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first issues > countries > mexico

Mexico

Friday, August 1, 1856

al Central America

1

Mex1
  Mexico #1  

Imperforate, white wove paper, no watermark, engraved.

Description † # printed # issued # destroyed Scott SG Mi Y&T
½ real blue
 991,559 772,591 218,968 1 1   1
1 real yellow
 1,425,275 1,410,220 15,055 2 2   2
2 reales green
 1,629,773 1,622,383 7,390 3 3   3
4 reales red
 167,715 153,191 14,524 4 4   4
8 reales violet
 102,249 96,057 6,192 5 5   5

† Scott, Gibbons and Yvert & Tellier all identify colour variants and shades in the first issues.

All issue quantities are approximate. Stamps were burnt between April 18, 1861 and sometime (early) 1863.


District name overprints on the first issue and # sold

ACAPULCO 2,940 AGUASCALTES * 60 APAM 12,300
B. CALIFORNIA * 360 CAMPECHE 4,440 C. BRAVOS ?
CHALCO 11,115 CHIAPAS 7,088 CHIHUAHUA 7,920
CORDOVA 5,980 CUERNAVACA 10,924 DURANGO 10,174
GUADALAJARA 61,068 GUADALUPE HGO. 337 GUANAJUATO 51,389
HERMOSILLO 6,060 HUEJUTLA 2,940 I. DEL CARMEN 399
IXTLAHUACA 518 JALAPA 26,660 LAGOS 8,630
LERMA 928 MARAVATIO 5,447 MAZATLAN 22,747
MERIDA 16,380 MEXICO 113,800 MONTERREY 7,260
MORELIA 21,439 OAJACA (OAXACA) 27,490 ORIZAVA 15,546
PACHUCA 18,647 PUEBLA 56,830 QUERETARO 29,544
SALTILLO 3,677 S. L. POTOSI 23,228 SOYANIQUILPAN 820
SULTEPEC 720 TABASCO 5,899 TACUBAYA 72
TAMPICO 22,920 TEMASCALTEPEC 1,560 TIXTLA GUERRERO 1,354
TLALPAM * 368 TLALPUJAHUA 1,000 TOLUCA 28,271
TULA 4,584 TULANCINGO 12,117 VERACRUZ 45,304
VICTORIA 5,708 YGUALA 120 ZACATECAS 41,317

These districts did not overprint, with # sold

COLIMA * 650 CUAUTITLAN * 1,126 PEROTE 300
POLOTITLAN 189 SAN FELIPE DEL O. 240 TEPEJI DEL RIO 561
TEXCOCO * 50 VILLA DEL VALLE * 120 ZITACUARO * 120

Districts marked with * indicate that no surviving stamps are known.

To prevent stolen stamps from being used, the stamps were distributed to the postal districts (administraciones) without overprints. Upon arrival but before being distributed to the sub-offices or sold to the public, they were hand stamped with the district name. Some of the smaller districts did not follow this practice, and there were instances where stamps were used without overprint from even some of the larger districts.

It is unknown whether Baja California overprinted the stamps or not. Districts that did not overprint the stamps can only be identified via the cancellation.

The ZACATECAS district name is also found in manuscript overprint.

It is a little known fact that Mexican law required businesses to save their correspondence indefinitely. This is why Mexican first issue stamps are relatively common on the market despite their fairly small issue quantities.

You can read more about Mexico's first stamp in First Issues vol. 1 #3 p4, vol. 1 #4 p4 and vol.7 #4 p1.

The original FICC webmaster has a pet project going about Mexico 1856 - 1861

Mexico Elmhurst Philatelic Society International (MEPSI) will get you started on collecting Mexico.

FI ref: 62 Page credit: JA

Page created 29 Mar 2016 Page updated 29 Mar 2016