Roman/Papal States 1852 1 Scudo

Stamps for a restored pope

Pius IX was elected pope in 1846 and began as a liberal. In February 1849 revolutionaries declared a Roman Republic and the pope fled the city. French troops crushed the republic, and until Pius returned to Rome in 1850 the Papal States were run by a committee of cardinals. The territory he came back to covered much of central Italy: Lazio around Rome, Umbria, the Marches, Romagna and parts of Emilia.

On November 21, 1851, Cardinal Secretary of State Giacomo Antonelli announced that the papal government would introduce postage stamps. The first eight values, from 1/2 to 7 bajocchi, went on sale on January 1, 1852, printed in black on colored paper. Three higher values followed later that year on white paper: an 8 bajocchi, a 50 bajocchi in blue and the 1 scudo in carmine-rose.

Sources disagree on when the top value arrived. A Vatican philatelic society history dates both the 50 bajocchi and the 1 scudo to July 12, 1852, and the 8 bajocchi to October 1. A study of the issue's forgeries gives October 1852 for the 50 bajocchi and 1 scudo. The scudo was worth 100 bajocchi, so the 1 scudo was the highest denomination of the eleven-stamp set.

Made in Rome

The dies were engraved by the Rome firm Doublet and Decoppet and Co., and the stereotypes used to build the printing plates came from the foundry of P. Couppet and Co., also in Rome. The stamps were printed by letterpress at the Vatican's own print shop, imperforate and on unwatermarked paper, most of it made by the Cartiera Graziosi mill at Subiaco. Over the years handmade paper gave way to smoother, heavier machine-made paper.

The low values were printed in sheets of 100 divided into four panes of 25. The 50 bajocchi and the 1 scudo were printed in sheets of 50, ten by five, with no division into panes. The design is the same for every value: the triple-crowned papal tiara above the crossed keys of St. Peter, framed differently for each denomination.

No official print figure appears in the sources consulted here. A dealer's commentary from 2014 states that 10,000 of the 1 scudo were issued. A specialist auction firm describes mint or used examples of the 1 scudo as elusive.

The sheet of fifty

The most famous 1 scudo item is not a single stamp but a full mint sheet of 50, with original gum and wide margins, and with the rare gutter (interpanneau) between the fifth and sixth rows. The Italian expert Enzo Diena described it in his 1990 certificate as the single most valuable item in the entire area of papal philately. A 2021 description added that a complete sheet of 100 of the unissued 1858 20 bajocchi, found later in private hands, now stands beside it as one of the two great items of the Papal States.

The sheet came from the celebrated Rothschild collection of Italian States stamps; the auction description names Baron Arthur de Rothschild as the provenance, while an article by the same firm attributes the collection to the Austrian philatelist Alphonse Mayer von Rothschild. It was the cover illustration of a 1990 auction catalogue of Papal States and Sicily, offered as lot 136 on October 25, 1990, estimated at £150,000 to £200,000, and sold for £200,000 before a 10 percent premium.

It reappeared at auction in Switzerland on December 15, 2021, estimated at 120,000 to 160,000 euros, and sold for 120,000 euros, or 146,400 euros with buyer's premium. The description notes a single crease with a closed tear in the upper right corner, away from the designs. As a block of 50 stamps, its price is not a single-stamp price.

Telling a real one from the fakes

The 1 scudo has attracted forgers for more than a century. One specialist note calls early 20th-century Fournier forgeries of the 1 scudo excellent and advises that every copy be expertized. Other forgeries are attributed to Sperati, whose 1 scudo shows a break in the inner frame line below the C of SCUDO and lacks the top left serif of the E, to Zechmeyer, whose versions have a very small tiara and oddly shaped corner leaves, and to Senf. Earlier, in 1855, lithographed forgeries of three low values were made in Bologna.

On a genuine stamp, shading lines inside the design do not touch the frame, the letters L are generally joined, the serif of the E slants, and the ring elements of the design carry no inner shading. Because of the forgery problem, collectors look for an expert certificate; the single stamps recorded in the prices below were each sold with one.

Condition drives price. Recent single copies offered at auction have carried faults such as thins, hinge remnants or missing gum.

The end of a state

The stamps outlived much of the state that issued them. In 1860 Piedmont-Sardinia conquered roughly the eastern two-thirds of the Papal States, and Bologna, Ferrara, Umbria and the Marches were annexed by November. The 1852 design remained in use in the shrinking territory until stamps in the new centesimi currency replaced it in 1867.

On September 20, 1870, Italian troops captured Rome, ending both the Papal States and their stamps. The papacy withdrew into the Vatican, and it was not until the Lateran Treaty of 1929 that Vatican City became an independent state, with stamps of its own. For collectors of classic Italy, the 1 scudo remains the top value of the papal first issue and the stamp that completes the set.

The numbers

Issue date

1852 (July 12 per one source; October per another)

Value

1 scudo (100 bajocchi), highest of eleven values

Color

Carmine-rose on white paper

Printing

Letterpress at the Vatican print shop; dies by Doublet and Decoppet and Co., Rome

Paper

Mostly from Cartiera Graziosi, Subiaco; handmade, later machine-made; unwatermarked

Perforation

Imperforate

Sheet format

50 (10 x 5), no panes

Quantity issued

10,000 according to one dealer source

Complete sheets known

One mint sheet of 50, described as unique

Timeline

1. 1846

   Pius IX is elected pope.

2. Feb 1849

   A Roman Republic is declared and the pope flees Rome; French troops later suppress it.

3. 1850

   Pius IX returns to Rome.

4. Nov 21, 1851

   Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli announces the introduction of postage stamps.

5. Jan 1, 1852

   The first eight values, 1/2 to 7 bajocchi, go on sale.

6. Jul 12, 1852

   Issue date given by one source for the 50 bajocchi and the 1 scudo; another gives October 1852.

7. 1855

   Lithographed postal forgeries of low values appear in Bologna.

8. 1860

   Piedmont-Sardinia annexes most of the Papal States' territory.

9. 1867

   Stamps in centesimi replace the 1852 issue.

10. Sep 20, 1870

    Italian troops capture Rome, ending the Papal States.

11. Oct 25, 1990

    The complete mint sheet of 50 sells for £200,000 at auction, from the Rothschild collection.

12. Feb 2021

    A used single with a 1990 expert certificate sells for $850.

13. Dec 2021

    An unused single with small faults sells for $450.

14. Dec 15, 2021

    The sheet of 50 sells for 120,000 euros (146,400 with premium) at auction in Switzerland.

15. Feb 7, 2024

    An unused single without gum sells for $290.

The world in 1852

• Jan 14, 1852

  Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte proclaims a new constitution for the French Second Republic.

• Mar 20, 1852

  Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published in book form in Boston.

• Jun 30, 1852

  The New Zealand Constitution Act grants the colony representative self-government.

• Nov 2, 1852

  Franklin Pierce is elected president of the United States.

• Nov 4, 1852

  Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, becomes prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, the state that would later absorb most of the Papal States.

• Nov 11, 1852

  The new Palace of Westminster opens in London as the home of Parliament.

• Dec 2, 1852

  Napoleon III becomes Emperor of the French.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Roman/Papal States 1852 1 Scudo is number 83 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (98 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The only complete sheet of the 1 scudo was described by its expert as the single most valuable item in papal philately.
• That sheet sold for £200,000 in 1990 and for 120,000 euros in 2021.
• The 1 scudo and 50 bajocchi were printed in sheets of 50, half the size of the lower values' sheets of 100.
• The forger Sperati's 1 scudo gives itself away with a break in the frame line below the C of SCUDO.
• The stamps were printed inside the Vatican, more than 75 years before Vatican City became an independent state.
• Within eight years of the 1 scudo's issue, the pope had lost about two-thirds of the territory where it was valid.