell into French hands and later into Austrian hands. A post office of its own has not yet been set up in Campione. Only after the loss of Lombardy from Austria in 1859 did Italy come to be connected with its own postal system. Post traffic with Switzerland was already carried out in cooperation with the Swiss Post . The hub for this was the Swiss city of Lugano .
During the Second World War , Campione d'Italia could no longer be supplied with Italian brands. Eventually, the place was allowed to issue its own postage stamps as they did not want Swiss postage stamps to be used in Italy. The stamp issues were intended as transitional stamps before the Italian post office was able to resume regular mail traffic. Because of this, the stamps were only allowed to be used in the town itself and for letters to neutral Switzerland .
The stamp issues
The first Campione d'Italia stamp was issued on May 20, 1944. This was produced using letterpress printing on coated paper by the Orell Füssli printing company from Zurich . The five values of 0.05, 0.10, 0.20, 0.30 and a Franco showed the municipal coat of arms of Campione d'Italia as a common motif. Above it read R. R. Poste Italiane , and below it Comune di Campione . This inscription and the Italian value of the franc were intended to make it clear that it was an issue of the Italian postal service. In total, each value was issued between 45,000 and 115,000 times. These high numbers of copies are explained by the great philatelic interest in these issues at the time.
For this reason, another stamp issue was issued on September 7, 1944. This was designed much more elaborately than its predecessor. The stamps, which were produced using rotogravure printing , showed a total of seven landscape views of the town and Lake Lugano , but also sights of Italy such as Verona and Modena . They knew how to use the great philatelic attention of these Campione d'Italia stamp issues. The inscriptions remained unchanged, the values of 0.40 and 0.60 Franco were added.
The 1957 international agreement
The stamp issues of Campione d'Italia lost their validity again on June 1, 1952. There was no longer any need for a postal service. There were again Italian, but also Swiss postage stamps issued by the Italian post office in Campione d'Italia. Letters to Switzerland were indeed franked with these Swiss postage stamps, but could not with the Italian postal stamp of Campione d'Italia devalued be. This only happened at the post office in Lugano with the Swiss postmark Lugano I.
With the international agreement on the postal service in the municipality of Campione d'Italia (Regolamento del servizio postale nel Comune di Campione d'Italia) between Switzerland and Italy of October 26, 1956, the issue of Swiss postage stamps on Italian territory was completely prohibited. Since the entry into force on March 1, 1957, only Italian postage stamps can be used in Campione d'Italia.
Inclusion of the municipality of Campione d'Italia in the customs territory of the EU
On January 1, 2020, Campione d'Italia moved to the customs area of the European Union . Until the end of 2019, the place was de facto part of the Swiss customs area and had both a Swiss postcode with CH-6911 Campione and an Italian postcode with I-22061 Campione d'Italia . The Swiss postcode has become obsolete.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Giorgio Doninelli: Spedire una lettera a Campione? Attenzione al codice postale. tio.ch, December 31, 2019