Rare use of a cuban postal censor in Costa Rica air mail.

Air mail cover from Esso Standard Oil with double WWII censor. Sent via air mail in May 18th, 1945 (11 days after Germany surrended). As mentioned before, this cover has two censors. One “defensa continental” censorship tape, which is really common in Costa Rica mail. The other one is a Cuban postal censor in hand stamp, that being honest, is the first time i see it.

It´s true that the Cuban censor is pretty rare, it isn’t the most attractive characteristic of this cover. The most attractive thing is its franking. Why, well, just because 5 colones and 74 céntimos is way to high. A 5 colones stamp from the Legislación Social Issue. A 50 céntimos revenue surcharged for air mail use in 1945. A 15 céntimos Francisco Morazán surface mail stamp. And finally a 10 céntimos San Ramón issue stamp for surface mail. According to the postal rate decree from November 15th, 1942, the 5 colones and 75 centimos franking can be broken down as follows: 85 centimos for the regular franking + 7 times the rate every additional 5 grams (70 centimos x7).

The cover doesn’t have a receiving mark from La Habana. This is not an inconvenient since the censorship demonstrates it arrived at the island.

The post Costa Rica Stamps – Air Mail Cover with cuban postal censor and 5 colones from Legislacion Social appeared first on Costa Rica Stamps.

Are you that kind of philatelic enthusiast that likes to surf the web looking for pics of stamps from time to time?

Well, here I am to help you! I know that looking at stamps can be hypnotizing. I know that once you start, you’ll leave your computer until you saw the last one.

I’ve been a Costa Rica stamp collector for over 20 years. And i’m pretty sure I never get tired of looking at stamps.

That’s why Estampillascr’s Facebook page has more than 1,500 pics of stamps…Costa Rica stamps. It doesn’t matter what you are looking for, we have plenty! We divided them in several sections, so it would be easier for you to browse them.

You can browse our albums of surface mail stamps, air mail stamps, semi postal stamps, Christmas stamps and proofs. If you like cancellations on stamps, there’s an album too. Also we have albums for postal history and postcards. At last but not least the “errors” albums will take your breath away.

If by any chance you don’t find the stamp you were looking for, don’t panic! Just let me know and I will help you finding it.

Also, you can view the rarest and most expensive Costa Rica stamps from the Frederick R. Mayer collection auction.

The post Costa Rica: pics of stamps – lots of pictures appeared first on Costa Rica Stamps.

Have you ever watched the movie Inception? A dream inside a dream…

We’ll, here you can see an inverted surcharge inception: an inverted “Correos” in a block of 6 with inverted surcharge. Sounds weird, I know, but let me explain it:
In this issue there are stamps with inverted surcharge because the pane was upside down when the plate came down. Also there are stamps with only the “Correos” inverted because it happened in just one position in the plate (position 46).
This block of 6 has 3 characteristics that make it special and fairly rare:

1. It has the less common perforation for this stamp (14×14).
2. The surcharges in this block are inverted.
3. And last and most important is that the inverted “Correos” error is present. As you can see in the position 3 of this block, the inverted “Correos” error inside the inverted surcharge looks as if it wasn’t inverted.

Is it genuine? Yes, of course!
Just look at the stain between the “o” and the “r” of the inverted “Correos”.
Beautiful!

For this kind of studies, we recommend the following tools:

• Stamp Magnifying Microscope: Celestron 5 MP Handheld Digital Microscope 
• Stamp Magnifying Lamp Desk Clamp-Mount 90 SMD LED Adjustable Spring-Arm

The post Costa Rica Stamps – Scott 98 Perf. 14×14, block of 6 with inverted surcharge and “Correos” inverted appeared first on Costa Rica Stamps.

Have you ever been to online auctions and see that they offer the 2 colones from the 1907 issue? They say the’re “used”…cancelled with 5 horizontal bars (cancel bars). Then you think you finally found it for a good price. Hold your horses! Because those stamps are not really used, nor are as expensive as the catalog says!

In March 16th, 1914 a public auction was held to sell all the remainders of the issues of 1901-11. It’s been said that after the auction ended an order was given to overprint all stamps with a pentagram (5 horizontal lines).

There was more quantity of some stamps than other. Resulting that the majority of the stamps with cancel bars have a very low price (way more than what the catalog says). It’s important to know that there are a few, just a few stamps that their value is higher than the catalog price.

One of those stamps is Scott 98c (perf. 14×14). Less than 10 are reported to exist…and here we have it for you!

The post Costa Rica Stamps – Scott 98c: on the Top 3 of the cancel bars appeared first on Costa Rica Stamps.

The 1911 issue has many highlights, being Scott 94b one of them. Why, let’s do some math:

According to the decree #242 of December 6th, 1911 only 1,500 stamps of Scott 94 (including the 14×14 stamps) where issued. now, The inverted correos happens 2 times per pane (of 100). 1,500/100= 15×2= 30. The math doesn’t end there because at least 2 panes where 14×14. So, 4 stamps are 94c (correos inverted, but perforation 14×14). The final math would be 30 (correos inverted stamps) – 4 (correos inverted 14×14)= 26 stamps Scott 94b.

Even though, only 26 copies of Scott 94b were made -and there are no records how many remain- collectors tend to pass these rarities by. Maybe because 1911 is not “classic” material, or just maybe they don’t realize how difficult is this stamp.

For this kind of studies, we recommend the following tools:

• Stamp Magnifying Microscope: Celestron 5 MP Handheld Digital Microscope 
• Stamp Magnifying Lamp Desk Clamp-Mount 90 SMD LED Adjustable Spring-Arm

The post Costa Rica Stamps – Scott 94b a “hard to find-underated” stamp appeared first on Costa Rica Stamps.