125th Anniversary of the Universal Postal Union

Up until 150 years ago there was a major problem in sending a letter abroad because each state to which a letter might be sent had its own different tariff and service restrictions, the product of bilateral postal agreements. In many cases it was possible to use a variety of possible routes, each of which had its own peculiar tariff, regulations and restrictions. As early as the Paris Congress of 1863 an attempt was made to devise a standard, uniform text for such postal conventions, but there was very little laid down to act as an example of what was needed, apart from the postal union of German States. "The countries between whom the present treaty has been agreed will form, under the name of the General Postal Union, a single unit for the reciprocal exchange of mail between their post offices". So runs article 1 of the Treaty signed in Berne on 9 October 1874, a postal convention agreed, not just between two countries but between 22, a treaty that came into force on 1 July 1875. It was signed by 32 representatives of 21 of the countries: France, despite having participated in the negotiations, did not sign immediately because of political and economic problems, but joined the Union six months later. The success of the union was such, with membership granted or applications for membership received from all corners of the earth, that the following Congress, held in Paris in 1878, had to re-draft the entire treaty, which then came into force on 1 January 1879, 120 years ago, and which adopted the new, and by then more appropriate, name of the Universal Postal Union. San Marino, which has always formed part of this organisation, at first being represented by Italy but a member in her own right as of 1915, wishes to record these events with two stamps which invoke the key issues. The first stamp shows Article no. 1 of the Treaty in the original French version (from which only the last, rather redundant words "entre leurs bureaux de poste" are missing), together with the date and a picture of the ancient Swiss Parliament building in which the treaty was signed. The other stamp outlines the territories of the 22 founding countries and a footnote clarifies that among subordinate territories included in the treaty were not only San Marino but also Iceland, the Faroes, Algeria and Spanish offices in Morocco.

	Issue date: 12 May 1999
	Values: L800 (0.41 euro) and L3000 (1.55 euro) Sheets of 20 stamps
	Design by Franco Filanci
	Printing in offset: Cartor Security Printing:
	Block perforated 13 ¼
	Print order: 160,000
Click on the image to enlarge