What I learned about Costa Rica
Sept 10, 2018 20:16:32 GMT -5
kacyds, Gordon Lee, and 5 more like this
Post by mourningdoves on Sept 10, 2018 20:16:32 GMT -5
Quite honestly, not a lot. I've looked in the state library for books with titles like An Introduction to Costa Rica or A Brief History of Costa Rica or A Very Long and Detailed History of Costa Rica and I've come up goose eggs. Nada. Zip. I'm not sure why that is.
I could name a Costa Rican poet or novelist simply because I've seen a few of them on stamps. No translations are available in Connecticut, and I'd have to dig hard to even find a Spanish text. The same with their composers; they're nowhere to be found on Spotify, and Spotify has everything! I'm pretty sure I've never heard any Costa Rican popular music. On the various quality of life charts I've seen, though, it scores surprisingly high. It is a popular ecotourism destination, has an increasing number of retirees from the United States, and has suffered little of the conflict and social breakdown that has ravaged many of its neighbors.
Anyway, I've been looking at their stamps lately. My collection isn't great; I got an abandoned collection about ten years ago and haven't added a lot to it since; I have subscribed to their new issues for a few years, through Ed Donaldson. Some of them are beautiful, but they have almost no relationship to postal realities; most of the mail I've seen from there in that time has had meters or labels. But much of their postal history is fascinating, and much of it is very complicated.
Here's a representative definitive issue from 1910 (it says 1909, but one of the niceties of Costa Rican philately is a nonchalance about dates), showing Braulio Carrillo. I don't know who he was; I picked him out largely because this happens to be an attractive stamp with nice coloring, and also because sideburns like his deserve to make a comeback.
It was printed by the American Bank Note Company, as were many early Costa Rican stamps. The notorious Seebeck stamp enterprise which created so many stamps for El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua never got a foothold in Costa Rica; I'm not sure whether Nicholas Seebeck even tried to get a contract there.
If you want to see some pictures of the Braulio Carrillo National Park, and I think you do, go to this nice blog.
In 1911 and 1912, there was a wave of overprints and surcharges.
These are from 1911; they are telegraph stamps - and lovely ones - that were printed (again, by the American Bank Note Co.) in February 1910, demonetized in October, and recycled for postal use the following October & November. The typographed surcharge was done at home by Imprenta Nacional. The vertical cancellation marks are remainder cancellations; overstocks of many stamps from 1901 through 1912 were cancelled thus and sold at auction.
I'll be back with more Costa Rica over the next few days, I hope. Right now, I'll mention that much of the printing information I've accumulated for this series is from the 2004 edition (note to self: get the new one) of the Costa Rica Postal Catalogue, compiled by Dr. Hector R. Mena. You can get your own copy through SOCORICO, the Society for Costa Rica Collectors. I'll have more to say about SOCORICO later on.
I could name a Costa Rican poet or novelist simply because I've seen a few of them on stamps. No translations are available in Connecticut, and I'd have to dig hard to even find a Spanish text. The same with their composers; they're nowhere to be found on Spotify, and Spotify has everything! I'm pretty sure I've never heard any Costa Rican popular music. On the various quality of life charts I've seen, though, it scores surprisingly high. It is a popular ecotourism destination, has an increasing number of retirees from the United States, and has suffered little of the conflict and social breakdown that has ravaged many of its neighbors.
Anyway, I've been looking at their stamps lately. My collection isn't great; I got an abandoned collection about ten years ago and haven't added a lot to it since; I have subscribed to their new issues for a few years, through Ed Donaldson. Some of them are beautiful, but they have almost no relationship to postal realities; most of the mail I've seen from there in that time has had meters or labels. But much of their postal history is fascinating, and much of it is very complicated.
Here's a representative definitive issue from 1910 (it says 1909, but one of the niceties of Costa Rican philately is a nonchalance about dates), showing Braulio Carrillo. I don't know who he was; I picked him out largely because this happens to be an attractive stamp with nice coloring, and also because sideburns like his deserve to make a comeback.
It was printed by the American Bank Note Company, as were many early Costa Rican stamps. The notorious Seebeck stamp enterprise which created so many stamps for El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua never got a foothold in Costa Rica; I'm not sure whether Nicholas Seebeck even tried to get a contract there.
If you want to see some pictures of the Braulio Carrillo National Park, and I think you do, go to this nice blog.
In 1911 and 1912, there was a wave of overprints and surcharges.
These are from 1911; they are telegraph stamps - and lovely ones - that were printed (again, by the American Bank Note Co.) in February 1910, demonetized in October, and recycled for postal use the following October & November. The typographed surcharge was done at home by Imprenta Nacional. The vertical cancellation marks are remainder cancellations; overstocks of many stamps from 1901 through 1912 were cancelled thus and sold at auction.
I'll be back with more Costa Rica over the next few days, I hope. Right now, I'll mention that much of the printing information I've accumulated for this series is from the 2004 edition (note to self: get the new one) of the Costa Rica Postal Catalogue, compiled by Dr. Hector R. Mena. You can get your own copy through SOCORICO, the Society for Costa Rica Collectors. I'll have more to say about SOCORICO later on.
Stamps - the bear necessities of life.
