The Sovereign Order of Malta is one of three "enclaves" inside Italy, the others being Vatican City and San Marino. It is Based in Rome, and it's stamps are valid for postage to 55 countries. However, the US is not one of them. They are valid to Canada for our northern friends. They have perminent observer status in the UN and Diplomatic relations with over 100 countries. To date they have issued over 450 stamps.
They 1st issued stamps in 1966.
Most recent (Dec. 2013)
I wonder how many other LEGIMATE issuers (non-countries or Locals) we can come up with.
(I can only think of 4)
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
There are many local issues that are valid for postage in their locality. Not many are recognized for international mail, however. Lundy Island is an example.
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin 29 Mar 2014 05:25:31pm
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
The Vatican and San Marino have physical boundaries, but I can find nothing about physical boundaries for this entity. From what physical presence does mail flow? Strictly from an "office" within the confines of the Vatican? Or from an office building in Rome? It is certainly an intriguing order and one which provides many humanitarian and beneficial services around the world.
Login to Like this post
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke"
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
There are a number of international organisations that issue stamps (or have done in the past) and that are accepted internationally, e.g. the UN and its various agencies (such as the International Court of Justice and UNESCO etc.)
There are now some private companies (apart from privatised national postal operators) that issue stamps that are accepted internationally, e.g. Universal Mail's stamps can be used om postcards sent abroad from the UK.
In the nineteenth century the Thurn and Taxis postal service was an international private postal business but was not a country (or a state for that matter).
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (or "SMOM" for short) doesn't really have any territory although Italy has granted its two headquarters buildings in Rome (in separate locations outside of the Vatican) an "extraterritorial" status.
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin 29 Mar 2014 05:51:05pm
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
Would states such as Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, qualify? They are semi-autonomous, and either do, or have in the past, issue stamps.
Login to Like this post
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke"
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin 29 Mar 2014 07:43:20pm
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
Let's not forget The Principality of Sealand.
Login to Like this post
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke"
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin 29 Mar 2014 09:22:31pm
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
"The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (or "SMOM" for short) doesn't really have any territory "
Actually the above is incorrect. partially incorrect.
Besides its 2 buildings in Rome (since 1834), in December 1998, a treaty was signed between Malta and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) granting the upper part of Fort St Angelo (their former home, 1530-1789), including the Grand Master's House and the Chapel of St. Anne, to the Order with limited extraterritoriality.
The past is a foreign country, they do things different there. 30 Mar 2014 01:57:58pm
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
The word "legitimate" requires definition, "Revstampman".
Personally, I consider membership in the UPU as a "legitimate" requirement,
although I collect a lot of illegitimate postage stamps including those of the SOM.
Curiously, I've never encountered a stamp collector who was unaware of SOM stamps.
I hope to get to the SOM HQ in Rome this summer to see if they have a mail box
or letter-drop.
The SOM is, ostensibly, a fraternity devoted to improving the human condition.
Certainly, their officers live in improved human conditions. I shall have to investigate
further as a sizeable portion of its revenue comes from the sale of SOM stamps.
I await only the publication of some far-out novel entitled, "How the SOM Code
will Save our Planet from Eternal Hell Fire".
Haven't yet been able to determine the criteria used by the Canadian government
to recognize SOM stamps as postage.
...an intriguing topic to consider on a Sunday.
John Derry
Login to Like this post
"Much happiness is overlooked because it doesn't cost anything. "
Support the Hobby -- Join the American Philatelic Society 30 Mar 2014 02:24:22pm
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
One could consider Mount Athos another 'legitimate' stamp entity that neither is a country, nor a local post.
However, that something is a "legitimate" entity certainly does not mean there is any need or purpose to issue stamps (Rattlesnake Island etc.). Given the richness of traditional philately, I am always amazed about the market share of items in the bogus category.
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
"The word "legitimate" requires definition, "Revstampman".
Personally, I consider membership in the UPU as a "legitimate" requirement,
although I collect a lot of illegitimate postage stamps including those of the SOM."
By legimate I am speaking of any entity that legitmatly issues stamps thet cam be used for postage into another country.
"I hope to get to the SOM HQ in Rome this summer to see if they have a mail box
or letter-drop."
They Do, Tho Order is located on the corner of via Condotti and via Bocca di Leone in Rome.
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
Hmmm...
"By legitimate I am speaking of any entity that legitimately issues stamps that can be used for postage into another country. "
The Scott catalog does list some areas where the stamps were not "legitimate", but were tolerated in international mail, while the government issuing the stamps was not (Katanga for example).
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 23 Aug 2014 06:33:32pm
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
How about Grand Fenwick ?
  1 Member likes this post. Login to Like.
".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant 24 Aug 2014 01:26:28am
re: LEGITIMATE stamp entities you never knew existed.
Most interesting to me are the recognized organizations that issue stamps, and are usually handled by their host countries postal services. This is edited from an old (2008) Linns Article:
""Collecting stamps issued for use by international organizations
By Janet Klug (Linn International)
"Most stamp collectors collect by country or region, or topically. There is another option. Beginning in the 20th century, many stamps have been issued for use by international organizations. The League of Nations was one of the first to have stamps issued for its use.
[b]The League of Nations [/b]was founded in 1920 as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, one of the treaties that ended World War I. There were 58 member nations at its apex in 1935.
The League of Nations had the loftiest of goals including disarmament, preventing war through collective security, and settling disputes between countries through negotiation and diplomacy. It failed miserably in its primary objective, with wars raging in Spain, Ethiopia and China in the 1930s, leading up to the general conflagration of World War II, which began on Sept. 1, 1939.
The League of Nations had its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Various Swiss stamps were overprinted for use by the League of Nations, and by its subsidiary, the International Labor Bureau.
The Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps and Covers 1840-1940 and the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue list these as Swiss Official stamps.
With WWII raging, the League of Nations adjourned Dec. 14, 1939, and did not reconvene until April 1946, for the purpose of dissolving the organization.
The League of Nations was succeeded by [b]the United Nations.[/b] Initially the United Nations comprised the Allied nations fighting against the Axis powers in WWII.
The U.N. Conference on International Organization was held beginning April 25, 1945, in San Francisco, Calif. The charter was signed by the 50 original members on June 26 of that year. Today the U.N. has 192 member states. The headquarters was established in New York City. Stamps have been issued for use from the U.N. offices in New York City; Geneva, Switzerland; and Vienna Austria. All are listed following the U.S. listings in the Scott standard catalog, Vol. 1, and in the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers.
U.N. mail is carried by the U.S., Swiss and Austrian postal systems.
U.N./New York stamps are denominated in U.S. currency.
U.N./Geneva stamps are denominated in Swiss francs.
Stamps issued for the U.N./Vienna were denominated in Austrian schillings until Austria converted to the euro in 2002. They have been denominated in euros since that time.
Stamps issued by Switzerland for use by U.N. subsidiaries are listed as Swiss Official stamps in the Scott standard catalog, Vol. 6.
These include stamps for the International Bureau of Labor, the International Bureau of Education, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Refugees, the European Office of the U.N., the World Meteorological Organization, the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union, the International Telecommunication Union and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Stamps issued for[b] UNESCO [/b](the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) are listed as French Official stamps in the Scott standard catalog.
[b]The Council of Europe,[/b] headquartered in Strasbourg, France, was founded in 1949 with the chief aim of European Integration. French stamps issued for mail from the council's headquarters are listed as French Official stamps.
In addition to these stamps issued for international organizations, there have also been stamps issued by [b]international organizations for national use.[/b]
In 1962-63, the U.N. exercised temporary executive authority over Netherlands New Guinea and overprinted the former colony's stamps "UNTEA" for use during that period.
The U.N. administers the Serbian province of Kosovo and has issued stamps for use there since 2000. Stamps issued in 2000 for the U.N. Transitional Authority in East Timor are listed under Timor in the Scott standard catalog, Vol. 6."""
By the way, I collect most of these entities, and my biggest challenge is with the Swiss Organizations, which are found in the Scott Catalog B of B Officials for Switzerland, and are still full of holes (avoiding my pocketbook hole is a biggie).
rrr...
Login to Like this post
"E. Rutherford: All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
Please Note: Postings that were loaded from the old Discussion Board cannot be edited.