Some Years

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Today I have some stamps from Cape Verde Islands and Mexico...

I lived for seven years in the Cape Verde Island of Sal..My parents both worked there and I have some good memories of the Island and above all , of the good people  that always welcomed us.. so, it is not strange that I recently bought a small lot of Classic Cape Verde stamps.. there are more stamps in this lot , but I will not show them today... Many more are already in the collection, and so they cannot be shown here in the blog.. If you find it , please buy the beautiful 1948 "Cape Verde Landscapes" series...

This is a small mix of different series ... first I wish to say that the classification of these classical Cape Verde stamps is relatively easy , if we compare it with the same designs , but issued in Portugal, where there are many different papers to consider ... with these stamps you must pay attention mainly to the perforation... 

1) this is a stamp of the "Crown type" series.. there are two series with this design , and the 2nd present us new values and colors, so there isn't much confusion... each of the series have two possible perforations (12.5 and 13.5) and the stamps are printed in flat, thin or medium paper...

1877 "Crown type" (9) [Des/Engr (Augusto Fernando Gerard)][Typo (Casa da Moeda, Lisbon)] Sc(3)

2) 3) These are stamps representing King D. Luis I...the stamps are [Typo] printed and present us the characteristic 'embossed portrait' of the early series of Portuguese stamps...the series has also two possible perforations (again 12.5 and 13.5) and porcelain paper, medium or tick is used ...

1886 "King D. Luis I" (9) [Des/Engr (Frederico Augusto de Campos)][Typo / Embossed (Casa da Moeda, Lisbon)] Sc(19,21)

4) 1893 "Newspaper stamp" (1) [Des/Engr (Eudócio Cesar Azedo Gneco)][Typo (Casa da Moeda, Lisbon)] Sc(P1)

Now we have two series sharing the same design of king D. Carlos I ... it is a beautiful design by Eugene Mouchon.. it is by many considered one of the most accomplished Portuguese stamps of those days...1) these first group of 3 stamps is from the original series... it  present us the two 5r shades (orange/1st and Yellow orange/2nd) and the blue 50r.. the stamps have perforation 11.5..
1898 "King D. Carlos I" (15) [Des/Engr (Eugene Mouchon)][Typo (Casa da moeda, Lisbon)] Sc(37,37,44)
2) After the implementation of the Republic in 1910, a overprint "Republic" was applied to the original stamp, and new stamps were issued in 1911.. here are presented some beautiful items like the 115r Orange brown on Rose.. 
1911 "Overprint 'Republic' on 1898 King D. Carlos I" (15) [Des/Engr (Eugene Mouchon)][Typo (Casa da Moeda, Lisbon)] Sc(85,94,95,98,99)

These two small group have overprints and surcharges on stamps of the first D. Carlos I series issued in 1893 ( the Mouchon Series of King D. Carlos I was the 2nd series , issued in 1898)...The original stamps of 1893 were surcharged in 1902 and overprinted 'Republica' in 1915 [ 1st Group ] ... after this , they were again surcharged in cents (the first surcharge was still in the Monarchic currency 'Reis' ) in 1922 [2nd Group ]...
1)2)3) 1915 Overprint 'Republica' on '1902 Surcharged '1893 King D. Carlos I'' (6) [Des/Engr (Manuel Diogo Neto)][Typo] Sc(189,190,192)
4)5)6) 1922 Surcharge in Cents over ' 1915 Overprint 'Republica' on '1902 Surcharged '1893 King D. Carlos I'' (4) [Des/Engr (Manuel Diogo Neto)][Typo] Sc(202,203,204)

Group of 4 king D. Manuel II stamps overprinted 'Republica' ... 
1912 "Overprint 'Republica' on King D. Manuel II " (12) [Des (Domingos Alves do Rego)][Typo] Sc(100,107,110,111)


MEXICO
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I have already done 2 or 3 posts with Mexico stamps.. the stamps were mainly from the classic period, highly recommendable because of the many interesting features present.. overprints, surcharges, papers, etc.. now i have same stamps the 30's and others from the 70's,80's and 90's.. Let us start by talking about the great Mexican Air Mail series from the 30's.. very beautiful designs sometimes linked to the great past of Mexico (with it's AZTECS  heritage..).. the most part of these series are [Recess] printed, what make's me very happy.. unfortunately I don't know yet the names of the designers, but i think that with time everything will 'come out to the light'...! 

This is one of the first Air Mail stamps from Mexico... in 1922 this same design was issued with two different colors[Blue and Red Brown (C1) and dark blue & claret (C1a)] and without wmk...later , in 1927, this stamp was issued , and it is again the Dark blue 6 claret variety, but with Watermark.. this 2nd issue of the same design has a very small cv , but the 1922 series has higher cv's...

The same design is again used in the next issue of 1928 with two more stamps of 25c with different colors( one of them presented before...)

1927 "AIR MAIL" (2) [Recess][Wmk] Sc(C2a)

This is another Air Mail series from 1934/1935...it is not so beautiful as others of this same time frame, and the stamps are not in the best of shapes, so they don't look much appealing...it is again a wmk series, with perf 10x10.5 or 10.5x10.. the series represent some Aztec Mythological creatures, temples and Idols..

1934/1935 "AIR MAIL" (9) [Recess] Sc(C65.C66.C69,C70,C71)

series from 1939, with a modern design (unknown designer) .. it is sad that the postmark contributed to the bad overall condition of the stamp... 
1939 "AIR MAIL" (3) [Photo] Sc(100,102)

These are stamps from a Gigantic series about the Exportation's of Mexico... the series has 90 stamps divided by 6 sub series with stamps issued from 1975 to 1992... It has a very modern design developed in the end of the 60's and during the 70's ;  the designer of this great series is Rafael Davidson... some of the stamps share the same designs ...there are many ways to distinguish the stamps, but we can say that classifying this series is a hard task... Wmk's, perforations , the presence of distinctive lines in some stamps ( the existence of these lines creates two distinct types of stamps) , sometimes different papers are used, etc... it is not my favorite kind of design , but  It is without doubts , a series that I would like to have complete...
1975/1992 "Mexico Exporta" (90) [Des (Rafael Davidson)(Photo) 

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The Mystery Man

New Entries

Here I am again to start a new post about Mexico stamps..

Let us start by the beginning , as usual..

The first two stamps I have to present are both very damaged stamps but are presented because I don't have others...

Both of them represent Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla  but they are from different dates and series.. The 1st stamp is from the first series from Mexico..from 1856 to 1865 , Mexico was a Federal Republic , and the Country label was "Mejico" and the Currency was the "Real"

in 1866 Mexico became a part of the "Mexican Empire" created by emperor Maximilian and the name became "Mexico" and the currency "Centavo".... In 1968 we are again in a Federal Republic..

The first design , at the left, is shared by two series , issued in 1856 and 1861, respectively.. In the 1861 series , the colors have changed...This is a 2r stamp from the 1856 series.. there are several varieties of this stamp, depending on the shade of green used.. I don't have another stamp of this value (neither from this series..!!) , but i think it is the most common and cheap variety, the Yellow Green ..The stamps of this series are all imperforated and all of them are hand-stamped with the name of the district... I don't understand what is written at the right side of the stamp, but if it is not the district name, than We are in front of a stamp a little bit more expensive.. 

Of course, i'm talking here about values for the 2r stamp, but it isn't this one, because this has no value at all.. it is physically damaged ( value = 0, in my opinion..)

1856 "Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla" (5) [Engr (Villegas)][Recess (Government Printing Works)] Sc(3)

The 2nd stamp, at the right,, is from the After-Empire period.. as we just said it represents Hidalgo, again, and in my opinion it is a very beautiful stamp, much more than the previous one we presented..the design is very clear and it is a perfect work.. the stamps from this 1868 series have the district name Hand-Stamped and Overprints of the district number and abbreviated date.. The overprints are clearly visible (2º and 68) , but the district name appear somehow obscured by the design it self and cancel , so I made a closer image (at the Center)  , and yet , without knowing the District names, I cannot identify what's written.. perhaps "VERACRUIZ" or "VERACRUZ".. these district names are very important in these earlier issues , because there are some of them who are scarcer than others , and the value fluctuates according to this.. 

 There are two main series with this same design.. A) Normal Numeral (the numeral is written with the same letter as the currency label...)(Normally, between Numeral and Label there is no dot [.]) B) numeral appears BOLD and normal label..( a dot [.] appears after the numeral..)

for each of the stamps of these series there are several varieties...in this case, I noticed when I was scanning the stamp , that it is printed using a blueish paper..so I can for certain tell that this is a "Black on blue Green" Variety.. at a first look there is the temptation to tell that the paper is of a color linked to yellow.. ( or a yellow green...).., but after looking carefully I could see that the paper is blue..to end this series appreciation, I must say that there are imperforated and perforated stamps, from all values...( the Value of this stamp is for me obviously =0.. it is highly damaged..)

1868 "Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla" (5) [Litho] Sc(59)

In the last post I made about Mexico stamps, I showed two more stamps of these series.. not with the "Eagle and Snake" but with views of Mexico (two very beautiful stamps..) ; the series has 10 stamps, so there is one (5P) , the most expensive as usual, still missing... the first 7 stamps of the series represent the Famous Mythological duel between the Eagle and the snake.. I want to say a few words about the Unknown designer of these stamps.. it was certainly , just one more worker of Bradbury Wilkinson, but this man was with 90% sure responsible for many stamps from this and the next ' very agitated ' period.. Yes , as you can see by the Scans I leave here of Overprints and Surcharges of the civil War days (next..!) , the design is very similar to the frames of the 10 stamps of this series.. We can find a pattern in the utilization of these complex graphic work . 
1899 "Eagle and Snake & views from Mexico" (10) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson & Co.)] Sc(294,...,300)

Another series of the "Eagle and snake issue" .. the last value is missing (50c).. we have the same frames for each value , but new colors..

1903 "Eagle and Snake" (6) [Recess] Sc(304,...,308)

 

Here are some Civil War Overprint and Surcharges on stamps of the 1910 Issue :

1) 10c surcharge on 1910 1c Josefa Ortis stamp 

2) fake Villa-Zapata monogram on 1910 1c

3) [1914 Overprint "Gobierno $ Constitucionalista" + 1916/1918 5c surcharge] on 1910 1c

4) [1914 Overprint "Gobierno 'inv $' Gonstitucionalista" + 1916/1918 5c surcharge] on 1910 1c

5) Villa-Zapata Monogram on 1910 2c Leona Vicario

6) [Villa-Zapata Monogram + 1916 'Silver Currency' Overprint] on 1910 2c

Here we got a postage due stamp from 1908 , surcharged in 1916/1918.. it is another work of our mystery Designer, as you can see by the beautiful frames and for the surcharge , also... the recess printing is very good , but I don't have info about the company who made it.. probably Bradbury Wilkinson, again..

1916/1918 Surcharge 1P on "Postage due stamp 1908" (10) [Recess] Sc(600)

stamps from a series with various designs, one coat of Arms , one Sculpture and 4 portraits..This time , the missing stamp is the first from the series, the coat of Arms with the Eagle and Snake.. The stamps represent  (left to right):

A) statue of Cuauhtémoc B) Ignacio Zaragoza C)José Maria Morelos D) Francisco Madero E) Benito Juarez

1915 "Various Designs" (6) [Des (T.A. Rico)][Litho (American Book and Printing Company.Co, Mexico city)] Sc(501,...,505)

These are stamps that after a first look , could all be part of the same series.. but , in fact, they are part of the same group of 3 series that have the designs in common and some small differences in other aspects.. To correctly classify this series , you need to have an "attack plan.."..: AP) see if the stamps present Wmk.. We cannot see the Wmk clearly , but it is always visible , at least parts of it.. if it don't present a Wmk, than the stamp is from the 1923/1925 series (Rouletted 14.5 Unwmk) .. if it presents the Wmk , then it could have Perf 12 ( series 1924/1926 Wmk Perf 12) or 14.5 (series 1924/1934 Wmk Rouletted 14.5) ; now I will present the codes for each stamp, left to right Up/Down :

1) Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan 1923/1925 Sc(635)

2) Chapultepec Castle 1924/1926 Sc(643)

3) Juarez Colonnade 1923/1925 Sc(638)

4) Morelos Monument 1924/1934 Sc(?)

5) "El salto De Agua" Fountain 1924/1934 Sc(650)

6) Columbus Monument 1924/1934 Sc(654)

7) Cuauhtemoc Monument  1924/1934 Sc(655)

8) Monument to Dona Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez 1924/1934 Sc(656)

9) Cuauhtemoc Monument 1924/1934 Sc(657)

All these stamps are printed at the "Oficina Imp. de Hacienda, Mexico"

Well, I've got stamps to do just one more post about Mexico stamps.. I don't know about you , but they begin to be in the group of my Favorites.. not only by the History, the papers, watermarks, Overprints and surcharges, everything, it is a very challenging Philately.. I will see if  I arrange some money to buy more Mexican stamps.. I really like them.. perhaps in the future we can look into the 30's, 40's,50's and 60's to see how it look's.. very nice indeed..!

SeeYou

War among Brothers

New Entries

I have this small lot of Mexican stamps 'for a long time', and the reason why the classification isn't already done is simple.. after a first 'in loco' view , I thought that the stamps were in very bad conditions and the will to classify them seems to be lacking... two days ago, I remembered them and I went to see the catalogs for some info... then I saw that some of the pictures in the Catalogs were also of bad condition stamps.. so I thought.. "Let's do it!!".. anyway , there must exist some new or nearly perfect stamps, so I am asking you to keep in mind that these are "Bad condition" stamps....

The classical period and the emissions  of the start of the XX century , until the 20's are like in other countries forged in Battle, with new emissions and overprints always responding to the Up's and down's of the War and the civil war...it is a fantastic period with many catalog pages full of constantly renewed overprints... 

It is necessary to understand the History involved in the creation of some of these stamps... so I will post some History Background taken from an old catalog.. and there We can see that even in those days , the world was already a small place..

The first Mexican series of stamps appears in 1856 and we have to know that the stamps were 'handstamped' with the name of one of the 56 districts of the country.. this is another fact that will evolve with time with the Overprint of the stamps , in 1868 (already in another period of history...) , with the number of the district and the last two digits of the Year... I have some stamps from this period but in very bad conditions , perhaps another time they will be presented...

From these period , I have no stamps to present...meanwhile , beginning in 1865 , the Revolutionary movement was already in action...

Here appears the first stamp I have to present .. and it is a stamp of the 1st Mexico President Benito Juarez..curiously it is in fine shape (except a small fault in the perforation..) and in General good condition..

You can see the Overprints of District and by the number presented we know that the stamp was issued in 1880.. one more time I 'm not certain if this is a Ultramarine blue or just another blue,..the fact is the Ultramarine variety , issued in 1880 is more valuable that the current blue one..

We can see also that the left margin is imperforated , what makes this a very strange stamp..but beautiful!! and one thing for sure , there are many Beautiful designs and great Recess Printing's in some of these Mexican stamps..this series was printed in two different kinds of paper , one thick (1879/1880) and the other thin (1882) ... and as you know I'm not the best person judging paper qualities, but the difference in these stamps and in those about to come , is so great that even I can do this distinction clearly..(because the thick paper is really thick!!!..) the number of stamps issued is diverse for each case (8 for the thick and 15 for the thin paper)

1879/1882 "Benito Juarez" (23,1) [Des (De La Peña)][Recess (Government Printing Works, Mexico City)] Sc(126) 

 These are stamps from a series of 1895, that I call "Transporting the Mail".. the question about the Ultramarine blue I have made above , is now responded with this beautiful 5c Bright ultramarine blue stamp...
in the first 3 designs  a Postal office Employee walk with the mail at his back.. 

the 5c represents the Statue of Cuauhtémoc and in the other 2 , a mail carriage is represented (beautiful vignette and frame..)

This is a series known by the many possible perforations and combinations of different Perforations... I must confess that I didn't pay much attention to this detail (but I should, because the cv are very different , sometimes..) and I only give the stamps their general Scott code...

1895 "Transporting the Mail" (13,5,5) [Des (J.M. Donald)][Recess (GPW,Mexico City)] Sc(242,243,244,246,248,252)

two beautiful stamps , representing the Juanacatlán Falls and a view over the Popocatépetl mountain.. In the 1p stamp you can see the 'Handmade' Overprint  with 'Oficial'... this series contains 4 different designs , the first with a coat of Arms, 2md and 3rd are presented and the 4th , a 5P stamp showing the Mexico city Cathedral..

I have also some of the coat of Arms values but I don't choose them to present today and in the end they had a place in this post.. (I choose the stamps before knowing and studying the catalogs.. next time..!) 

1899 "Coats of Arms and views of Mexico" (10,4) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson & Co.)] Sc(301,O57)

 These are stamps from the "Centenary of the first movement of Independence" series of 1910..they represent the major figures connected to the Independence movement and it is the last series before 

 the start of the Civil War, and as a result it is one of the most Overprinted series of Mexican Philately, because as I said before many overprints tried to follow the needs and changes of an history that evolved at a 

weekly or monthly base ; it is a series again very perfectly designed and with beautiful frames.. 

The last stamp presented  show us Hidalgo declaring the Independence..

The personalities presented are : 1) Josefa Ortiz  2) Leona Vicario 3) Lopez Rayon 4) Juan Aldama 5) Miguel Hidalgo

6) Ignacio Allende 7) Epigmenio Gonzalez 8) Mariano Abasolo

1910 "Centenary of the 1st Movements of Independence" (11,11) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson & Co.)] Sc(310,...,318)

"On May 25 1911 , President Porfirio Diaz who had been a dictator since 1876, was forced by a Popular movement to resign, and the Liberal Francisco Madero succeeded him as President." 

And the civil War started , with subsequent confusion all around the Mexican Post Office...

The  Sonora district start to issue their own stamps, there are overprints for all these movements , as you can see more ahead.. The so called Constitutional Government had 'handstamped' overprints and they are so many different one's , that SG , for example, has 8 pages only for this subject... I have some of these also, but I leave them for another time , again...

I put here , side by side , the Two Movements that were born in 1914 (of course , you can read the texts , clicking them...) , because I want to use just one stamp , the 5c Hidalgo 1910 stamp with some of the most common overprints and surcharges of these period (without counting those of the last period..)

1st : Monogram of the movement Villa-Zapata.. (there was a little quantity of these stamps available , so there is a huge quantity of forgeries available.. perhaps , some of these... and there are several types of them...I have to say that any of the overprints and surcharges present in this civil War period over this 1910 series are quite inexpensive , but when they appear over older series ( and they could exist over stamps from 1899 to 1910) the cv could be very high...

2nd: Monogram of the Carranza Movement..could also appear over stamps from 1899 to 1910...

3rd : Villa -Zapata Monogram surcharged with a 1916 25c 'Barril' (name given to these kind of surcharge..) that could be issued in Brown, Black, Green or Red...

4th: Carranza Monogram with a 'Silver currency' Overprint in blue.. These 1916 overprints can be Vertical or horizontal, and issued in Blue , Red or black...

5th : simple 5c 1910 stamp with 'silver currency' Overprint..

6th : simple 5c 1910 stamp with 20c Brown 'Barril' Surcharge

7th : simple 5c 1910 stamp with Green 25c surcharge

8th : simple 5c 1910 stamp with brown (with better visibility...)  20c 'Barril' Surcharge..

.... As you can see this is a small Philatelic and Historic world of detail ... I think that chaotic and rich are two words that define very well all this period from 1914 to 1917 (it is curious to see that this period of time correspond to the WWI..) 

Sc(459,488,580,544)(521,579,586,579)

We will find again in this series , the distinction of a varied group of papers due to it's thickness... it's relatively easy to separate the thick paper from the thin , but it is not easy to see the limits of the 'Medium paper' (where ends the Thick , and where ends the thin paper...).. the perforation here , could help in this distinction , because it is different for some of the paper varieties.. The personalities represented in this series are : 1) Ignacio Zaragoza 2) Ildefonso Vasquez  3) J.M. Pino Suarez 4) Jesus Carranza 10) F. I. Madero 20) Belizario Dominguez 30) Aquiles Serdan

The two varieties of the 1c stamp are presented and there could be or not some difference in the 20c stamp (between 'red brown' and 'rose lake'..) and the last stamp is the Black variety , and a 'grey brown'  one exists too. The 5c Ultramarine Blue stamp is missing..

1917 "Portraits" (10,8,8) [Des (F. Fernandez)][Recess (GPW, Mexico City)] Sc(608,609,610,611,612,614,615,615a,617)

three very beautiful stamps  from three distinct series...

1st) 1923 " 'Special Delivery Stamp (Express)' "[Recess (GPW, Mexico city) Sc(E2)

2nd) 1921 "Centenary of the Declaration of Independence" (2,2,2) [Des (A. Barron)][Engr (E. Valadez)][Recess (GPw, Mexico City)] Sc(632)

3rd) 1928 "Air Mail / Eagle Issue" (4,1) [Recess (GPW, Mexico City)] Sc(C3)

The first two stamps new designs and values to a series already issued without Wmk.. this time some values are issued with Wmk and with the addition of these two stamps...

1923 "Monuments" (8,8) [Recess (GPW, Mexico City)] Sc(648,649)

The last stamp is a reissue with new values and colors of stamps of a series from 1915.. Sc(cannot find it now...)

1931 "4th Centenary of the Founding of Puebla" (1) [Recess (GPW, Mexico City)] Sc(675)

I hope that you all like this post and above all that Mexican Stamps could be one of your future Priorities..Really Good Classical and Semi-classical stamps...!

SeeYou