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First Issue From Brazil

The first issue of Brazil - the Bullseye, so nicknamed from the design's resemblance - comes
fourth chronologically in order of issue of adhesive postage stamps. First, in 1840, came the
Penny Black and two-pence Blue of Great Britain; in 1842 came the New York Dispatch; and,
in March 1843, came the Fours and Sixes of Zurich. The Bullseyes first appeared on August 1,
1843.

In conception, however, the Bullseyes are entitled to rank second only to the British issue. It
was on November 30, 1841 that the Brazilian Government was authorized by Law No. 43 to
create stamps. That law came about through the efforts of J.D. Sturtz, a German who had
been a Brazilian consul to Prussia. Enlisting the aid of a British charge d'affaires in Brazil, he
urged the adoption of prepayment by means of stamps, following the innovation in Britain.

Eventually emerging from carefully preserved, if musty, official records was the prime fact that,
in 1841, the Brazilian customs authorities seized an engraving machine from one Pedro
Ludwig, confiscated it and used it in the service of the mint. On Christmas Eve 1842 a
transferring machine and accessories were bought by the Mint from one Eduardo Lemerick.

Production of the plates involved engraving a flat die with figures and background - a different
die for each value; 30, 60, and 90 reis. The printing of the Bullseyes ceased at the end of
1843. Continued sale of the stock on hand was authorized on August 22, 1844, but use after
1850 is scarcely known. The numbers of Bullseyes calculated to have been issued are 30 reis
- 856,617; 60 reis - 1,335,865; 90 reis - 341,125. Those figures do not include the remainders
on hand which were burnt at the Mint on March 30, 1846.

Of the finds of Bullseyes the most important has been a vertical strip of three; the upper two
stamps are the 30 reis value and the lowest is a 60 reis, with a dividing line which separated
the different values on the plate. Formerly in the collection of Charles Lathrop Pack, the strip is
known as the 'Pack Strip'. In March 1963 at auction by Stanley Gibbons the pack strip realized
£8,250. Auctioned again by Stanley Gibbons in February 1969, the Pack Strip realized
£11,500. It was sold in the Robert Siegel auction at Ameripex '86' on May 25th for $275,000.
Another, but defective multiple of different values se tenant is known.

A complete pane of eighteen of the 90 reis was found in Brazil about 1898. Among other finds,
the most noteworthy is a unique complete sheet of sixty of the 60 reis from the plate which was
ready on July 11, 1843. At Stanley Gibbons' auction in Frankfurt on 18 May 1978, the sheet
realized $82,381. A 30 reis interpane block of four realized $168,000 (£97,308) at the
Habsburg-Feldman auction in Zurich November 18, 1989 of the Amazon Collection which had
been assembled over half a century. Colonel Napier had theorized correctly about the
existence of the third plate which was proven by the later discovery of this block. The collection
had earned the Grand Prix of the Court of Honour at London 1980.
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Rodolfo / rtvstamps
Resource: Encyclopaedia of Rare and Famous Stamps by L. N. Williams.

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