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 World Refugee Year Scott 275-280 (1960) On April 7, 1960, Vatican City issued a six-stamp set to signal its participation in the United Nations World Refugee Year campaign. Due to the significant refugee problems that existed following World War II, and which persisted through the next decade in regions across Europe and Asia, the UN General Assembly issued a resolution on December 5, 1958 approving the World Refugee Year campaign, whose goals were to: As a result of the resolution, over fifty countries agreed to participate in the campaign. One means of raising awareness for the project, as well as to raise relief funds, was the issuance of postage stamps. Eventually, over seventy countries issued stamps to call attention to World Refugee Year, including Vatican City and the United States (Scott 1149, 1960). The article in the References below by James Hamilton illustrates some of the World Refugee Year stamps from around the world. Vatican City, unlike other countries, earmarked all the proceeds from the sale of its World Refugee Year stamps to the United Nations relief program. The donation of around $460,000 was the largest donation from any country. The Vatican City stamps for World Refugee Year focus on three themes: Escape, Almsgiving, and Mercy and Shelter. The images for the stamps are taken from the works of three famous artists of the Italian Renaissance from the fifteenth century: 
”Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias” by Massacio: 
”The Madonna of Mercies (Madonna della Misericordia)” by Piero della Francesca:  In looking at the stamps of this set, an interesting variety was identified. On the 100 L stamp (Scott 279), the year “1960” appears as “1980”. This flaw is traced back to the third pane of the printed sheet, at position 23 on the pane. Refer to the Vatican Notes article from 1961 below to view images of this variety. REFERENCES |
