Sunday, April 25, 2010

Rejected Essays

From Bill Welch Collection

From the early 1880s until the mid-1890s, Seebeck sought new stamp contracts by offering suggested designs to the governments of a number of Latin American governments. Most declined.


Venezuela

Early 1880s

There is no documentary evidence that these are Seebeck essays. However, the vignette is very similar to the portrait of Simon Bolivar on Seebeck’s issues fo the Colombian State of Bolivar, which debuted in 1879. The currency changed from “centimos” to “centavos” in 1880.




Colombia

This has to date after 1886 when the Republic of Colombia was established. The die number, 414 is the lowest known for Hamilton. The 1890 Seebeck Issues of El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras have die numbers in the 400s, suggesting that this essay was made when they were in 1889.




While Seebeck / Hamilton was successful in getting contracts with El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras as well as Ecuador later, they did try to get contracts from other countries.

Hamilton got into financial trouble during the Panic of 1893. This prompted a flurry of essays as the company sought new business.

Bolivia

Dated 1893 these essays appear to show the peculiar design of Justice and her pet condor?





Prepared in 1893, a vignette of the Coat of Arms. The die number is 581

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