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Today we reach the end of the review of the regular post stamp issues from Vatican City as presented in the article written in 1954 by the first president of the Vatican Philatelic Society, William Wonneberger, "The Vatican's Postage Stamps".
 It is appropriate that today's entry covers the section of Mr. Wonneberger's article entitled "The Marian Year". His review covers the six-stamp set issued on May 26, 1954 which commemorates the centenary of the propagation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, as well as the announcement of the Marian Year of 1954, two of the events around which the National Philatelic Museum presented its exhibition in 1954 (the other being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Lateran Pact and the formation of the State of Vatican City.
 
This is the last stamp set from 1954 included in Mr. Wonneberger's article. Three more sets were issued in 1954, all of which were released following the opening of the exhibition at the National Philatelic Museum:
 
The 200th anniversary of the consecration of the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi (issued on October 1, 1954): 
<center>
<img height='250' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/185.jpg'>
<img height='250' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/186.jpg'></center>
 
 The 1600th anniversary of the birth of Saint Augustine (released November 13, 1954): 
<center>
<img height='250' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/187.jpg'>
<img height='250' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/188.jpg'></center>
 
And appropriately, the set to mark the end of the Marian Year of 1954 (issued December 7, 1954): 
<center>
<img height='250' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/189.jpg'>
<img height='250' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/190.jpg'>
<img height='250' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/191.jpg'></center>
 
Mr. Wonneberger also reviewed the "back-of-the-book" stamps of Vatican City through 1954, including air mails, postage due, parcel post, and semi-postal issues. The VPS Website will present these excerpts as Page 2 articles in the near future.
 
The article by Mr. Wonneberger first appeared in the book Vatican, published by the National Philatelic Museum in conjunction with the Vatican Marian Year Philatelic Exhibition, held at the Museum in September, 1954. We are thankful that the Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History has granted us permission to reproduce the contents of the book, supplemented with images of the stamps from the issue. We hope you enjoy this serial review of the early stamps issued by Vatican City.

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