On May 31, 1933, Vatican City issued a set of eighteen stamps consisting of six different designs and a wide range of postal values, including special delivery stamps.
The set contains four stamps with a vignette of Pope Pius XI (Vatican Scott numbers 28-31). These stamps include the 1-lire (black and violet), 1.25-lire (black and blue), 2-lire (black and brown), and 2.75-lire (black and purple) values. These stamps of horizontal design measure 4.7 x 3 cm.
F. Federici designed the stamps. The Italian State Printing Works, Rome, produced the stamps using the recess printing process. Perforations measure 14 x 14. The stamps contain the Crossed Keys of St. Peter watermark. The inscription Poste Vaticane appears on all eighteen stamps in this set.
The Vatican withdrew the stamps from sale on December 31, 1940.
References:
"Vatikanstaat" in Michel Europa Katalog, band 3, Sudeuropa, Unterschleissheim, Germany: Schwanberger Verlag GMBH, 2008.
"Vatican City" in Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue, part 8, Italy and Switzerland, 7th edition. Stanley Gibbons, Ltd: Ringwood, Hampshire, England, 2010.
"Vatican City," in Scott Standard Stamp Catalogue, volume 6, Sidney, Ohio: Scott Publishing Company, 2006.
James Lees-Milne, Saint Peter's: The Story of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome (Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1967), 117, 119-121, 216-222, chapters 6 and 8.
Filippo Coarelli, Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide, translated by James J. Clauss and Daniel P. Harmon (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2007), 354-356.
