El Salvador Stamps - From Revolution to Independence Stamps

Published

Jun 02, 2014 Europe/London

El Salvador has received many names in the past including ‘Cuscation’ which means the land of beautiful jewels, but what caught on was the name taken from Jesus Christ- El Salvador or The Saviour. El Salvador is situated on the pacific coast of Central America, with Guatemala on the west and Honduras on the north and east. It is the smallest country of Western Hemisphere with an area of just 8,123 square miles. In 1524 the Spaniards arrived in El Salvador and established their capital at San Salvador (St Saviour) the following year. Just like other countries in Latin America, the country was also embroiled in a revolution in 1811, and independence was declared on September 22, 1821. The country also experienced Civil War that raged between 1980 and 1992 and claimed the lives of 75,000 people. But thanks to the treaty signed between the rebels and the government, the country has transformed into a strong economy in Central America.

Volcano-themed stamps to World Cup-inspired stamps

El Salvador is also called the Valley of the Hammocks due to the number of volcanoes in its area. And since volcanoes are the natural wonders in this country, it is not surprising to see volcanos as a recurring theme in El Salvador's stamps. The first stamp released in the country in 1867 showed a volcano with 11 stars around it. Another important development for the country’s stamp history was the participation of Nicholas Seebeck when he won the contract to provide the country with free stamps from 1890-96. Though this may seem like a losing proposition but the government gave Seebeck the rights to reprint the stamps that can be sold to collectors. Unfortunately these print-outs and the unused ones were many, thus the values remained low.

Aside from Seebeck, there were other players too that helped provide the country with stamps. For example, Thomas Macdonald also won a contract to engrave the plates to be used to print the stamps for six years, starting in 1906.

El Salvador’s philately also had its own share of problems and issues including the regular printing of surcharges and overprints. And in 1970, stamps illustrating the participating teams in the final round of World Cup were printed with an overprint celebrating the victory of Germany. This was initially panned down, but was soon collected by collectors. Other stamps were designed and printed in the country, and most of these stamps used the World Cup as inspiration.