Vintage postage stamps of Brazil

I don’t have many stamps of Brazil, but the few that I have date back to late 50s and early 60s. The stamps above were printed and put to sale between 1954-1963, bearing photos of some of the legends of Brazil.

The first stamp on the left is that of Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, the Duke of Caxias (August 25, 1803 – May 7, 1880) who was a Brazilian military leader and statesman. He was a leader of the Conservative Party and on more than one occasion served as Prime Minister of the Brazilian Empire.

The remaining four stamps are that of Ruy Barbosa de Oliveira (November 5, 1849 — March 1, 1923), who was a Brazilian writer, jurist, and politician. Ruy Barbosa was also a federal representative, senator, Minister of Finance and diplomat. For his distinguished participation in the Hague Peace Conference of 1907, he earned the nickname "Eagle of the Hague".

These stamps are a part of a long series bearing heads of some of the famous people that are being remembered as legends even today.

I may add here for the information of philatelists that the first stamp of Brazil was issued in 1843 known as the Bull’s Eye. 

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Mexico -Postal history and stamps from my collection

Mexico is a country located between the north and south Americas, bordering USA in the north, Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea in the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean in the south. Spread over an area of some two million square kilometres, Mexico is the 5th largest country in the Americas (by land mass) and 14th largest independent nation in the world. Going by the population, with some 111 million Mexicans, it is world’s 11th most populous country.

The postal history of Mexico dates back to 18th century, when Spain established a postal system in Mexico when it conquered areas under present Mexico. Mexico issued its first adhesive stamp in 1856 with distinct overprints, which is considered as a unique feature to avert theft of postage stamps. Today Mexico ranks very popular amongst stamp lovers for its innovative and classic stamps. The stamps of Mexico of the period of Mexican Revolution (1910-20) and modern Exporta issue (1975-83) are very popular owing to their size, paper used, watermarks and perforations. Owing to the popularity of Mexican stamps of the era of 1856, 1861 and 1867, many forged stamps have been found in the market.

The stamps of Mexico in my collection figure out of a period after the 1950. Prominent are the definitive stamps issued between 1950-1975, specially the "Architecture and Archaeology" series (second column from the left above). Many of the stamps from this series were re-printed time and again with differences in perforations, paper and colour.

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My collection of postage stamps of Argentina

Argentina is the second largest country in South America, after Brazil. With capital at Buenos Aires, it is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area. It borders Paraguay and Bolivia to the north, Brazil and Uruguay to the northeast, and Chile to the west and south. It is one of South America's largest economies. Argentina is a founding member of the United Nations besides being one of the G-20 major economies.

The earliest evidence of humans in Argentina dates from 11,000 BC and was found in Patagonia but in modern times, we hear mention of Argentina as 1602. Argentina got its independence from Spain in 1816. The first formal use of the name Argentine was in the 1826 constitution. Argentina increased in prosperity and prominence between 1880 and 1929 and emerged as one of the ten richest countries in the world.

The first postage stamp of Argentine was issued in 1862 by the National Postal Service, a federal entity established in 1854. My small collection of stamps as shown above has stamps of 1950s and later.

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