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Guatemala's First Stamps

The first stamp attributed to Guatemala was a fraud perpetrated by a Mr. J. Holland in 1867.
He represented himself as an agent of the government and ordered some 5 centavo stamps
from a Boston dealer Samuel Allan Taylor (a.k.a. Don Alberto de Bario), engraved by J.A.P.
Wilcox, printed by the Holland Printing Company in Boston and sold by Taylor.

The stamp was accepted at first until Pierre Mahé, a Paris dealer, denounced it in his journal,
Le Timbrophile, in May, 1867. Mahé knew that Guatemala was negotiating with the Anatole
Hulot of the French mint for new stamps. Proofs of the new stamps were shown to
representatives of the philatelic press later that year. However, the stamps did not come into
use for 3 years.

In a decree dated December 17, 1870, Guatemala announced a number of postal reforms
including the use of stamps. Four values were issued: 1, 5, 10, and 20 centavo. There are
two types of the 10 centavo as it appears that two dies were used to manufacture the plate.
The stamps were printed on unwatermarked, white wove paper. Before printing a faint wash
was applied in the color of the printed stamp. The perforation is 14 x 13½. Since the
separations between stamps were so small, almost all stamps have perfs cutting in on the side.

emainders came on the market. All values exist imperforate but these are likely to be printer's
waste as they were not among the remainders but did come on the market in 1888 in France.
Also some came to market with impressions on both sides at the same time. Forged
postmarks were applied to some of these stamps and to others of the remainders.

Still other unusual stamps came to light in 1896 when 20 centavo stamps in the color of the 10
centavo were offered. These may have come from Hulot's effects sold after his death in 1892.
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Rodolfo / rtvstamps
Resource: (My archives) - Bl Press Ltd, 1950.

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