1925 1L King Victor Emmanuel with “Eritrea” overprint, perforated 13 1/2, an amazingly rare mint example of this commemorative with the small gauge perforation, lovely deep color and prooflike impression, extraordinarily well centered within wide margins all around, plus full even perforations; very fine and exceedingly choice; this commemorative series, to honor the 25th year of the Reign of King Victor Emmanuel, was issued by Italy in both perforation 11 and 13 1/2 for all three values, while certain values in the Italian versions are slightly scarcer in one perforation than another there is little significant difference, however in the overprints for the various colonies that were applied to this issue it was not uncommon for one of the values to be considerably rarer in one of the perforations, the vast majority of that value being overprinted on the other perforation, Eritrea is the epitome of this disparity, perforation 11 on the One Lira is very common but perforation 13 1/2 is a great rarity both used and mint, suggesting that very few were overprinted, maybe as few as only a sheet or two at the most; the mint example offered here is one of only a very few recorded and is especially desirable in this select quality; signed S. Sorani (Scott #92a; $17,750.00).
Leave a Reply