The Italians are well aware that since 7 December 2011 it was no longer possible to convert tickets and coins into lire into euros. This is thanks to the Monti government who anticipated from 28 February 2012 al 6 December 2011 the deadline for the conversion of the lire.
Then that rule in November 2015 was declared illegitimate by the Constitutional Court making the Ministry of Economy and Finance the A Banca d'Italia who defined the modalities with which to execute the sentence.
Basically from 22 January 2016, who was able to document that he had requested to convert lire between 6 December 2011 and 28 February 2012, specifying the amount, he could carry out the conversion at one of the branches of the Bank of Italy that performed the State Treasury service.
What happened to the lire stamps instead?
"Italian stamps with face value expressed in lire retain their validity and can be used for postage, provided they are integrated with stamps for any missing amount”
By visiting the website of the online magazine of philatelic culture and postal history It Postalista, it is possible to read the resolution of Ministry of Economy and Finance – Resolution of the Euro Committee – The Euro Committee (Editor's note searched but not found in official channels, attributable to the period of the transition from the lira to the euro): “The stamps issued before 1999 and therefore expressed in lire, they continue to be in progress, except for a few single exceptions, causes seizure of copious amounts of forgeries. "
And still that: “Stamped values with face value expressed only in lire remain valid even after January 1st 2002 indefinitely and can be used while stocks last. Of course, after this date, their value in euro is determined on the basis of the fixed conversion rate ".
Basically it was a way not to cause damage to citizens and other subjects, “being in possession of considerable stocks that are difficult to exhaust by the end of the dual circulation period, they could suffer losses in some significant cases ".
While having to remember that, from 1 January 1999 the stamps issued in Italy bear the double value of lira and euro, while starting from January 1st 2002 all stamps were issued only in euros, to date there has been no governmental measure to interrupt the legal validity of the stamps (in generale) showing the value expressed only in lire on the façade.
Alex Gaetani