El Salvador [ 2nd Post ]

New Entries

Today I have a 'last minute' post with a small group of stamps from El Salvador...I had everything prepared for a post about my recent acquisition of a new Philatelic tool, but some questions have build up in my mind and they need answers before the post could be shared...so, El Salvador it is..!

Beautiful stamp, representing the San Miguel Volcano, surrounded by eleven stars , representing the eleven districts or Departments  of El Salvador...This is actually the 1st El Salvador stamp representing the role of Nature's Power in El Salvador History and Culture ,  always around with Volcanoes, Floods, Earthquakes, etc..
a Good work of ABNC,NY... 

1867 "San Miguel Volcano and Stars" (4) [Recess (ABNC,NY)] Sc(1)

These are stamps from the first of the El Salvador Seebeck Series... let's now remember that N.F. Seebeck was the director of Hamilton Bank note Company, NY, and he was able to make contracts with the Governments of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Ecuador and Honduras... the terms of the contracts were in theory very profitable for the Bank and from 1890 to 1899 (in most cases) the Seebeck Series of these countries were issued...I have done a post about Nicaragua's Sebbeck Series, where more can be found about the history of this strange Man and his dream...

Well these first 3 stamps are for me , a bad example of the Seebeck stamps... the design of frames is normal, but the vignette and the printing in general is not so good as usual, in Nicaragua,for example...in fact we are looking for the first examples I know of the already famous group of Undesired stamps : the PDSMID ('Please don't see me in detail') stamps...the face of the Young Central America deserved much better and much more work.. Yes, the Central Vignette of these stamps represent a Young and Beautiful(??) Central America carrying proudly the Flag and Shield of El Salvador.. this is of course an allegoric Figure that lead us to the Unity of Central American Countries, that from time to time reemerge : after the Independence in 1822, the republic of San Salvador joined the newly formed United Provinces of Central America, until 1838 when the Republic changed it's name to El Salvador...

1890 "Central America" (9) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(40,41,42)

Yes!!!. Great stamp!... this is a fine example of the Frame designs of the Seebeck series...they are not like something we ever have seen..! many ornaments and complex frames , leaving the vignette often emerged in very detailed backgrounds...the vignette itself it is beautiful in this specific case, again with the magnificence of the Volcano and the presence of a Train and a Boat ,possibly carrying mail...one thing is troubling me : why the 14 stars and not the 11 present in a earlier design.?? more provinces?? perhaps..

Very Well Done!! A Master Piece!!

1891 "Volcano,Train and Boat" (10) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(47,52)

This time ,a stamp of the "Landing of Columbus" series... it is the only stamp I've got from this series , where we can find again the well structured and complex frame design with vignettes with irregular shapes and nice designs...I'm aware that my opinion about the so called Seebeck stamps is clearly different from the general opinion of condemnation to perpetual exile in the Philatelic Hell of the collectibles that we should not collect...! I think we should collect all the stamps we like... that is the only opinion we need to buy or not a stamp : We like it or Not!..all the rest is to fill the space between the beginning and the end of Books and other opinion makers...(I'm also aware that I am now being one of those 'opinion makers'...)  I like some of these Seebeck stamps very much!

1892 "Landing of Columbus" (10) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(63)

General Carlos Ezeta was President of El Salvador from 1890 to 1894 and he is represented in this new series from 1893...I would like to have more stamps of each of these series ,but they don't seem so common as they should be...in this Seebeck stamp Universe,we could say that it is again a reasonable nice engraving work in a not so usual portrait design...

1893 "General Carlos Ezeta" (10) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(81)

Next to this Portrait series,there is a 3 stamp pictorial series ,also from 1893 ,where the Central Figure is again Columbus (2p / Founding of the City of Isabella 5p/Columbus statue, Genoa 10p/ Departure from Palos)  ; from what I see in the Catalogs they are again nice stamps,and I'm sure they will be very well received in the collection in a brief future...

never mind the apparent size of the stamps : they are identical ...

These are stamps representing Liberty, and are from the group of the Normal Seebeck stamps... in this group we will find the general characteristics of the US stamp of those days...stamps with no frame lines ,elevated external frame, general display of different shadings in  labels, small number of ornaments,etc

[Left] USA 1894 series 
[Right] USA 1897 series

at this point , we can say that the printings and engravings were in general,Good, except for the 1st of the Seebeck series, with a bad work of engraving, design and printing...

1895 "Liberty" (10) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(91,94)

Now we have a interesting series ,with many pictorial stamps...

when there is no line of thought connecting all the illustrations, I use to call them "Various Designs" stamps...this series was issued in 3 different times...well,let's start from the beginning...

The original series was issued in 1896 ,with 12 different designs and Frames...this series was printed using a thin but hard paper ,and could have or not a watermark...This first group presented above has no wmk ,but the stamp below has the presence of wmk...

in 1897 a new series was issued with the same designs but different colors...the paper used was also thin and hard and the stamps could also have or not wmk... this time I only have two stamps with Wmk...

Reprints of these stamps could exist but on thick paper...

In my opinion , these are  'Must Have Series' due to their beautiful designs but above all because of the very inventive frames... Nice work.!

1896 "Various Designs" (12) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(157d,157i)

1896 "Various Designs" (12) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(149)

1897 "Various Designs / New Colors" (12) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(159,165)

The next 2 series are from the group of the Normal Seebeck series... the first series was issued still in 1896 and the 2nd in 1898....

As you can see, all the characteristics of a Normal Seebeck series are presented and the design ,engraving and printing are also normal... There is really nothing to talk about in this series...

1896 "Peace" (13) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(136,138)

This is a normal Seebeck series in it's conception, but far from it in the final result... the central vignette present us a bad illustration with lack of detail (also a PDSMID stamp!!!) ,but the frames are a little bit more inventive than the ones above....This was definitely not a Good Work!!

1898 "Union of Central America" (12) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(178,180,187)

Hello,Hello,We Have a Problem!! this nice stamp,already not from the Seebeck series is [Litho] printed and has the strange particularity of 'never being issued' ; the original stamps were overprinted with a wheel and only those stamps were issued ! "Stamps without the wheel Overprint were not issued" (SG Central America Part 15 1980)

Well, how can we classify a Never Issued stamp??

Let us now proceed with a portrait series, where the frames are much more impressive then the vignette itself...

beautiful frames in a group of stamps,where only the first two are from the original series...the 3rd and 4th are Official stamps and the 5th is a Postage due stamp...these are stamps from 1910 ,so we are talking of different times,but this is a case where we can say that the frames should belong to a Seebeck series ( the 'Man' has died in 1899) ...well,the only data I have don't specify who printed them ...it only says New York...!

1910 "General Figueiroa" (378,379,O294,O296,J86)

Just to end ,and for something completely different ,I have now 2 1948 MS commemorating the 3rd Death Anniversary of US President Roosevelt ...

Great work of Waterlow and Sons !!!

1948 "3rd Death Anniversary of US President Roosevelt" (6+MS) [Recess (Waterlow and Sons Limited, London)] Sc(612)

1948 "3rd Death Anniversary of US President Roosevelt" (6+MS) [Recess (Waterlow and Sons Limited, London)] Sc(C117)

Despite of all the improvisation needed to this post and the last minute classification of this small  group of stamps, I think that it will be an interesting post , specially for those of you who didn't know well these Seebeck series... 

Thank you for reading the Blog and for your continuous support..

SeeYou