1 PSI MANTOVA 2Lr STAMP - CLN/AMG ISSUE after FALL OF FASCISM - MNH - 1945 (576)

RARE 'PSI MANTOVA' STAMP issued with AMG AUTHORITY

ITALY'S LAST C.L.N. SERIES – AND FIRST SOVEREIGN ISSUE AFTER LIBERATION OF NORTHERN ITALY See the narratives in "1946 Stamp News" with my translations to English (attached) 

Pre-Republic "Luogotenenza"  in Post-War Italy, 1945 Mantova "City-Rule"  authorized by C.L.N. and A.M.G. after fall of Fascism - 1st day of issue 27 Sept 1945 

This stamp is one of the ' PSI MANTOVA OVERPRINTS ' from Italy's Pre-Republic Post-War "LUOGOTENENZA ERA" of 1945.  They're  'City-Rule'  stamps issued by Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (CLN) in Mantova five months after the fall  of Fascism, as authorized by the Allied Military Government (AMG). 

Mantova is my birth town in Italy's Lombardy Plain region, halfway between Milano and Venice. During WWII, the region was central to Mussolini's infamous Nazi-Fascist Social Republic, and it was involved in 18 months of bloody civil war with Central and Southern Italy.

Liberation finally came on 29 April 1945. In the following months, the region's philatelists realized the need to celebrate the nation with a special issue of stamps to promote the social reunification of Italy.  Philatelists and postal workers of Mantova led the project after obtaining the approval of AMG authorities.  P.S.I. stands for “Piena Sovranità Italiana”  - Full Italian Sovreignty.  From the onset, however, Communist Partisans who had occupied the region soon after the fall of Fascism brought plenty of trouble to Mantova's philatelists and postal workers over the project.

The attached images of ITALY PHILATELIC NEWS 1946 (with my translations to English) provide lots of interesting information about this short-lived two-day stamp series. In brief, Communist Partisans asserted to AMG authorities that the project was promoting a resurgence of defunct Fascism. They based their assertion on two of the 6-stamp series containing forbidden fascist symbols in the bottom corners of the 15-cent and 35-cent stamp images.

It was an innocent mistake caused by the lack of 15 and 35-cent base stamps without fascist symbols, coupled with the postal printer's urgency to promote 'Full Italian Sovereignty' before the departure of AMG from the region. So, the postal printers "borrowed" 15 and 35-cent stamps from the previous Fascist stocks as base stamps for overprinting. 

It was a dangerous, risky mistake that caused Italian Communist Partisans to threaten violence, even death, to the philatelists and postal workers of Mantova, including Victor Perantoni (my father and eBay seller), who was one of Mantova's philatelist promoters of the PSI stamps in 1945.

What's more, in contrast to all other CLN stamp issues prior to the fall of Fascism, which celebrated liberation from Nazi Fascism, instead the PSI Mantova stamps celebrated the departure of AMG by promoting 'Full Italian Sovereignty.' 

The resulting social disorder and threats of violence caused local AMG authorities to delay their departure and resolve the situation. So, they approved the Communist Partisans' request to cease the sales of PSI Mantova stamps. However, AMG also approved continued usage of PSI stamps that had already been sold.

As a result, the short life of PSI MANTOVA STAMP SALES was from 27 September 1945 - to - 29 September 1945.  Only two days !! 

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