Spain 1864 Isabel II Stamp Issue - An Overview

The issue of 1864 replaced the issue of 1862. The six values in this set continue the 6 values of the previous 1860 and 1862 issues without any changes (2, 4, 12 & 19 cuartos, 1 & 2 reales). These six values remain consistent in all issues from 1860 up to 1867.

This set was issued on March 1, 1864 (except for the 4 cuartos value on January 1 1864), and the stamps were effective until January 1865, when they were replaced by the 1865 issue, thus giving most of the 1864 stamp values only 10 months of use.

The design is quite similar to those of the 1860 and 1862 issues. They are all imperforate, feature the same design with a crowned Isabel II facing left, “CORREOS” in a scrolled cartouche at top, with the value and year in a scrolled frame at bottom, and are printed on coloured paper. This is the first Spanish stamp issue to include the year since the 1854 issue. The design was engraved by José Pérez Varela, and they were printed in sheets of 100 on coloured paper at the Fabrica Nacional del Sello.

The six values of the 1864 issue are as follows:

Value	Colour/Paper (En)	Colour/Paper (Sp)	Edifil #	Scott #	Yvert #	Michel #
2 cuartos	dark blue on lilac	azul s/ rosa	63	61	59	55
4 cuartos	rose on reddish buff	rojo s/ salmón	64	62	60	56
12 cuartos	green on pinkish	verde s/ rosa	65	63	61	57
19 cuartos	violet on pinkish	violeta s/ lila	66	64	62	58
1 real	brown on green	castaño s/ verde	67	65	63	59
2 reales	blue on pinkish	azul s/ rosa	68	66	64	60

 

As expected, Edifil Especializado catalogue has the most detail on this issue, identifying a number of shades, paper varieties and plate flaws. Scott Classic Specialized covers a few shades, Michel lists the three white paper varieties, whereas Yvert & Tellier does not list either.

2 cuartos

Dark blue on lilac paper (azul sur rosa). Edifil 63 / Scott 61. Issue quantity of 1,531,633.

Edifil distinguishes a shade of dark blue (Edifil 63a, azul oscuro sur rosa), with a moderate increase in catalogue value. Other catalogues do not distinguish between shades. In practice, some stamps cannot be identified as belonging to one shade distinctly to the other, unlike the two shown below.

Edifil 63 mint, blue (azul sur rosa)

Edifil 63a mint, dark blue (azul oscuro sur rosa)

4 cuartos

Rose on reddish buff (rojo sur salmón). Edifil 64 / Scott 62. Issue quantity of 49,504,633.

Edifil and Scott distinguish a carmine shade (Edifil 64a / Scott 62a, carmin sur rosa / carmine on reddish buff), that is considerably more valuable than the base shade. It is quite distinctive, so easily identifiable.

Edifil additionally lists a darker rose shade (Edifil 64b, rosa oscuro sur rosa), slightly more valuable than the base rose shade.

As it typical of the 4 cuartos stamp during this time period, this is by far the most commonly found stamp of the 1864 issue (over 49 million issued). Cancellation collections, such as assembling all the cartwheel numbers for this stamp (and for the other 4 cuartos stamps before and after it) are a popular Spanish collecting focus.

Edifil 64 mint, rose (rosa sur rosa)

 

 

Edifil 64b mint, dark rose (rosa oscuro sur rosa)

 

 Edifil 64a mint pair, carmine (carmin sur rosa)

12 cuartos

Green on pinkish (verde sur rosa). Edifil 65 / Scott 63. Issue quantity of 691,801.

Edifil and Scott both distinguish a dark green shade (Edifil 65a / Scott 63a, verde oscuro s/ rosa / dark green on pinkish) of higher value, whereas other catalogues do not distinguish. From the examples I have viewed, the green shade I would call a grey green, and the “dark green” more of a medium green. rather than a truly dark green.

Edifil 65 mint, green (verde sur rosa)

Edifil 65a mint, dark green (verde oscuro sur rosa)

19 cuartos

Violet on pinkish (violeta sur lila). Edifil 66 / Scott 64. Issue quantity of 24,699.

Printed in lower quantities than the other values in this set, this is the most valuable stamp of the 1864 issue, worth slightly more mint than the 1 real value, and considerably more used.

Edifil distinguishes an intense violet shade (Ed 66a, violeta intenso sur salmón), whereas other catalogues do not distinguish.

Edifil 66 mint

1 real

Brown on green (castaño sur verde). Edifil 67 / Scott 65. Issue quantity of 625,016.

Edifil distinguishes a clear/light brown on green (castaño claro sur verde) shade (Ed 67a, with a similar value. In practice there seems to be a range from lighter to darker brown for this issue.

Edifil 67 mint, darker brown on green (castaño oscuro sur verde)

Edifil 67 used, medium brown on green (castaño sur verde). Llanes (Oviedo) date cancel of 1857 type.

Edifil 67a mint block of 4, clear brown on green (castaño claro sur verde)

 

2 reales

Blue on rose/pinkish (azul sur rosa). Edifil 68 / Scott 66. Issue quantity of 527,962.

Edifil & Scott both distinguish a darker blue shade (Ed 68a / Sc 66a, azul oscuro sur rosa / dark blue on pinkish), with the darker shade valued slightly higher. The paper of this stamp is a very light rose or pinkish, and a variety on white paper exists.

Edifil 68, strip of 4 mint. blue (azul sur rosa)

Edifil 68a mint, darker blue (azul oscuro sur rosa)

Cancellations

The 1864 issue has a variety of cancel types that weew commonly used. The three most common are grill with numeral (parrilla con cifra) cancels, cartwheel (rueda de carreta) cancels and date cancels (fechador) of the 1857 type. Somewhat less commonly found are grill (parrilla) cancels, date cancels of the 1854 type, railway (fechador ambulante) cancels, and open grill (rejilla) cancels.

A variety of other cancels can be found, including the French gross chiffre lozenge of Marseille (“2240”), various pre-philatelic and other origin cancels. Of course, these latter will sometimes command significant premiums.

1 real (Edifil 67) with Durango (Vizcaya) date (fechador) of 1854 type cancel

 

 

4 cuartos (Edifil 64) with cartwheel "63" (San Roque) cancel

 

12 cuartos (Edifil 65) with parrilla "2" (Barcelona) cancel

1 real (Edifil 67) with Villa y Geltru (Barcelona) date (fechador) of 1857 type cancel

 

4 cuartos (Edifil 64) with Pamplona pre-philatelic oval cancel

Similar Issues

There are three Spanish colonial issues that feature the same design, but distinguishing them is not difficult, given their significant differences. Despite this, I have frequently seen these colonial stamps inadvertently included in Spanish collections, and vice versa.

Cuba: The Cuba / Spanish Antilles issues of both 1864 and 1866 have the same design, but differ in key aspects. The issue of 1864 (Edifil 12, Antillas Edifil 10-12 / Scott 17-21) comes in different colours, does not have a date in the frame and has “PLATA” in the value frame. The 1866 Cuba issue (Edifil 13-16 / Scott 23-26) has the “1866” date in the lower value frame.

Philippines: The Philippines issue of 1864 – in four values (Edifil 17-20 / Scott 21-24) – also comes in different colours, does not have the date in the frame at the bottom and has different values, making it hard to confuse with the Spanish issue. All of those values are issued again with the “HABILITADO POR LA NACION.” overprint in 1869 (Edifil 20M-P / Scott 35-38).

 

Varieties

Plate or cliché flaws. Edifil identifies several varieties for various stamps of this issue, typically deformities in the words and numbers. The most common variety is a missing dot after the figure of value. Various minor uncatalogued flaws can be found as well.

12 cuartos with “missing period after 12” variety (Edifil 65ita), with "14" (Vallodolid) cartwheel cancel

2 cuartos mint with “2 missing ball on top (sin bola)” variety (Edifil 63it)

 

Bar Cancels. As is typical for this period, multi-line bar cancels (barrados) were applied on “remainders” when unused stamps were removed from service. They can be found for three values: the 4 cuartos, 1 real and 2 reales.

Paper varieties. The regular paper thickness I would characterize as generally medium, with some variety, particularly in the 4 cuartos – to be expected given its large print run. Edifil does not list any paper thickness varieties for this issue.

Three values in the issue also can be found in a white (non-coloured) paper variety. Listed in both Edifil and Michel, they are the 2 cuartos (Ed 63p / Mi 55x), 4 cuartos (Ed 64p / Mi 56x) and 2 reales (Ed 68p / Mi 60x).

 

Proofs & Essays. Two values in the set can be found as essays (ensayos), the 12 cuartos and 1 real, both in brown. See Galvez, Catalogo Galvez Pruebas y Ensayos de España for details.

Forgeries. As is typical of classic Spanish stamps, both postal and philatelic forgeries were produced for this issue, including by some of the “usual suspects” – e.g. Segui, Torres, Sperati, etc. Good information in English on forgeries for this issue can be found at https://stampforgeries.blogspot.com/2022/11/spain-1864.html. Postal forgeries are quite valuable for the 1864 issue. Further postal & philatelic forgery information is available in Spanish language reference works by Galvez and others.

Segui forgery of 19 cuartos (Edifil 66), reasonably well done but hard to mistake for genuine.

Torres forgery of 2 cuartos with fake parrilla cancel (Edifil 63). A crude forgery, like most of Torres’ classic Spain forgeries.

 

 Collecting

As with many Spanish classic issues, most values in the set are reasonably affordable to collect used, while expensive to collect in mint condition. The 19 cuartos value of the 1864 set is inexpensive when compared to the 19 cuartos values in the 1860, 1862 and 1865 series.