Revenue stamp from Ticino
This is very likely one of the most bizarre back-of-book items in my Swiss stamp collection – some sort of local revenue stamp from Rebublic of Canton Ticino. If you haven’t heard of Ticino, don’t worry, I’m sure You are not alone, LOL. Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Interestingly it is also the only swiss canton in which Italian is the sole official language…And once again I’d like the blog readers to assist me in digging up bits and pieces (like who,why,when etc) about this.
Canton of Ticino. The inscription on the middle translates to Invoices, suggesting this could be a revenue stamp of some sorts.
I admit, this is definitely the most attractive piece design wise (in addition of several minor faults it has). But it has something I like… And it’s not important to realize that this is not a small stamp. The dimensions are 29×39mm – meaning it’s notably larger than any of definitive postage stamps.
I was expecting to find similar items from eBay or DelCampe – but nothing. Same thing with Google…So if you know anything about this, please enlighten me…
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There’s nothing on the Forbin from 1915. So it’s definitely after this date.
It looks like the 40s from this lot on ebay. Maybe you can send some questions to the seller:
http://cgi.ebay.it/SWITZERLAND-REVENUE-Stamp-TICINO-TOURIST-TAX-MORE-U-/190427383272?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0#ht_500wt_928
or to this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/1948-SWITZERLAND-HOTEL-DOCUMENT-REVENUE-/270542742696?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3efd9aa4a8#ht_3576wt_1137
Thanks AdA – you are a first class eBay seeker
The latter eBay items seems to explain a whole lot, as it has these stamps attached on the restaurant invoice (dated 1948). The last item of invoice (after soup, other foods, and taxes) is properly marked “Bollo” (stamp/duty).
As you’ve already stated, it is indeed a revenue stamp from the Canton of Ticino. When I translate the Italian in babelfish, it says that “Fatture” means invoices, which would make sense as the eBay link previously posted shows it on a restaurant invoice. As far as I know, every Canton issued their own revenues, and I have ones from Basel, St. Gallen and Zurich in my collection. I collect worldwide revenue stamps, so if you decide you want to part with this stamp, let me know! I hope I’ve been able to shed a little more light on it.
Will
Hi Will,
and thanks for the additional info… For the time being, this “ugly” remains in my collection. But I’ll try to keep remember Your offer if I get a change of mind.
Hi,
I’m swiss and living in Ticino.
Yes, the stamp you show is a Ticino (so “cantonal”) revenue stamp for invoices. Till mid ‘80 (I don’t remeber exactly the year, may be 1984 or 1985) all invoices over a certain amount (200 francs?) had to be stamped with such vignettes. As said, Ticino abolished this “tax” in mid ‘80. Today we have a general VAT.
Thanks Renato… It’s interesting to know this kind of tax vignettes were used on invoices as late as the 1980s. I would have thought these went out of fashion in 1940/50s, but apparently not so.