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- 1500 lire Lake of Beijing single
1500 lire Lake of Beijing single
Object Details
- Description
- On October 2, 1990, Vatican City issued a series of four stamps commemorating the third centenary of the creation of the Dioceses of Beijing and Nanking. Two enameled bronze Chinese vases, gifts to Pope Pius IX (1792-1878) from the apostolic delegate to Beijing, inspired the stamps' artwork. The 1,500-lire stamp features a country scene with Lake Beijing.
- China has been a predominantly Buddhist country for two thousand years. The first Catholic missionaries to Beijing came to that city in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but they had no significant impact on the Chinese. Major missionary activity began with a Jesuit priest named Father Matteo Ricci in 1583. Ricci established a residence in Nanking in 1599 and moved to Bejing two years later. By 1610, the year of his death, there were only about 2,500 Chinese Catholics, but most of these were intellectuals and members of the ruling class. By 1650, the number of Chinese Catholics had risen to approximately 150,000. In that year, Portuguese Jesuits built the Nan-Tang church in Beijing. These missionary activities culminated in the creation of the dioceses of Beijing and Nanking in 1690.
- The Italian State Polygraphic Institute and Mint printed 450,000 complete series. The stamps are vertical in format, measure 30 x 40 mm, and have a perforation of 13 1/4. The firm produced the stamps, issued in sheets of twenty, by rotogravure on white chalky paper. In the upper right corner of each stamp appears the date 1690-1990; along the right side appears the inscription 3rd CENTENARIO DIOCESI PECHINO-NANCHING. The words POSTE VATICANE and the value appear along the bottom.
- Crimando, Thomas. "300th Anniv. Creation of the Dioceses of Beijing and Nanking." Vatican Notes 39, no. 3 (November 1990): 1, 4.
- Data Source
- National Postal Museum
- Date
- October 2, 1990
- Object number
- 1991.0730.41
- Type
- Postage Stamps
- Medium
- paper; ink
- Place
- VATICAN CITY (independent city state)
- See more items in
- National Postal Museum Collection
- Title
- Scott Catalogue Vatican City 863
- Topic
- International Stamps & Mail
- Record ID
- npm_1991.0730.41
- Usage
- Usage conditions apply
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