Black Shirt Fund (Camicie Nere).

Description: Series of 3 stamps with identical subject. Impression 275.000.
Date of issue: October 29, 1923. Valid up to February 29, 1924. Issued only in Rome, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Turin and Venice.

Charity stamp for the disablement fund of the "Camicie nere" (Black Shirts). They were the members of any of the armed squads of Italian Fascists under Benito Mussolini, and was dressed in black-shirt uniforms. A Fascist convention in Naples on October 24th, 1922, provided the pretext for the concentration of armed Black-shirts from all over the country for the famous March on Rome that put Mussolini into power. March on Rome took place by the Black-shirts on October 28th, 1922.
Swearing-in ceremonies for new members of PNF (Partito Nazionale Fascista) were used from 1921. In the ritual the fascists swore to devote their lives to the nation and to the revolution, to observe the commandments of the fascist morality and to obey orders without question.

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Date created: 22/03/00 11:42:36