Can something small and with a seemingly insignificant initial cost acquire enormous value over time? Yes, if it is a stamp . Passionate collectors know full well what it can mean to get their hands on a hard-to-find stamp and what the size of the investment needed to succeed in acquiring it might be.

Not everyone knows that some of the World’s rarest stamps are indeed Italian. Although it is unlikely that an almost insignificant piece of paper passed through your hands unbeknownst to you that could now be worth a fortune, the odds are therefore not nil. This should be enough to make you want to leaf through those large leather-covered albums often found in the homes of more or less aged relatives!

Joking aside, the value of rare Italian stamps is, in some cases, truly mind-boggling. But even when we are not talking about six-figure figures, a particular stamp could be worth several hundred, if not several thousand, euros. Let’s find out together which collections and pieces are the most coveted and explore some interesting facts about the world of philately.

Error of Colour

When talking about rare Italian stamps, it is impossible not to mention the most coveted of them all:the Error of Colour . Technically, this stamp could not really be considered Italian, as its printing date predates the date of Italian unification by two years.

The Error of Color-literally, “color error”-was issued in the 1859 in the then Kingdom of Sicily and remained in circulation until 1860. The name comes from the fact that the stamp was originally supposed to be orange but, precisely because of a color error, was printed in blue.

To date, the existence of only two copies of this stamp and its rarity has led it to reach a truly staggering value. In fact, the last person to purchase it spent 1.8 million To own it. This makes it the third most expensive rare stamp to the world, preceded only by the British Guyana 1 cent Black Magente , worth about $10 million, and the Treskilling Yellow , listed at 2 million euros.

3 Lire of Tuscany

Also dating from the time of Italian unification is the second rarest Italian stamp, namely the 3 Lire of Tuscany . Printed on January 1, 1860 nel Grand Duchy of Tuscany , this golden-yellow stamp represents a rarity primarily because of the small number of existing copies:not only were very few of them produced, and only a few remain in the world 324 , but only two were used for franking and mailing letters. Such precious missives later ended up in the hands of two outstanding collectors, namely the banker Baron Alphonse Rothschild ed il king of Egypt Farouk I . The so-called 3 Lire Rotschild was last sold at an auction in 1989 for 795 million lira , while the 3 Lira Farouk is worth about 500,000 euros .

The second element that makes the 3 Lire of Tuscany a fascinating stamp is the initials on it:“ IT “, or the first official attestation of the unification of Italy.

However, if you find yourself in possession of stamps from the Tuscan Provisional Government that ferried the Grand Duchy to Unity, but they are not the ones that belonged to Rotschild or King Farouk, do not despair. The complete set of seven stamps issued in 1860 may be worth over 170,000 euros .

Trinacria

Il 1860 was a field year not only for the fate of Italy, but also for Italian and world philately. In fact, among the rare stamps dating from that year is the Trinacria , printed in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies while Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel held the fate of a fledgling country in their hands. The specimens of this stamp printed between November and December 1860 , the month in which the stamped value ceased to be put on the market, may be worth up to 10 thousand euros and are recognizable by the letter “ T ”placed at the bottom.

It is, however, the first edition of this stamp to be particularly rare and expensive. Dating back to the 1858 , the original Trinacria stamp can be recognized by the Trinacria symbol with three legs, the prancing horse symbol of Naples, and the three lilies symbol of the Bourbons. The value of these pieces is around the 350,000 euros each .

Pink Gronchi

Let us take a time jump of a century and land in the 1960s. It was the 1961 and, to celebrate a institutional trip to South America Of the then president of the Italian Republic John Gronchi , a series of three commemorative stamps was launched. Each was dedicated to one of the countries visited by the president, but there was a mistake:the stamp dedicated to the Peru carried the wrongly drawn silhouette of the nation. Given its color, the stamp soon assumed the name of Pink Gronchi .

Today there are about 80 Gronchi Rosa in the world and their value fluctuates 1000 to 10 000 euros . The most valuable, however, are those that have traveled, especially by making intercontinental flights, and have been stamped regularly:they can come to cost up to 30 thousand euros .

Balbo triptychs

The last example also belongs to the group of commemorative stamps and dates back to the 1933 . In fact, in that year the last North Atlantic Cruise , or the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean with a fleet of seaplanes. This event was organized by Gen. Italo Balbo and celebrated with the launch of stamps “ triptychs “, i.e., each divided into three parts and easily separated by side perforations.

Those in possession of the two sheets with the 20 trittici on which are listed the names of all the pilots on the expedition holds a value of about 18 mila euro . But the real rarity are the remaining examples of the 500 stamps printed for the return flight –and thus bearing the inscription “Return flight New York-Rome.”, which remained unused because the U.S. Postmaster General failed to grant permission in time. Of a specific type of these, bearing the watermark “letters,”there are now only 3 in the world and the value can exceed 60 thousand euros .