SMOM and the Euro.
 

Italian job for Sovereign Military Order

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) - based in Rome and sometimes
nicknamed 'the smallest country in the world' - has just signed a 10-year
postal
agreement with the Italian Post Office that means the SMOM is now able to
use its
stamps on mail to destinations in Italy.
The postal agreement came into effect on January 1, 2005 and also means that
the
Italian Post Office will forward regular, priority and printed matter to any
of the 50
other countries with which the SMOM holds postal agreements. However, the
agreement doesn't include registered, insured and other similar types of
mail. Two
requirements to the postal agreement are that the SMOM uses Italy's current
postal
rates and the stamps are denominated in Euros - the currency of Italy and
many other
European countries. Therefore none of the stamps in old currency, such as
scudo, tari
and grani, can be used anymore.
This agreement originally dates back to 1960 when there was a formal
exchange of
notes. 1979 saw a postal agreement drafted with Italy but never passed,
whereas the
SMOM signed agreements with many other countries. For a while the SMOM had
troubles getting its stamps accepted on mail because the order was not
recognised by
the Universal Postal Union.
A commemorative stamp was issued in honour of the new SMOM/ltaly agreement
on
October 18, 2004.

acknowledgement: deborah lees news desk stamp mag feb 2005