Italy: 1961 Visit of President Gronchi in South America

The Pink Gronchi (il Gronchi Rosa) is one of the most iconic stamps of Italian philately.
I don't know how many of you know its history, however it is one of the most classic.
A set of three stamps was prepared for the visit of President Gronchi to South America in 1961.
The stamps were distributed a few days before the trip in order to prepare the aerogrammes to be transported by the presidential plane. Distributed to the post office, but not yet valid for postal purposes.
However, in the pink stamp by 205L the borders of Peru were wrong, so the stamp was withdrawn and replaced with a gray one with the same value but with the correct borders.
On the aerogrammes already collected and franked the pink was "covered" by the gray.
So what is the "Gronchi Rosa"? A postage stamp, because effectively used to frank postal items? An unissued stamp, because it was prepared and withdrawn at the last moment? Or simply a speculative object artfully created to move the market?

Is his true fame? Posterity
The arduous verdict will declare;

The Gronchi Rosa still remains an iconic stamp, known by almost everyone in Italy, even far from philately. In front of a collection of Italy Republic, the first question is whether or not there is the Gronchi Rosa, together with the Cavallino and a few others...

And for an used collection? In my opinion, the only legitimate and official postal use is on an aerogramme covered by the gray...
It means, you have in your collection a stamp that you like noone else could ever see...

sorry ameis33, I can't see a cat, but I can see .............. Cyprus looks to be attached to the Levant, there's a tree growing out of northern Italy (might this be the cat's face?) and I can see the lama (for Peru). On the L. 170 it looks like 'Liberty' has left her hat on a pole. Can see two copies of the L. 205, one on top of the other, perhaps? It sounds a very interesting piece of history, thanks for posting.

When i wrote "find the cat" i was referring to find the covered stamp... But indeed both of you pointed out other details i didn't see at the beginning, in particular the different coat of arms of the three country visited (Peru, Argentina and Uruguay). Here the details showing there is a stamp beside the grey...





But, how can i know it is right the pink and not another stamp, or even a pink but a forgery? The letter come together with a certificate which state it and i can trust Enzo Diena... To certify this kind of letter, the grey must be lifted up and then the expert can examine the stamp beneath. I could also do it at home, but it's a kind of thing i don't feel to do by myself. I'm going to ask the expert if they have in their own archive a photo of the grey lifted up or i can send it to another expert (i already contacted Diego Carraro). Anyway, i think i will find something like this:





The postmark is of course philatelic. As i said before, the three stamps were presold to give chance collectors to frank the aerogrammes which would have been transported by the presidential flight. It depitch the coat of arms of Peru, Argentina and Uruguay, which the president was going to visit.





I don't go in details of all the coat of arms, but a description can easily be found on internet, wikipedia in particular...





en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Peru
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Argentina
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Uruguay

About the Gronchi Rosa, a total of 70625 stamps were sold. Some of them have been used to frank aerogrammes as described. The regular use would be covered by the grey, but some of them can be found where the pink has not been covered. Also, some Gronchi Rosa have been used for regular mail inside Italy, tollerated or in any case not taxed (the pink was withdrawn before it could be used...). So, in reality, a used stamp can be found with a genuine cancel regardless it's proper use...

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing!