ITALY – 424433

ITALY – Early Italian stamps represent one of the best examples of nation building through means of visual propaganda, as in the late 19^th century the country was on the map, but Italians were yet to be made! This collection is a nice example of those efforts presented via close to a thousand different mint and used issues that run from the 1860s and into the 1970s on the opposite terminus presented in a Scott Specialty album. The pages are brimming with imperial glory of the gone by days of the Roman Empire! Attractively, large proportion of early mint issues have gum on the back, as this is a frequent issue for Italian stamps! Just some of the noteworthy individual standouts include better singles and sets like mint #22, 27 (no gum), 37 (no gum), 52, 62, 73-75, 79, 83, 85, 121, 122, 124-125, 140-142 (2), 143-146 (2), 213-231, 232-238, 242-246, 290-305, 310-314, 345-348, 377-386, 400-409, 413-418, 463-476, 477, used #19, 38, 66, 142A, and others from the regular section, while the back-of-the-book portion nicely complements the latter with a solid lineup of airmails among such highlights like mint #B20-B25, C1 (NH), C10-C11, C28-C33 (NH), C35-C39, C95-C99, C100-C105, CE8-CE9, P1, J1 (no gum), Q37-Q48, and more! Very nice collection that provides a solid framework! Gen. VERY FINE, mint og, some NH (We photographed roughly 2/3 of the book, regular section to 1950 and B-O-B)