Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

postage stamps were first issued in 1858 by the

Argentine Confederation The Argentine Confederation (Spanish: ''Confederación Argentina'') was the last predecessor state of modern Argentina; its name is still one of the official names of the country according to the Argentine Constitution, Article 35. It was the name ...

and nationally by the new Republic's National Postal Service in 1862. Due to the continuing civil wars, a number of provinces and territories, particularly in the then-remote far north and far south, continued to issue their own postage brands and stamps for some time, afterwards; some of these issues have since become collectors' items. Argentina first stamp

After independence

After independence, the postal service remained much as it had been under Spanish rule. Following the Treaty of Pilar in 1821 the new government placed the postal service under a commission, appointed Manuel Joaquín de Albarracín as commissioner, hired Marcos Prudant as Postmaster General and provided him with an assistant. The first new edict established the postal uniform of a jacket with yellow buttons and a stiff collar. Boots were to be black, and the employee should wear a metal escutcheon on his hat displaying the new county's coat of arms. The edict further decreed that each post rider was to have a horn which should blown or so (ten cuadra) before arriving at the town center, and again just before departure. In 1826 Juan Manuel de Luca was appointed Postmaster General by the Rivadavia government, under the oversight of an enlarged commission. Despite the demise of that government, and the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

, the postal service was only minorly inconvenienced and Luca remained at his post until 1858 when he resigned because of his age and health. It was under Luca that detailed regulations were developed; concessions, vehicles, routes, and frequencies set. Gervasio Posadas managed the post from 1858 to 1874; he introduced revised rates, post office mailboxes, established the stamp program, and in 1860 he inaugurated the first telegraph service.

Early provincial stamps

The first period in the political history of Argentine postage stamps is the so-called “Classical” one between the first stamps (1856) and the first commemorative ones (1892). The earliest Argentine stamps were issued by the separate provinces of Corrientes (1856-80) and Córdoba (1859-62), and the

State of Buenos Aires The State of Buenos Aires ( es, Estado de Buenos Aires) was a secessionist republic resulting from the overthrow of the Argentine Confederation government in the Province of Buenos Aires on September 11, 1852. The State of Buenos Aires was nev ...

(1858-59). The mere existence of these provincial stamps reflects the reality that Argentina was hardly a single organized country in that period, but rather a loose federation of some very independent provinces. Early stamps of Buenos Aires were forged by Oswald Schroeder and a paper by

Edward Denny Bacon Sir Edward Denny Bacon, KCVO (29 August 1860 – 5 June 1938)Biography
in the ...

on the subject appeared in

The London Philatelist ''The London Philatelist'' was first published in January 1892
by

Corrientes Corrientes (; Guaraní: Taragüí, literally: "Currents") is the capital city of the province of Corrientes, Argentina, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, about from Buenos Aires and from Posadas, on National Route 12. It ha ...

, a province in north-east Argentina, issued postage stamps from 1856 to 1878. The stamps were printed by

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

and were crude copies of the first issue of stamps from France, which depicted the profile head of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. They were individually engraved by hand, so that each die is noticeably different, and were printed in small sheets. All stamps were printed on brightly colored paper. The first stamp, issued in 1856, bore the denomination of one real in the lower panel. In 1860, the denomination was marked out by pen and the stamp was revalued at 3 centavos. Beginning in 1860, the value panel was erased and six more stamps were issued in two, three and (briefly) five centavos denominations, distinguished only by the color of the

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distribu ...

used. As locally produced "primitives", the early Corrientes stamps have long been prized by collectors. After 1880, stamps of Argentina were used. Louis Stich, an expert on the Corrientes stamps, has explained the origin of the issue as follows: In 1856 there was an extreme shortage in paper or coins under 8 Reales. At the same time, the Corrientes Assembly authorized stamps for pre-paid postal use. The State Printing Bureau decided to print stamps to serve both for postal use and for small change. The director of the State Printing Bureau, Paul Emile Coni, supposedly could not locate anyone capable of cutting the stamp dies. At that time, a baker’s delivery boy, Matias Pipet, who had served as an apprentice to an engraver in Italy before arriving in Corrientes, said he could undertake the task. Coni, for reasons unknown, selected the French Ceres stamp as the design and the boy prepared the designs. The dies produced were "so extremely crude" that Coni was afraid to use them, but he eventually decided that he had no choice as the need for the stamps was urgent. Stich observed that "with each re-telling" of this story, "more fiction seems to replace the original facts."

The first Argentine stamp

The first stamp of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

as a nation was a rather crude lithographed seal of the Confederation (Scott #1 to 4) in 1858, followed in 1862 by the seal of the Argentine Republic (Scott #5 to 7). From 1864 to the first commemorative in 1892 a total of 24 different designs were issued. The majority of these stamp designs were small portraits of famous men, principally of the Independence period. The stamps do not identify these heroes of independence, so they would have meant little to anyone who was not familiar with Argentine history. Bushnell has analyzed the “próceres” appearing on these stamps, and concludes that they were primarily of the “liberal” current in Argentine political history, reflecting the principal trend after the fall of the dictator

Juan Manuel de Rosas Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rosas (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confederation. Although ...

in 1852. The dominant figure was one of the major figures of Argentine liberalism,

Bernardino Rivadavia Bernardino de la Trinidad González Rivadavia (May 20, 1780 – September 2, 1845) was the first President of Argentina, then called the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, from February 8, 1826 to June 27, 1827. He was educated at ...

(Scott #61).

The Popper locals

One locally used postage stamp from this period bears mentioning because it shows Argentina's lack of national consolidation in the nineteenth century, especially in the distant reaches of the territory: the

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla ...

local stamps. These were issued by a Rumanian mining engineer named

Julius Popper Julius Popper (December 15, 1857 – June 5, 1893), also known in Spanish as Julio Popper (), was a Wallachian-born Romanian-Argentine engineer, adventurer, and explorer. Popper was one of the perpetrators of the genocide against the native ...

, who in 1891 prepared his own postage stamps to cover the cost of postage from the scattered mining camps of

to the closest points of the Argentine or Chilean postal system in Sandy Point (

Punta Arenas Punta Arenas (; historically Sandy Point in English) is the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. The city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it was changed back to "Punta Are ...

), on the Strait of Magellan, or

Ushuaia Ushuaia ( , ) is the capital of Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. With a population of nearly 75,000 and a location below the 54th parallel south latitude, Ushuaia claims the title of world's souther ...

on the Beagle Channel. The Popper locals were not recognized by the central government in Argentina or Chile, which required that their own stamps be added once letters from the Popper mining camps entered their postal system. The stamp itself is well-designed, with mining tools, the “Tierra del Fuego” label, and a partially hidden letter “P” for

Argentine stamps since 1900

Portraying historical political and military figures like

José de San Martín José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (25 February 177817 August 1850), known simply as José de San Martín () or '' the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru'', was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and centr ...

Guillermo Brown William Brown (also known in Spanish as Guillermo Brown or ''Almirante'' Brown) (22 June 1777 – 3 March 1857) was an Irish-born Argentine admiral. Brown's successes in the Argentine War of Independence, the Cisplatine War and the Anglo-French ...

and (during the early 1950s) deceased First Lady

Eva Perón María Eva Duarte de Perón (; ; 7 May 1919 – 26 July 1952), better known as just Eva Perón or by the nickname Evita (), was an Argentine politician, activist, actress, and philanthropist who served as First Lady of Argentina from June 19 ...

, Argentine postage issues remained little changed in their conservative, generally

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

aspect for much of the twentieth century. Between October 1935 and the mid-1950s Argentina produced stamps known as the "Patriots and Natural resources issue". The low values illustrate major Argentinian patriots, such as former President

and the high value denominations show a selection of the country's

natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. ...

s that were the major contributors to the Argentine economy during the period. The series was printed on several papers;

watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...

ed paper have the letters RA-for 'Republica Argentina' inside a circle, with rays surrounding the circle, while the unwatermarked papers vary in color and thickness. File:Cents-01-15cSC1E1-350001.jpg, 1935: honoring the economic contributions of livestock ranching. File:060101-03-cents-10c1E-I-175.jpg, 1935: former President

. In 1946, President

Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was elected ...

nationalized the British-owned postal and telegraph services (many of their quintessentially British red mail drop boxes can still be seen in Buenos Aires, today). His Ministry of Public Services created what would later become EnCoTel (the "National Postal and Telegraph Entity") and, until its dissolution in 1997, this authority issued all Argentine postage stamps. Argentine postage has, since the original facility's 1881 opening, been printed at the National Mint. One of the largest in the world, it also prints stamps and currency for a number of smaller Latin American nations, such as Bolivia, as well as other financial instruments.

Return to democracy

The conclusion of Argentina's last military regime in 1983 brought with it, among other things, a radical departure in the design of both currency and stamps. Argentine stamps have since been much more varied in style and theme, depicting zoological and phytological diagrams, art of various movements, photographic scenes of daily life and more unconventional subject matter. A number of stamps were issued to celebrate the return to democracy after the

military government A military government is generally any form of government that is administered by military forces, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue, and whether this government is formed by natives or by an occup ...

with the inaugural of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Raúl Alfonsín (in office from 10 December 1983 to 9 July 1989). Culturally close to Argentina,

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

issued a stamp commemorating Alfonsín's state visit to that neighboring nation in November 1986.

Postal stationery

The first items of

postal stationery A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related serv ...

to be issued by Argentina were envelopes in 1876 followed by

newspaper wrapper In philately a wrapper is a form of postal stationery which pays the cost of the delivery of a newspaper or a periodical. The wrapper is a sheet of paper, large enough to wrap around a folded or rolled newspaper and with an imprinted stamp to pa ...

s and

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as woo ...

s in 1878.

Lettercard In philately, a lettercard or letter card is a postal stationery item consisting of a folded card with a prepaid imprinted stamp. That it is folded over gives the writer twice as much room for the message compared with a postal card. The message ...

s were issued in 1888 and

aerogramme An aerogram, aerogramme, aérogramme, air letter or airletter is a thin lightweight piece of foldable and gummed paper for writing a letter for transit via airmail, in which the letter and envelope are one and the same. Most postal administration ...

s were first issued in 1963.

Higgins & Gage World Postal Stationery Catalog In philately, the ''Higgins & Gage World Postal Stationery Catalog'' is the most recent encyclopedic catalogue of postal stationery covering the whole world. Despite most volumes not having been updated for over thirty years, the catalogue and th ...

Revenue stamps

A very wide range of

revenue stamp A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration ...

s have been issued in Argentina, from national and local government.

References and sources

;Notes ;Sources *Jack Child, "The Politics and Semiotics of the Smallest Icons of Popular Culture: Latin American Postage Stamps", Latin American Research Review, Vol. 40, no. 1, February 2005. * ''Philatelic Magazine'', “Engraved by a Baker’s Roundsman," 31 October 1958, pp. 731-2. * David Bushnell, "Postal Images", Studies in ''Latin American Popular Culture'', no. 1, 1982, p. 92-93. * Otto Hornung, “The Man from Tierra del Fuego," ''Stamp Collecting'', July 1982, pp. 598-605. * Jere Hess Barr, “History of the Tierra del Fuego Stamp," ''Philatelic Congress Book'', (Washington: PAU, 1943), pp. 89-101.

External links

Argentine Postal Service

Argentine Stamps Community Forum (in spanish)

for most stamps issues
{{PostalhistoryAmericas Communications in Argentina Philately of Argentina