Portugal
Friday, July 1, 1853.
Imperforate, no watermark, embossed & typographed.
Printed by ???.
| Description | # printed | # issued | Scott # |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 1, 1853 | |||
| 5 reis brown | ? | 2,294,112 | 1 |
| 25 reis blue | ? | 4,888,729 | 2 |
| July 2, 1853 | |||
| 100 reis lilac | ? | 147,600 | 4 |
| July 21, 1853 | |||
| 50 reis green | ? | 179,400 | 3 |
Two dies were used for the 5 reis, one for each of the others. Printed in sheets of 4 by 6 = 24, one by one, arranged irregularly, but most often with plenty of space between the stamps. Scott notes 2 mm. as the size of full margins. This is a very wide margin, and stamps with narrower margins should sell for much less than the value noted in catalogs.
The 5 reis stamp is priced at nearly 50 times that of the 25 reis stamp, though only twice as many 25 reis stamps were issued. The reason is that 5 reis was the newspaper rate, and many stamps were therefore torn when opening the wrapper, and subsequently discarded. 25 reis was the rate for letters within Portugal.
The cancels were often oily, and therefore were soaked into the paper, giving a smeared impression. Clean, sharp cancel impressions are not common.
These stamps have been reprinted on several occasions. Beware of reprints sold as the real thing.
This page was last modified on Monday, 03-Nov-2003 13:57:29 PST