Postage Stamps and Postal History of Mexico - Late Nineteenth Century

Late Nineteenth Century

The 1872 Hidalgo issue marked the end of the earlier period of Mexican stamp production with mostly crude designs and poor printing, and with a distinct Mexican character. On Cinco de Mayo, 1874, the first stamps of a new Hidalgo issue were issued. These stamps were printed in New York by the American Bank Note Company and were professionally engraved on steel plates, with intricate machine turned designs like those on paper currency. In design and execution, this "Bank Note" issue closely resembles contemporary stamps manufactured by United States bank note companies for other Latin American countries such as Argentina and Brazil as well as the United States. Late in 1877, the printing plates were sent to Mexico City, and thereafter the stamps were printed in Mexico. There are a great number of varieties of this issue with differences in the overprints and type of paper and watermarks.

In 1879, Mexico joined the Universal Postal Union which required standard rates for international mail, that were actually lower than Mexico's domestic rates Mexico accordingly released a new issue depicting Juárez for exclusive use on international mail. District overprints continued through 1883 after which they were no longer required.

  • 150c Hidalgo "Bank Note" 1874, with district name, invoice number (51) and year ('77)

  • 2c Juárez UPU issue 1879

  • 4c "Mulitas" issue 1895

In 1895, Mexico issued a series of stamps depicting various methods of delivering mail, including a letter carrier, a mail coach and a mail train. Philatelists call this the "Mulitas" issue (little mules), after the four and 12 centavos stamps depicting a mule carrying a pack of mail followed by a mailman on horse. This issue has a great number of variants, including different perforations and watermarks, and is assigned 50 major (and many minor) catalog numbers in Scott.

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