The revenue stamps used as postage stamps


Almost all the specialized catalogues carry a chapter dedicated to the postal usage of the revenue stamps. Because they are not parts of regular postage stamps, I will limit to mention it without going in details on this subject.

From November 1st 1854 both in Austria and in the Lombardy-Venetia special revenue stamps were put in the market to be used for tax purposes on acts and fiscal documents of various nature in the same way it happens today. Of course their value was in Kreuzer for the Austrian values and centesimi for the "Italian" ones.
Due to the poor and generic instructions on their utilization (the usage indicated was "for all the acts") they were not so seldom used by mistake also on the mail.
Due to some initial tolerance by the Postal Administration and the interest of the sellers whose gains were better on revenues than with stamps (and therefore with no interest to discourage the use...) their usage was relatively large, specially in the more common values (15 and 30 centesimi).
Already at the beginning on Nov 1854 a decree prohibited the revenue usage as postage stamps, but unsuccessfully as well as the subsequent 1857 and 1858 decrees even if in practice their usage went somehow down.
A recent and very valid alternative was expressed by theory Umberto del Bianco in its study "Storia Postale del Lombardo-Veneto". He thinks that to justify the phenomenon in such a large dimension instead, besides the sporadic use by privates, we may consider that the use could even been made compulsory by the Verona Postal Administration on the letters presented by the private couriers to the Post Office counters for the fee payment. In that way it was possible to check their way of handling the job and the mail transported even in relationship to some discovered cases of cheating on stamps of the first issue that were pointing just to private couriers...
The first set of revenue stamps was issued November 1st 1854 and the following values are known as used for mail purposes:

5 centesimi
Green and red-brown
10 centesimi
Green and carmine-pink
15 centesimi
Green and black
30 centesimi
Green and black
50 centesimi
Green and black
75 centesimi
Green and black
1,50 lire
Green and black


Of rectangular shape (not the same for all values) they present a greenish background with a leaf as drawing. On the top there is a circle with ornaments as decoration, different for the various values, carrying the value indication with below a small two-headed eagle (at the top in the 1.50 Lire value). The model was made by Leander Russ and engraved by Karl Sotterba. Printing as for the stamps was done by the Royal Vienna Printing House.
A very thin paper with watermarked initials "J.R." was used; this was the set of the initials of the paper manufacturer (Josef Reichle). The green background was printed in copper engraving while the indication of the value was made in typography. The revenues were perforated with a linear system in an inaccurate way and with variable step from 13.5 to 17 (even mixed perforations can be found on the same revenue stamp).

From September 1856 all the values (with the exclusion of 5 and 10 centesimi) were printed again with the same esthetic and technical characteristics except the value indication that was made in copper engraving as for the greenish background. Different was also the watermark of this new stock that represents the two-headed eagle with crown and the label "S.Æ.F" (initial of"Schlöglmühler Aerial Fabrik").

These revenue are recognized as used for postal purpose when they carry clearly a POSTAL cancellation, even better if on fragment or on letter because sometimes they were cancelled with mail cancellations even if used on fiscal documents. They should not be confused with the ones used for the purpose they were created for, parts that are very common; the cancellations, completely different, make very difficult to get confused (Fig. 1 to 7).
There are also examples of very rare use of Austrian revenues in Lombardy-Venetia territory as well as of some revenues for almanacs and notices used as postage stamps: are all rarities that exist only in few pieces.

The identification of the two issues is not a difficult task: beside the different watermark, the two printing systems present peculiar characteristics. I show here a revenue of 30 centesimi, fiscally used, in the two issues (Fig. 1 and 2).

Typographic
Copper engraved
Fig. 1: typographic value
Fig. 2: copper engraved value


It is very evident the difference between the two values: in typographic one the small dots of the numbers are oval while in the copper engraved one are more rounded, in addition the label "Centesimi" is different, more squared in the copper engraved value.
As a curiosity I show also the 5, 15, 50, 75 centesimi and 1,50 Lire (Fig. 3 to 7) values: I do not have available at this time the image of the 10 centesimi piece.

5 centesimi
15 centesimi
Fig. 3: 5 centesimi typographic
Fig. 4: 15 centesimi copper engraved
50 centesimi
75 centesimi
Fig. 5: 50 centesimi copper engraved
Fig. 6: 75 centesimi typographic
1,50 Lire
Fig. 7: 1,50 lire copper engraved


Here are some samples regularly used for mail as postage stamps (Fig. 8-9-10).

15 centesimi
15 centesimi
Fig. 8: 15 centesimi copper engraved
Fig. 9: 15 centesimi copper engraved

Envelope
Fig. 10: 15 centesimi copper engraved