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One Hundred Years of Radio and
An Interesting First Day Cover

George Pavlik
Updated by Lou Giorgetti



First Day Cover, 100 Years of Radio, June 8, 1995
Joint issue of Vatican City, Italy, San Marino, Ireland and the Federated Republic of Germany
Cover from the collection of George Pavlik


100 Years of the Radio
Vatican Scott 978-979 (1995)

On June 8, 1995, Vatican City issued two stamps to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first radio broadcast by Guglielmo Marconi. The stamps were issued jointly with four other nations: Italy, San Marino, Ireland and the Federated Republic of Germany. It was the first time Vatican City had participated in a joint issue to commemorate an event of historical importance.

The interesting first day cover (FDC) containing the stamps and special postmarks from each of the five issuing countries is shown at the top of the article. An enlarged view of the cover can be viewed by clicking here.

Marconi’s first radio broadcast took place in 1895 at Pontecchio, near Bologna. Six years later, on December 12, 1901, he received a radio signal sent from Cornwall, England to his location in Newfoundland in Canada, a distance of about 2000 miles or 4000 kilometers. This was the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission.

The UFN bulletin announcing the release of the Vatican stamps states that celebrating the centennial of radio helps to recall:
all the applications of electro-magnetic waves, from radio-telegraphy to radiophonic broadcasting, from television to radar, from radionavigation to radio-astronomy, from medical to industrial applications.
In addition to the issue for the centenary of the radio, Marconi was been remembered by Vatican City in 2024 on the 150th anniversary of his birth on April 25, 1874. The VPS Website Team presented a Daily Email on the annual celebration of Marconi Day, which is held on the Saturday closest to his birth date.


150th Anniversary of the Birth of Guglielmo Marconi
Vatican City, March 21, 2024


REFERENCES:
  • UFN, June 8, 1995, 100 Years of the Radio
  • Vatican Philatelic Society, Daily Email, International Marconi Day
  • Vatican Philatelic Society website, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search