Beautiful Stamps Galore of Princely Visits and Monte Carlo, ever in the Cinema
Casino Royale, James Bond, the fabulous allure of the Salle Garnier, the Casino de Monte Carlo and Aston Martins competing with Ferrari’s on Casino Square outside Hotel de Paris. A Cinematographer’s dream indeed.
Film Producers and Directors have caught on. The Belle Époque splendour and the Casino have become a magnet for film makers and particularly for posters publicizing their films. So much so that James Bond has not had an exclusive on this iconic setting.
The Principality in its turn decided to issue stamp collections to celebrate the film posters made with Monte Carlo as the setting. You too can become a collector.
Issued last October in 2020 to capture Cinema in Monte Carlo were:
L’Amour et la Veine
It is the French version of the British comedy Money for Nothing. A penniless gambler shares the same name as a billionaire, which brings him sudden luck and finally finds his ideal girl and a fortune.
The Story of a Cheat
The Story of a Cheat is a film by Sacha Guitry, The stamp depicts the Swedish poster for the film. The story concerns a man who recounts for us the phenomenal successes and various failures of a professional cheat.
Quadrille d’Amour
This stamp depicts the Swedish poster for Richard Eichberg’s film known as Quadrille d’amour in French. The film focuses on a young provincial girl from Hungary who transforms herself into a sparkling Parisian socialite out of love for a racing driver who, after spurning her, falls madly in love with her.
Unknown of Monte-Carlo
The stamp depicts the poster for the French version of the Italian film La signora di Montecarlo which tells the story of an adventurous woman weary of her role as bait for a swindler who cleans up playing poker against the gullible marks that she brings to him.
This year, the Stamp Issuing Office decided to honour The Racers
And then the second poster put forward is that of The Red shoes. The Bay of Angels will be the third issue. Finally, Monte-Carlo Madnesswill be the last poster printed. Yet more of these popular film-based stamps may be issued in following years.
Note that each print is made at 36000 postage stamps.
Grimaldi Sites
The Sovereign makes regular visits to the Grimaldi sites throughout Europe; in France and Italy in particular. The OETP prints stamps marking the passage of the Sovereign on these sites. In September 2019, two sites had been visited, Valmont and Romans-sur-Isère. The following year, in July, a stamp of the 18th century princely residence in Torigni was issued. Two months later, another stamp was issued for the Prince’s visit to Terlizzi.
On July 10th, 2015, the association of the Sites Historiques Grimaldi de Monaco was founded. Three years later, in June 2018, the first meeting of historic sites took place. On this occasion, the OETP issued a block of four stamps representing the emblem of each site present, namely Menton, Baux-de-Provence and Carladès. The following year, for the second meeting of historic sites, the Office again printed a series in his honour. On this block are the emblems of Valentinois, Pays de Matignon, Dolceacqua and Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.
