COLOMBIA 1859 – 2009 150th anniversary of the first postage stamp Investphila is hosting this sale in honour of Colombian philately in the 150th anniversary year of its first stamp issue. Historical outline The Republic of Colombia is situated in the north-western part of South America, with access to both the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. The first references found are the dis- covery of the coastline of La Guarija and what are today the regions of Santa Mar- ta and Cartagena by Rodrigo de Bastidas. He later returned and founded the first city in Colombian territory, Santa Marta (1526). Cartagena de Indias was founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia. The conquest of the new territories during the following years by Sebastián de Belalcázar, Gonza- lo Jiménez de Quesada and Nicolás de Federmán was the basis for further ex- plorations to the south, to Peru and the discovery of the Pacific Ocean. When, in 1538, Jiménez de Quesada founded Santa Fé de Bogotá, he named the new conquered territories the New Kingdom of Granada, the name by which Colom- bia was known until 1819, when Simón Bolívar created the independent Republic 1658, one of the earliest maps of Colombia of Colombia, better known as the Greater Colombian Republic, which was formed from three provinces, Santa Fé, Ecuador Colombia’s land surface is about 2.5 The pre-adhesive period and Venezuela. times that of Spain. Its population is From 1564 to 1719 and from 1724 to about 42 million, with 8 million in Bo- In 1504, the Carvajal family received the 1739 part of the territory was governed gotá. There are 64 native languages spo- title and duties of CORREO MAYOR of by a President of the Audience of Santa ken as well as Spanish. the Indias and lands to be discovered. How- Fé under the Viceroyalty of Peru. From A census carried out in 1824 indicated ever, many years passed before a descend- 1739 until complete independence it was that the total population was 1,280,000, ant of Dr Carvajal arrived in Lima (Peru) the Viceroyalty of New Granada. In 1811 including slaves, and a very high per- to take office. They established a postal the Colombian republicans created the centage of people were illiterate. These service in Peru and part of what is today United Provinces of New Granada. figures help to explain the very low quan- Ecuador, using the old Inca mail runners, The Spanish colonial period ended after tities of stamps produced before 1900. the CHASQUIS, as well as the existing the Wars of Independence in 1819. routes. References show that the Correo Mayor officials didn’t start operating in In 1831, Venezuela and Ecuador separat- Colombian territory until about 1717. ed from the Greater Colombian Repub- The Correo Mayor period ended in 1768, lic and Colombia became the Republic when the Spanish Crown took back the of New Granada and then, a few years postal services monopoly and named José later, the Granadine Confederation. In Antonio de Pando Postmaster General of 1861 it became the United States of New the Viceroyalties of Peru and New Gra- Granada for two months, from then until nada. He travelled throughout the coun- 1886 the United States of Colombia and tries and established new postal routes, finally the Republic of Colombia. appointed administrators and set tariffs. 84 were validated by the manuscript name of the place of origin. They are as collect- able as hand-stamped cancellations. It is important to mention that many smaller towns didn’t have a proper hand stamp before the 1890s. The sovereign state of Antioquia The Congress of the Grenadine Confed- eration passed a law on 3 June 1859 au- thorising the sovereign states to establish their own postal services. Antioquia be- came a sovereign state as late as 1858. The first postage stamps were issued in Colombia on 1 September 1859. In 1863 the United States of Colombia, as it had now become, made up of eight sover- eign states, confirmed and authorised the states’ power to operate their own postal services and issue postage stamps. The central government was responsible for inter-state services and all outgoing and incoming mail to and from other countries. The sovereign state of Antio- 10 Pesos on cover, being the only recorded with the highest denomination in classic Colombian quia issued its first postage stamps on 1 philately. September 1868, which were only valid for postage within the state, although a A very detailed and precise set of rules rest of the world were limited to a few few examples are known of stamps that on how a postal system should work, commercial companies. The main route were sent to other states and even to Eu- now known as the Pando Manuscript, to the ports was by boat on the Magdale- rope. A postal exchange agreement with was used until about 1822, when General na river and it took at least two weeks to the sovereign state of Bolívar was estab- Santander established new routes and reach the coast. The carrying of mail, as lished a few years later. rates in the new Republic of Colombia. well as its distribution, was in the hands With the Constitution of 1886, the sov- However, there are records of letters and of personnel and companies under con- ereign state became a department, along mail from as early as 1534, letters sent to tract to the government. with all the other states of Colombia, but the CONSEJO DE INDIAS by the first The quantities printed were extremely they continued with their postal services conquerors. From that time until well into small in comparison with any other coun- and stamps until 1906, when the national the 18th century, mail was carried within try during that period. This is why Co- government took over all the services pre- the country but organised privately by lombian stamps are nowadays very scarce viously performed by the departments. messengers called CHASQUIS, the old and of great interest to philatelists. The small quantity of stamps issued, the Inca name for the mail runners. These let- Of the 42 stamps, only seven complete lithographic printing and the variety of ters contain manuscript markings like “By sheets of stamps are recorded, and with papers used make Antioquia a very spe- Chasqui”, “In his hands” or “By a friend”, some stamps a pair represents the largest cial and interesting area of Colombian etcetera, terms used well into the 19th multiple known. Various attempts have philately. With many stamps no com- century. The first postal markings were been made to reconstruct the remaining plete sheet exists and with some stamps introduced by Pando as early as 1771. sheets of stamps, but even after 150 years the largest multiple is only a pair. There this task has not been completed. There was often a very small quantity of stamps are various stamps for which we do not printed, only 258 of some and no more The classic postage stamps have records of a single cover, another than 1,000 of others. Covers of that pe- reason for collecting the very rare stamps riod are even scarcer than the classic Co- On 1 September 1858 Colombia issued of the classic period. At the end of the 19th lombian covers that are recorded. its first “stamp”, which was a 20 cen- century Colombia was very fashionable, tavos revenue stamp. Exactly one year which is also the reason why 39 of the Finally it is important to mention that later, on 1 September 1859, the first post- 42 stamps have been extensively forged, only very few hand stamps (postal mark- age stamps were put on sale. At that time mainly due to demand by collectors and ings) were used, and most stamps were Colombia was called the Granadine Con- because of the small quantities printed. cancelled in manuscript with the name of federation. The second issue appeared in the town of origin. 1860 and the third in September 1861, under the name of the United States of Manuscript cancellations By Dieter Bortfeldt New Granada. The fourth issue followed F.R.P.S.L., A.I.E.P shortly afterwards, with the inscription On some occasions and in some cata- “United States of Colombia”. Four more logues it has been said that manuscript issues completed the classic period in cancellations are in fact fiscal cancella- 1868, with a total of 42 stamps. tions because this used to happen in some countries before 1900. However, this is not the case here because Colombia had What is so special about this period? revenue stamps even before its first post- age stamp. The Decree of 1859, which At that time Colombia had about 5 mil- organised the postal service and deter- lion inhabitants, with a large number of mined the use of stamps, states that where people not able to read or write, and com- no hand stamps, either pre-philatelic or munications between Colombia and the new ones, were available, the stamps 85 Don Juan Santa María Don Juan Santa María Álvarez was born various places in Antioquia and Bogotá, in Medellín, Colombia and is considered but also in Spain and London. one of the most outstanding philatelists This extensive research and these new in the history of South America. discoveries in Colombian postal his- tory, especially in the fields of the pre- He was a civil engineer specialising in adhesive and classic periods and the concrete and structures and completed Sovereign State of Antioquia, were his studies at Imperial College London an extremely valuable contribution (D.I.C.).