Postage stamps and postal history of Bolivia

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A 50-centavo "Condor". One of the first stamps of Bolivia. Bolivia 1867 50c Condor SG11.jpg
A 50-centavo "Condor". One of the first stamps of Bolivia.
A selection of stamps from Paraguay and Bolivia 1924-1935 Paraguay-bolivia-1924-1935.jpg
A selection of stamps from Paraguay and Bolivia 1924–1935
A 1951 revenue stamp of Bolivia Bolivia Consular Inv 1951.jpg
A 1951 revenue stamp of Bolivia

Bolivia was formerly known as Upper Peru and became an independent republic on 6 August 1825. It has produced its own postage stamps since 1867. [1] Stamps from Bolivia are marked as Correos de Bolivia. Tensions between Chile and Bolivia have influenced both countries' stamps and postal history.

Postage stamp small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage, who then affix the stamp to the face or address-side of any item of mail—an envelope or other postal cover —that they wish to send. The item is then processed by the postal system, where a postmark or cancellation mark—in modern usage indicating date and point of origin of mailing—is applied to the stamp and its left and right sides to prevent its reuse. The item is then delivered to its addressee.

Contents

History

Up to 1895 postal routes were composed mainly of the Oruro-Antofagasta railway, riders on horseback and river boats. Internal postal routes remained poor until the introduction of airmail in the 1920s. [1]

Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia

The Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia is a private railway operating in the northern provinces of Chile. It is notable in that it was one of the earliest railways built to 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge, with a route that climbed from sea level to over 4,500 m (14,764 ft), while handling goods traffic totaling near 2 million tons per annum. It proved that a railway with such a narrow gauge could do the work of a standard gauge railway, and influenced the construction of other railways such as the Estrada de Ferro Oeste de Minas. It was later converted to 1,000 mmmetre gauge, and still operates today.

Airmail air transportation of mail

Airmail is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be the only option for sending mail to some destinations, such as overseas, if the mail cannot wait the time it would take to arrive by ship, sometimes weeks. The Universal Postal Union adopted comprehensive rules for airmail at its 1929 Postal Union Congress in London. Since the official language of the Universal Postal Union is French, airmail items worldwide are often marked Par avion, literally: "by airplane".

British stamps were used between 1865 and 1878 at the port of Cobija, which no longer exists, and they may be identified by the cancellation C39. [1]

Cobija was the first significant Pacific Ocean port of independent Bolivia. In 1825, it was the main port of Bolivia due to the Potosí silver mine.

Chilean stamps were used in occupied areas of Bolivia between 1 December 1881 and 11 October 1883. [1]

Gate of the sun

Bolivian postage stamps are a classical illustration of the problems caused by irregularities in production and the impact of large-scale inflation. Bolivia was one of the South American countries that made efforts to commemorate pre-Columbian times in the images used on the stamps. The "Gate of the sun" set of nineteen stamps was authorised in 1926 to commemorate Bolivia's independence. The stamps were engraved and printed in Germany, and on learning that the stamps had been sold without permission in Europe, the authorities ordered the rest to be locked in a bank vault where they remained for thirty-five years. When eventually they were released in 1960, inflation had caused havoc to Bolivia's currency and they needed to be surcharged, sometimes to 10,000 times their original denomination. The highest value five boliviano stamp was surcharged to become five thousand bolivianos. [2]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Rossiter, Stuart & John Flower. The Stamp Atlas. London: Macdonald, 1986, p. 170. ISBN   0-356-10862-7
  2. ↑ Jack Child (1 January 2009). Miniature Messages: The Semiotics and Politics of Latin American Postage Stamps. Duke University Press. p. 55. ISBN   0-8223-8927-4.

Further reading

Geoffrey Clive Akerman was an English philatelist. In 2001, Akerman and Gavin H. Fryer won the Crawford Medal from The Royal Philatelic Society London for their work "The Reform of the Post Office in the Victorian Era and Its Impact on Economic and Social Activity". He won numerous other awards for displays at stamp exhibitions. In 2009, Akerman won the Revenue Society Research Medal.

Albert W. Hilchey was an expert on the revenue stamps of South America and Liberia. He collected during a period when revenue stamps were not well appreciated in the philatelic world and produced several important stamp catalogues of neglected areas. His The Revenue Stamps of the Dominican Republic was the first catalogue of its type since Walter Morley's work of 1904. His 1966 Guatemala Fiscal Handbook was privately produced and circulated and formed the basis for James C. Andrews' posthumously published work of the same name published by the International Society of Guatemala Collectors in 2000 after completion by Cecile Gruson. In 2010 Clive Akerman produced a new edition of Hilchey's 1968 The Revenue Stamps of Bolivia.

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