San Marino post office, and how to send a postcard home

Sending a postcard from San Marino is a small pleasure worth planning for. It isn’t the same as posting one from Rimini, because the stamp belongs to another country, with its own designs and postmark, and for plenty of people that stamp is the souvenir. This page covers the practical side, what it costs, where to buy stamps and where each branch is, using Poste San Marino’s own figures.

How much a postcard costs

Poste San Marino doesn’t have a separate postcard rate. A standard card goes as a small-format letter up to 20 grams, and the price depends on the destination zone. To the UK, Ireland, France or anywhere else in Europe, all zone 1, it’s €1.35. To Italy, €1.30. To the United States or Canada, zone 2, €2.55, and to Australia or New Zealand, zone 3, €3.35. Within San Marino it’s €0.95.

One detail I find handy. If the card isn’t rectangular or falls outside the standard format, Poste charges the next weight band up, so the novelty-shaped cards some shops sell can cost a bit more than you’d expect.

Where to buy stamps

You’ve got two choices. Any post office will sell you postage, and Poste San Marino says you can also stamp the item yourself at the published rates and drop it in one of the post boxes around the country. The other, which is what I’d do, is the stamp and coin shop Poste San Marino runs at Piazzetta Garibaldi 5 in the old town. That’s where each year’s issues go on sale, and in 2026 there are €1.35 stamps, exactly the price of a card to the UK.

If collecting is your thing, the stamp and coin museum sits on the same square, and I cover the series collectors chase in San Marino coins and stamps. For a holiday postcard you don’t need to go further.

Christmas brings an extra. For the Natale delle Meraviglie of 2025-2026, Poste San Marino offered a special Christmas postmark at the philatelic shop, which opened 08:45-13:30 and 14:15-17:30 during the festival. Those were festival hours rather than year-round ones, so check before you plan around them.

Do Italian stamps work in San Marino?

It’s a question that comes up a lot in searches, and there’s no official answer. None of the Poste San Marino pages I’ve read says whether a Poste Italiane stamp will do for a letter posted in a Sammarinese box. What is clear is that San Marino has its own operator, which according to Wikipedia has run the service fully independently of Poste Italiane since 1 January 2013. With that in mind, I wouldn’t chance it. Buy Sammarinese stamps, which are the reason for posting from here in the first place.

Branches and opening hours

The branch you’re most likely to pass is in the old town, at Via Gino Giacomini 69, which opens Monday to Friday 08:15-17:30 and Saturday 08:15-12:00. Dogana and Domagnano keep the same hours. In Borgo Maggiore, on Piazza Grande where the market is held, the branch closes at 14:30 and stays shut on Saturdays.

Beyond those, hours get very thin. Chiesanuova opens only on Thursday mornings, Montegiardino on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Faetano on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s all in the table above. Watch out for Sundays and public holidays, when the post offices close, and check San Marino opening hours and public holidays if you’re posting something at the weekend.

Postcodes for each castello

Each of the nine castelli has its own postcode, and Dogana, part of Serravalle, has a separate one. The old town is 47890, Dogana 47891, Acquaviva 47892, Borgo Maggiore 47893, Chiesanuova 47894, Domagnano 47895, Faetano 47896, Fiorentino 47897, Montegiardino 47898 and Serravalle 47899. The outlet at Falciano uses 47891 and the hospital at Cailungo 47893. If you’re writing to someone in San Marino, put the castello postcode and then «Repubblica di San Marino» on the line below.

Poste San Marino makes a claim I rather like. It says the country was the first in the world to set up a postal service for everyone, when in 1607 the Council appointed a postman who carried letters to Rimini on foot. That’s their version and I pass it on as such, and the rest of the story is in my history of San Marino.