Preface
Nicaragua is one of the few nations in Central America that I have not visited as part of my career as an environmental conservation scientist. Nicaragua is a diverse nation spanning two ocean’s coastlines as shown in the map here from Wikipedia.
This document arose out of my interest in integrating the Nicaragua philatelic information from existing publications and web sites. However, I found some of that information difficult to understand. Sadly, the illustrations and listings of stamps in those sources are often not in any way complete.
In 2016, I decided to create a document on Nicaragua revenue and telegraph stamps integrating as much information as I could. I have since drawn upon many knowledgeable contributors to help me create a proper listing. Some provided a great deal of material, others just a few items. If I still have it wrong, any apologies due are offered. I have illustrated as many of the basic listed stamps as possible with colour images. I have not included any data on rareness or retail value. The objective here is not to replace or criticize any other documents. I just seek to make the body of information more available and complement earlier work.
Before you start trying to answer the question “why did he organize this book the way it is presented?” here are a few thoughts. I was initially focused only on Nicaragua revenue and telegraph stamps but soon was urged to dig out the listings for all the reissued telegraph and revenue stamps that started as revenue, postal or telegraph stamps. Hence, a pile of postal, postal tax, telegraph, telegraph tax, forgery, proof, unissued, cinderella, charity and other stamps arose. What was I to do with them? Questions arose, such as what do “R. de T.” and “R. de C.” overprints really mean? Some of you indicated that “R. de T.” (“Resello de Telégrafo”) overprints were used for stamps repurposed as telegraph issues. Others also said that “R. de C.” (“Resello de Correos”) overprints identify reissued telegraph stamps newly purposed for postal stamp use. Others defined “R. de C.” as “Reconstrucciones de Correos” for stamps reissued to assist in the rebuilding of the central post office in Managua after an earthquake. So, “R. de C.” definitions are a Nicaragua enigma. Stroub 81 said “Nobody knows what R. de C. means.” He was likely correct (in 1935). However, could this have morphed into “fact” in the last 89 years?
I thought it useful to list stamps together that look alike. For example, I listed the overprinted versions of stamps following their primary issue listing. So, if education tax stamps were reissued with postal overprints, would they still be education tax stamps? Of course not, but I lumped these reissued stamps in the same part of the book so readers could see most of the stamps that look alike, together. The same is true for telegraph or revenue stamps, overprinted and then reissued for postal, postal tax or telegraph tax uses. They became something new but look very much like the original stamps, but overprinted (or handstamped, or faked, or hand-scribbled over).
I tried to be logical but may have lost some readers. For example: Telegraph stamps are in Parts Two and Four of the book. Here national telegraph stamps, as issued, come first in Part Two and Zelaya Department telegraph stamps in Part Four. In subsequent years, any overprinted or reissued examples of those stamps for a second (or third) reason in Nicaragua follow as information listings. They are described by what they became but are not given a telegraph listing number. But they may be listed with their Scott 71 numbers for postage or postal tax stamps. If the overprinting or handstamping led to a revenue stamp, and Birks 17 listed it, I refer to his catalogue number.
Several readers have suggested all the revisions, overprints, etc. should have been isolated in their own sections in this book and that use of spread sheets would improve various parts of this book. I do not disagree but did not want to create more sections in this already long book. I was trying not to include any Nicaragua postage listings, but I did where an overprinted revenue or telegraph stamp got reused for a postal purpose. Thus, some series of stamps have titles that might say “Telegraph Stamp Reissued for Postal Use”. Then text and listing numbers from relevant catalogues are used to show the source of that listing. Nicaragua philatelic readers are pretty astute as far as I can fathom, so I assume they will get it right.
I do hope that you find this book useful.
Clayton Rubec
Perth, Ontario, Canada
July 2024