COVER N.178 - SAN MARINO

Postmark: Poste Rep. San Marino San Marino - 04.11.2022  
Posted on the 4th November, received on the 11th November 2022
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Nothing less that seven stamps on an envelope... I don't have words to express my gratitude to Eric, who again helps me tick another box in the countries list, with this amazing cover from one of Europe's micro-states, albeit its oldest one (and also the world's, for that matter, having been established in 301 AD). San Marino! Thank you so much Eric!

Stamps left to right, top to Bottom

- The 7th Winter Olympic Games took place at Cortina de Ampezzo, a well known Italian winter sports and general tourism location, right at the base of the imposing Dolomites. Calling on the attention of philatelist for the then upcoming games, Poste San Mario issued  a ten stamp set on   15DEC1955. Given that the disciplines of the competition were but seven (although there were also combined events)  three of the stamps use the same drawing, albeit in a different set of coulours.

further to the 2 Lire stamp on my cover dedicated to cross-country skying (the subject also of the 25 L stamp), the set comprised stamps dedicated to speed skating (1 l); Bobsleigh (3 and 50 L); alpine skiing (4 L); Ice Hockey (5 and 100 L), figure skating (10L) and sky jumping (200 l).

- Europa stamps have been issued since 1956, first by the member countries of the then European Communities, until 1959, then between 1960 and 1992  by the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations CEPT and from 1992 on by PostEurope, a trade association representing Europe's postal operators.

The common design chosen for the 1973 issue represented a postman's horn, brought to life through the union of three arrows representing  the  traditional vectors of communication  managed by the postal administrations:  Post, Telegraph & Telephone.

Poste San Marino issued two stamps for the 1973 set: the one on the cover with a face value of 180 L and  a 20 L one. As it was the norm by then, both stamps featured the same design although in different colour combinations.

Zodiac signs have always been a popular theme for stamp issues, so it comes as no surprise that Poste San Marino has also issued a set dedicated to the theme on 18FEB1970 (although the stamps carry a little 1969 legend next to the printers designation)

As to be expected, the issue is composed of 12 stamps (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 70, 90, 100, 180 L) one for each sign and constellation. As a curious side note, I have to say that Eric was right on the money, since I am a native of Pisces (although I couldn't care less about it, since I'm not a believer...)

- The theme for the 1980 Europa common issue was "Famous People". San Marino  chose to honour two of its nationals, both renaissance men who have achieved notoriety in their quite different trades, one being a  military architect, Giovanbattista Belluzzi (1506-54), and the other, Antonio Orafo (1460-1552), a jeweler and a goldsmith, 

The stamps with face values of 170 and 220 Lire (the one on my cover) were issued on 08MAY1980.

- 1977 was designated as the World Rheumatism Year by the World Health Organisation. Several postal administrations issued stamps evocative of the fact, and San Marino was one such case. The 200 L stamp being illustrated with the image of a feminine figure being trapped by an octopus. I confess I don't quite know what the allegory stands for and a search on the internet has not given me any concrete clues to it, although I found a mention to octopus feet, what I suspect is a deformation of the fingers caused by rheumatism, so this may be the missing link...

The stamp was issued on 19OCT1977

- "Transportation and Communications" was 1988's EUROPA stamps theme, with San Marino being one of the 35 countries participating in the common emission with two stamps - 600 and 700 L - issued on 17MAR1988.

The 600 L stamp, which can be seen on my cover, is illustrated with the image of a monorail train on a journey from San Marino to ....another planet, since the rail path comes out of  our little blue planet and goes on to a point somewhere where we cannot see :-) ... this is a bit strange since I do not believe there is any train station at San Marino, but maybe there's something in this image history that is escaping me, I don't know... The companion stamp follows the same pattern of a path leading out of San Marino to somewhere in space, but this time with a communications cable, maybe fiber optics, judging from the little sparkles at the end of the cable....

The Council of Europe is an international European  institution that aims to promote democracy, the rule of law and human rights within the European continent, its more famous body being the European Court  of Human Rights.

A member state since 1988, San Marino held the Presidency of the Council  from November 2006 till May 2007, and this fact was honoured by Poste San Marino with a 0,65 stamp issued on 23JAN2007, featuring an image of the country's flag alongside the logo of the Council of Europe.

The stamps are cancelled by a nice pictorial postmark, which unfortunately is not very clearly imprinted, illustrated with a  view of the Guaita tower, one of the three towers that were built on the peaks of Monte Titano, the hill that dominates the State capital.

On a short visit to the country in 2017, I took a photo of the tower that closely resembles the image in the postmark