An Interesting Find

Every once in a while, stamp collectors run across something that doesn't exactly fit in their collection but is still interesting. Such is the case of the postcard below. It is not a 1994 Vatican Easter stamp or postmark. Vatican City did not issue Easter stamps in 1994 but probably did have some sort of postmark. We just haven't found it yet. Evidently the Italian post office evidently did have a 1994 postmark of simular style to the various postmark shown in the Varican Philatelic Easter slideshow. We are not sure if the postcard was issued by the Italian Post Office or not, but the post card below seems to have been canceled in Rome. Using computer software the post card description was translated to English. It reads: "On the reverse: Reproduction without postal validity of stamps dedicated to Pope John Paul II - Reproduction of the figurative cancellation used on the occasion of the celebratory event." The stamp on the front is preprinted and evidently not a legitimate stamp. The stamp on the back appears to be legitimately issued by the Italian Post Office as does the postmark. The postcard seems interesting and nice enough to be part of any Vatican stamp collection. If you have some Easter postcards issued by the Italian Post Office let us know. Perhaps we can get enough to form a Italian version of the VPS Easter slideshow.