Hi!

These are revenue stamps from either Serbia or Montenegro..I'm not sure which...but it is one or the other. They are not listed in Scott's. You might check the internet and see if Barefoot has a revenue catalog available for that part of Europe.

Dave

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Witt is entirely wrong in stating that these were issued from in France. France (Bordeaux to be precise) was the base of the Montenegrin Government in Exile during WW1. But in late 1918, the country having been liberated from the Austrians, King Nikolas was preparing to return when there was a coup against him in Montenegro. On 1st December parliament declared in favour of anschluss with Serbia, and pledged allegiance to the ruling house of Serbia which was about to also be the ruling house of the SHS confederation which was eventually to be known as Yugoslavia. And it was very handy for the Serbian king to have the only other ruling king from the area out of the way.

Although in theory France still supported Nikolas's claim to the throne of Montenegro, they had no interest in upsetting Serbia or the rest of the confederation, and they were certainly not keen to continue to pay the now penniless King's very considerable expenses to stay in France.

So he moved to Italy, where in spite of his family ties (his daughter had married into the Italian royal family) he was not popular with the government, who had no more desire than the French to upset the SHS, and who were confident, probably correctly, that he was planning to stage a counter-coup.

Also like the French they resented paying his expenses; the cost of the Montenegrin consulate in Rome alone was 20 million lire p.a. But there was also the expense of his soldiers (not merely the WW1 escapees, but also some that had left Montenegro during the coup), now encamped in Gaeta and Sulmona.

It is at this point, roughly 1920, that he issued these stamps as a purely propaganda issue to raise funds and keep alive the illusion of the King in Exile. And since Gaeta was where his supporters were, that was the best place to issue them; hence they are always known as the Gaeta issue.

He died in March 1921, and his widow Milena formally renounced the family's claim to Montenegro (none of his sons were bright enough to be credible as candidates).

 
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