Puerto Rico

1873

↓

Spanish Colony

Caribbean


	Puerto Rico Sc1	Sc2	Sc3

perf 14, no wmk
Printed at the Goverment Printing Works, Madrid.

Description	Cuba	Scott#	SG#	Y&T#	Invert	Double
Stamps of Cuba overprinted
1873 King Amadeo of Spain, 30th December 1870 to 12th February 1873, overprint 1
25 centimes gray	Sc55 SG53	1	1	1
25c lilac	Sc55b SG53a	1a	1a
50c brown	Sc56 SG54	2	3	2
1 peseta red-brown	Sc57 SG55	3	4	3
1874 Spanish Republic, 12th February 1873 to 31st December 1874, overprint 2
25c deep ultramarine	Sc59 SG57a	4	5	4	Sc4b	Sc4a
1875 King Alfonsa XII of Spain, 21st December 1874 to 25th November 1885, overprint 2
25c deep ultramarine	Sc64 SG61	5	6	5	Sc5a
50c deep green	Sc65 SG62	6	7	6	Sc6a, SG7a
1 peseta brown	Sc66 SG63	7	8	7
1875 Overprint 3
25c deep grey-lilac	Sc68b SG65a	8	9	8
50c deep ultramarine	Sc69 SG66	9	10	9	SG10a
1p black	Sc70 SG67	10	11	10
1876 Overprint 4
25c deep grey-lilac	Sc68b SG65a	11	12	11
1p black	Sc70 SG67	12	13	12

Numerous overprint errors are known such as inverts or double-prints. Some are numbered by the catalogues.


Overprint 1	o/p 2	o/p 3	o/p 4

A large island in the West Indies, Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony until the US occupation in 1899. From 1873 (date unknown) until 1876, Puerto Rico used Cuban stamps overprinted one of four squiggles, the the signatures of the governor and the minister of finance of Puerto Rico. Minkus [1] describes them as 'paraphs', "a fanciful pen-stroke following a signature" and names "Treasurer Antonio Belmonte and Governor Laurenzo Sanz".1877 saw the first issue inscribed PTO RICO.


o/p1	o/p1	o/p 1	o/p1
Sc1	Sc1a	Sc2	Sc3
	image	image
o/p 2	o/p2 double	o/p 2 invert
Sc4	Sc4a	Sc4b

o/p 2	o/p 2	o/p 2
Sc5	Sc6	Sc7
image	image	image
o/p 3	o/p 3	o/p 3
Sc8	Sc9	Sc10

	o/p 4	o/p4
	Sc11	Sc12

Sc13-17


US Administration
1899 Sc210 SG202	1900 Sc215 SG

Changes of Administration

"Puerto Rico remained largely loyal to Spain during the Spanish-American liberation movement of the early 19th century. In the Spanish-American War, though, it welcomed the American invasion of July 1898 and was ceded to the US by Spain." [1]. The first overprint issue was misspelled, though this was corrected in 1900 and US stamps were used from later that year onwards.