STAMPING AROUND ITALY CITY OF VASTO MUNICIPALS

Do you collect stamps? If so you may be able to form a collection of stamps from your ancestral home town. Of the roughly 8100 Italian comuni, about 4000 are known to have issued municipal stamps bearing the town’s name. Other comuni may have used “generic” municipals, which can only be associated with a particular comune by their cancellations.

The stamps were used to collect municipal fees on various documents — birth, marriage, and death certificates, family status certificates, mandatory municipal identity cards, health certificates, various contracts (e.g.: sale of cemetery plots, sales of fishing boats), and others. In addition to the municipal stamps, some documents also required national revenue stamps. Vasto is the home town of my maternal ancestors.

Located on the Adriatic Sea in the Province of Chieti, in the Abruzzo region, it has a population of about 41,000 people. Vastese municipals are difficult to acquire. In the listing which follows, stamps in my collection are listed in normal type. Others known to me are listed in italics. “In use” dates are from cancellations or copies on documents. This is the most complete listing of Vastese municipals to date. Kingdom (circa 1910). No town name. These can only be identified as from Vasto by cancellations. Perf.11. DIRITTI DI SEGRETERIA 1. 50 cent red 2. 1 lira rose 3. 2 lire brown 4. 5 lire orange 5. 10 lire purple Fascist Era (used in 1930). Town name & value in black. DIRITTI DI SEGRETERIA 6. 0.40 L red-orange Fascist Era (used in 1930).

Town name in black. DIRITTI DI SEGRETERIA 7. 0.25 L red-orange 8. 1 L blue Fascist era (circa 1935). 21 x 30mm. Perf.11 Paper white. SEGRETERIA Use and Value in blue. 9. 0.50 lire claret 10. 0.80 lire green 11. 3 lire purple STATO CIVILE Use & Value in red. 12. 1.50L green DIRITTI SANITARI Use and Value in violet. 13. 10L, orange-red During the twenty-year Fascist era, as part of Mussolini’s rampant “Romanizing” of Italy, about a thousand municipalities “Romanized” their names. Under the provisions of Royal Decree No. 517 of 31 March 1938, the name “Vasto” was changed to “Istonio,” reflecting the Histonium of Roman times. The authorization was published in the Official Gazette of May 18, 1938, and the next day the city took the name of Istonio.

After the liberation of the city, by a resolution of October 10, 1944, Mayor Giuseppe Nasci forwarded a special request to restore the old name of the City. The Lieutenancy Decree of repeal (Decree No. 389), was approved on November 15, 1944 and published in the Official Gazette of December 28, 1944. Thus, after 6 years, 7 months and 9 days, the city resumed the name “Vasto”. DIRITTI DI SEGRETERIA Town name in black, value in red. Perf.11 (Used in 1940.) 14. 5 L blue Fascist era (circa 1940). “Citta di Istonio,” 21 x 30mm. Perf.11 Paper white. STATO CIVILE Use & Value in red. 15. 1.50L green 6 M