U.S. Postal Service Honors BOCCE with New Stamp

By Joseph “Sonny” Scafetta, Jr.

We can now add bocce to the list of Italian-themed stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service. On August 12, the service released a stamp recognizing bocce as one of eight popular back yard games. Bocce, also spelled boccie and bocci, originated in Italy and is played with differently colored wooden bowling balls and a small white ball, known as the pallino, on a long, narrow, flat, clay or dirt court. The other seven games recognized were badminton, corn hole (also known as bean bag toss), croquet, frisbee throwing, horse shoe tossing, tether ball, and baseball.

The first day of issue ceremony took place during the Great American Stamp Show held in Hall G of the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont outside Chicago, Illinois. A pane of 16 forever stamps, showing two of each game, became available nationwide at all local post offices starting on Friday, August 13. The price for a single pane was originally $8.80 but, on Sunday, August 29, the price increased to $9.28 when the first-class mailing rate went up to 58 cents. The pane will be available until August 11, 2022, when it will go off sale. ❚