Mint? first day issue blocks of four

I don't really know if it's OK to call these mint or not. However, the first day issue blocks of 4 that I have seem to be of the same kind of item as the one Doug is selling. I do now by fact that the ones I have were purchased by my grandmother at the Argentine central post office. They would sell you on the first day issue, blocks of four not attached to any envelope, that they would
cancel for collectors. I guess it could have been a custom worldwide in the 50's and early 60's? Maybe?

All comments are welcome.

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Details

Scott Argentina Catalog no. CB 20 63. Date 1960 (Semi-postal issue)
6 pesos + 3 pesos grey

Concordance = Stanley Gibbons Catalog no. 983.

Not another Columbus stamp…

At first glance I when I looked at the image depicted on this stamp I thought it had to do with Columbus and the discovery of America. It was the presence of the three large ships with sails that misled me. A closer look first revealed a fourth ship in the background also the text which read: “Combate de Montevideo”. What is this all about? And why on an air mail stamp?

The combat of Montevideo also known as the Action of May 14^th, 1814, was a battle that took place on the 17 of May, 1814 and meant the end of the Spanish domination of the Rio de la Plata waters. In Argentina, May 17^th is also considered to be “National Navy Day” (Dia de la Armada Nacional).

Argentina fought its war of independence from Spain between 1810 and 1818. The combat of Montevideo was fought within this context. In midst of the war Gervasio Antonio Posadas had been elected by an assembly in Buenos Aires as Supreme Director. He created a naval fleet and appointed William Brown as Chief Commander on March 1^st, 1814. It was this reduced fleet that engaged with combat with the Spanish ships on the coast of Montevideo on May 14^th, 1814 and defeated them three days later.

This stamp is one in a series of air mail stamps issued on March 2^nd, 1957 to commemorate the centenary of Admiral William Brown’s death.

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Details:

Scott Argentina Catalog no. C63. Date: 1957
60 centavos blue grey

Concordance: Stanley Gibbons no. 902; Yvert/Tellier (poste aérienne) no. 43.

A postal parcel bulletin to the most famous jewelry store in Cordoba?

This ”boletín de expedición” (expedition bulletin), also called ”boletín de encomiendas” (parcel bulletin), is a kind of postal entire used in the sending and receiving of packages or postal parcels.

It consists of a large card of thin paper or cardboard, which on the front has the indicium or postal pre-paid marking and space to fill in the addresses of both the sender and the addressee. The postal parcel bulletin states that it covers up to 5 kilograms.

This postal parcel bulletin was sent on the 18th of April, 1913 by a Señor B. Guthmann in Buenos Aires to a Señor V. Pavese in Córdoba. What is remarkable, is that there is no specific address for the addressee… Could it be a person who received parcels very often? Was it such an important person in Cordoba, that he (or his company) did not need his (its) address specified?

Looking into Italians who emigrated to Argentina, and in Particular to Córdoba from Piemont, I found out that a Vicente Pavese owned in the beginning of the 1900s the most famous jewelry store in Cordoba, La Moderna.

The parcel states that it weighed 3,350 kilograms. And we are curious about what the contents could have been…

Details:
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Postal Parcel Bulletin - Catalogue Vasen / Riese no. B16 (1913).
Farmer. 1 peso - blue.

Nutrias on Sunday

This is a very informative Postal letter sent within the City of Buenos Aires on June 30th, 1890. The cancels seem to show that it was delivered on the same day that it was sent.



Mr. van Houten, of Dutch origin, writes to his friend 'Augusto Dominico' in German. He wants to know if Mr. Dominico was pleased with the beef they ate 'yesterday'. By calculating the date with the help of Search for Ancestors, I found out that June 30th, 1890, was a Monday, thus, it appears that the two friends had enjoyed a nice Sunday 'asado'. Mr. van Houten asks his friend if he would like to meet for another beef 'asado' again the following Sunday or if they should go out and catch 'nutrias' (Myopotamus bonariensis; Lowery, 1974), a kind of large rat-like otter with orange teeth and very common to hunt and BBQ in Argentina.



Details
Postal letter
Vasen / Reise CP 12 (1890-1892). Juárez Celman 2 centavos castaño rojo.

Mr. Moritz and his letters

I have 2 letters adressed to Mr. Walter Moritz, sent years apart but still in very good shape. From these I have been able to deduce the following information:

In ca. 1911, a Postal Card from Banco Proveedor del Río de la Plata (no longer in existence) located in Buenos Aires was sent to Mr. Water Mortiz, demanding an urgent payment for an IOU. From the adress on the Postal Card, it appears that Mr. Moritz was living (or working) on board the Argentine national steam ship Cabo Corrientes.

Among other things, between 1911 and the first half of 1912 this steam ship was used to transport buiding materials between Buenos Aires and Pinamar, located on the southern coast of the Province of Buenos Aires.

On 18 September 1918 the Argentine national steam ship Cabo Corrientes, while arriving at the port of Montevideo, Uruguay crashed against the stone blocks of the northern jetty, from which it was later removed, however with damages.

An envelope also adressed to Mr. Walter Moritz informs us that, more than a decade later, in 1924, he was living in Villa Elisa (Buenos Aires), which is a locality in the department of La Plata, along Ferrocarril Sud (the southern railway).


Details:
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Postal Card - Catalogue Vasen / Riese no. CP52 (1911).
Farmer. 5 centavos - dark carmine red.

Envelope - Catalogue Vasen / Riese no. S111 (1924-31).
San Martín sin punto. 5 centavos - carmine red.

A puzzling Rivadavia…

A few days ago as I was looking for interesting items in Stamp Wants, I came across an imperforated stamp, which had an oblique cut right-hand edge that made me think of a cut-out insignia, depicting Bernardino Rivadavia. I wrote to the seller telling him that I thought it was a cut-out insignia from an unused postal stationary envelope. To my surprise he responded that when he had looked at the stamp more closely again, he was able to see that it has watermark #86, which can be seen from the scan of the back, and what appears to be original gum. He asked med if I thought that a cut square from postal stationary has these features.

I took a close look to a similar Rivadavia postal stationary envelope which I have available and noticed that not only it did not have any watermark or gum, the image of Rivadavia itself, even if very similar at a first glace, was slightly different when carefully observed: it is more simplified and with less detail.

I then answered the seller that if the stamp has watermark 86 and original gum, then it is absolutely not a cut-out envelope. Postal stationary does not have these features.
What he had seemed to be half of an imperforated pair issued 1896-1897 which has, in fact, watermark 86. The seller agreed that this was the case and mentioned that the puzzling oblique cut right-hand edge is perhaps a true margin copy.

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Details:
Scott Argentina Catalog no. 110a. Date: 1896-1897
Thanks to: Doug (Noernberg Stamps) for the stamp dialogue and the images.

Cut out indicium

This indicium was cut out from a postal stationary envelope emitted between 1888 and 1992. These indicia were often cut out and collected. They were known as ”cut squares”. Nowadays when instead the complete envelope is collected, it is known as an “entire”. In some countries cut squares from unused postal stationary could be used as franking. Even though it is fragmentary, it is possible to see that the paper carries a watermark.

The postmark is dated July 5, 1890 in Ensenada, which is a town in the Province of Buenos Aires, located along the coast located at about 65 kilometers from the City of Buenos Aires. It was founded by Viceroy Gabriel de Avilés in 1801. In 1882 it was declared provisory capital of the province by Dardo Rocha.
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Details:
Vasen / Riese Catalog no. S16A. Date: 1888 – 1892