El Salvador [ 2nd Post ]

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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

Nicaragua [1st Post]

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Today I have some stamps from Central America and from a country that it is not yet represented in the Collection...After looking to the stamps I had , and after a brief look at the Catalogs I immediately chose Nicaragua for this post...a more correct title for this post should be "The Man and his Company", but I will continue to name the posts like I have been doing recently...I don't have many stamps from Nicaragua , but , once again, I managed to buy a lot of Central American stamps with a small group of values of each one of the most representative series of a particular period of time ... this last lot I bought is more dedicated to the earlier days of Central American Countries ; in Nicaragua's case I have stamps of all the series of "postage" stamps from 1869 to 1905...this is for me a very interesting fact , because in that first and brief look to the catalogs I found that all the Nicaragua's stamps from 1890 to 1899 are part of what Philatelists call the "SEEBECK ISSUES" ... well, I rapidly decided to take a small tour through the Seebeck stamps from Nicaragua... but , let us start from the beginning...

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Nicaragua was part of the first region to became under Spanish Control in 1524...this region , The Spanish Captaincy of Guatemala declared it's Independence in 1821 and from 1823 to 1838 was part of the United Provinces of Central America.. Many revolts and  Wars plagued the Country in it's early days..

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We could say that from 1862 to 1880, all the stamps present a similar vignette , with differences in some of the labels and perforations... the main vignette's theme is the liberty Cap at the top of high mountains (or volcanoes??), and it is presented in all but one series until 1898... ...There are 5 different series sharing this same vignette... The first  3 ones are perforated (12) and the last two are rouletted (8.05) series.. all my stamps with this design are from this last group...

We can distinguish at least 3 types of these stamps:

1) with the label "Porte" at the left and "Porte" at right...

2) with the label "Correos" at left and "Porte" at right

3) Type 2 with different value frames (other then circular)

This particular group of rouletted stamps has two series depending on the qualities of the paper (soft, porous, thin,hard,etc).. each of these series could have stamps of the 3 types described above...

1st rouletted series (1877/1878) : I have just this stamp ; the series has two stamps of soft and porous paper... this distinction , in this case is easy to do, because the "hardness" of papers used in the two series is very different...as you can see , this 1c stamp is a type 2.. the other, a 5c is also a type 2..

2nd Rouletted series (1878/1880) : these stamps present a hard paper...I ask you now to look in particular for the 10c stamp, and for the postmark, that present us a good example of a numeral/Letters Postmark, where the letters (District ) appear under the numerals (Year).. the numerals are difficult to read , but  they are from the 8?'s and the letters are clearly CH from the district of Chinandega...these postmarks appear after 1869 (if you find it in your stamps you know that they are from this series (perforated or rouletted)...You have , for now, already noticed that the 2c is a type 1, the 5c a type 2 and the 10c a type 3 stamp...Finally and to end this brief passage through this Group of series, I need to tell that the stamps are [Recess] printed by ABNC,NY.

Another ABNC work, representing again the Central theme of the Country Arms...A curious thing is that from this series on, and until 1890  , the designs will always include the Year label...

1882 "Seal of Nicaragua" (7) [Recess (ABNC)] Sc(13,...,17)

I think that it is now time for a brief introduction to the Seebeck Issues.. 

Nicholas Frederick Seebeck was born in 1857 and died in 1899... From German origin , he soon emigrated to the US where he rapidly established himself as Stamp Dealer and collector...in 1884 he purchased a significant part of the company Hamilton Bank Note Engraving and Printing , New York...he soon established contracts with the duration of 10 years with 4 countries of Central and South America, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua... ; All the stamps would be dated , and at the end of the year. they were . invalidated... before the beginning of the next year new stamps would arrive to replace the previous issue...all the stock of unsold stamps was then back to Seebeck's hands for selling activities...his company had also the right to reprint and invalid stamps as needed for sell to collectors...

There are many opinions about these issues.. some collectors refused to collect these stamps, and in the end the name Seebeck ended related to bad practices in the promotion of Philately...

In Nicaragua all the postage , Official and Postage due stamps from 1890 to 1899 are part of the Seebeck Issues...

To start we have a first series for Postal and Telegraphic use...the design show us a nice exterior frame, the liberty cap at the top, above a train and below the country label, a telegraphic machine...all the stamps are well finished, designed , engraved and printed by Seebeck's Company....You will see that the beautiful frames are common to all these issues...

it is now time to say that for each one of the Year original series, there is an Official Series , with the overprinting of the originals...both the series, postage and official are issued at the same time (01/01'189?)...I will show a group of this Official stamps , in the end (I don't have an exemplar of each series, so it will be an incomplete presentation)..

1890 "Train & Telegraph" (10) [Recess (Hamilton Bank note Co., NY)] Sc(20,...,22)

The 1891 issue present us the Goddess of Plenty... it is a very nice work with a very beautiful, easy to follow and simple engraving , elaborated frames , a few simple ornaments.. A nice work! I may even agree with those who say that  Seebeck never should have made series with values not connected to reality, with almost no possible postal utilization , but I think we all agree that many , many series were done in the past only for benefit of the collectors..In the end of the XIX Century and until the 30's , stamp production was a very profitable industry and was engaged in many Top governmental negotiations between Powerful and Poor Countries... if the stamps are good, well designed and with good technical quality , why not collecting them?? 

1891 "Goddess of Plenty" (10) [Recess (Hamilton Bank note Co.,NY)] Sc(30,31)

 another above average quality stamp , where even the faces of the personalities are reasonable well designed, thing that was not common in those days (faces better designed then in several stamps of the US 1892 Columbian Exposition, Chicago, for example)...once again we have a very ornamented frame...  

1892 "400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America" (10) [Recess (Hamilton Bank Note Co, NY)] Sc(40,41)

For me , this is a great stamp... a very elaborated frame, where the final result has a certain Pre-Spanish Flavor...very beautiful..!

1893 "Liberty Cap & Rising Sun" (10) [Recess (Hamilton Bank Note Co, NY)] Sc(51,52,58)

We can say that until now, a certain lack of imagination in the vignettes (with the omnipresence of the Central element of the Country Arms)  was fully compensated by Rich and Imaginative Frames...

a design representing Victory , with nothing to add to the previous ones... by the contrary, this time the frame is very simple , and the vignette is common.. we are beginning to feel some decrease in the quality of the printings... A poor stamp!..

1894 "Victory" (10) [Recess (Hamilton Bank Note Co, NY)] Sc(61,62)

 The [Left] stamp is the original and the [Right] stamp must be a reprint... the problem is that catalogs say that most of the times, it is very difficult to distinguish them, but in this case the supposed reprint has several clear differences from the original.. Below , the two stamps are presented side by side for a better view of these differences...in the 2c stamp, the printing is also of  low quality...

1895 "Coat of Arms" (10) [Recess (Hamilton Bank Note Co, NY)] Sc(71,72)

again that Pré-Columbian look in the frame of this Postage due stamp...very nice engraving , with a very ABNC type of vignette...

1896 "Postage due stamp" (7) [Recess (Hamilton Bank Note Co, NY)] Sc(J1)

One more very good stamp, with some differences in the designs and engraving... As I said before , I don't know if these differences are due to reprints or if these differences are part of the original issue...catalogs talk about several reprints of this issue.. this series could have or not a wmk...reprints with wmk have it sideways....what I like the most in this stamp is the absence of refined and elaborated frames, with the design made as one single element.. we can say that , in this case, the vignette includes the labels, with just a small "pop up" exterior frame...very nice design , very innovative..! [ I don't know if I expressed well my opinion... in most cases , there is a main theme of the stamp, and the Artist imagine and draw's  an illustration about that theme and after that he draw again the frames and the labels , leaving the main illustration as the central vignette... in this case , this is the work of the Artist, the frames and labels are profoundly joined with the vignette , creating in the end a single element...] 

1896 "Map of Nicaragua" (9) [Recess (Hamilton Bank Note Co., NY)] Sc(81,82)

After the broke up of the Federation of Central American countries in 1838, Nicaragua turned out to be a defender of that solution to the region, always making efforts to rebuild it...I really don't understand the context of this stamp...You can see in this wikipedia link, some of the Political environment of those days and nothing justify this stamp... I think that , in the end it is just a commemorative stamp of the 60th Anniversary of the Federation Broke up.... there are original stamps with and without wmk, and the existence of reprints with the wmk sideways is also a fact...

1898 "Central America Federation Arms" (11) [Recess (Hamilton Bank Note Co., NY)] Sc(99,100,109,109G,109L)

this is the only Seebeck's issue that was not [Recess] printed... in fact, this is a [Litho] printing, with a design representing justice...it is a normal stamp and I don't have nothing more to say about it...

1899 "Justice" (11) [Litho (Hamilton Bank note Co, NY)] Sc(110)

In the beginning of the post, I said that  each one of the Seebeck series had it's own "Official" replica , so here they are some of these stamps, from four of those series...

As a final commentary to these "Seebeck Issues" I must say that they are much more appealing then I was expecting, because they have in some cases very beautiful and innovative designs , with good engravings , and in the end the stamps are of  above average quality...in the negative side , we could expect more imaginative themes for these stamps, but in other countries this could be different...I'll be waiting to see the Seebeck Issues of another countries , to watch for similarities and differences between them...future posts about Central and South America could bring news about "The Man and His Company"...

SeeYou