Announcements
The stamp, worth 205 lire, is part of a series of three copies dedicated to the states visited by Giovanni Gronchi, the third president of the Republic, in April 1961. These states are Argentina (commemorated with a 170 lire stamp ), Uruguay (185 lire) and Peru (205 lire) .
On the Gronchi rosa, the borders of Peru are not updated because the designer of the stamp, Renato Mura, was provided with a 1939 De Agostini atlas, which did not take into account the territories of the Amazon River basin, annexed following the war with Ecuador of 1941-42.
On the morning of April 3rd, Easter Monday, the sale began and, being a holiday, 79,625 complete sets were sold. On Easter Monday morning, the Peruvian ambassador to Italy Alfonso Arias officially protested the border issue. The ministry ordered the stamp to be withdrawn and an attempt was made to recover those sold. Poste Italiane announced 79,625 copies that had escaped withdrawal, 90 destined for the postal museum and 80 set aside for gifts to diplomats. According to the ministry, 79,455 205 lire Gronchi rosa stamps were sold.
Currently, the new stamp with the intact gum is worth around 1000 euros and around 500 euros for the pieces without the gum, coming from the franking of the envelopes intercepted and covered with gray. Depending on the quality of conservation, envelopes with pink Gronchi are worth between 600 and 900 euros.