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Early Mexican Stamps 1856-1867

The first Mexican postage stamps were issued August 1, 1856. There were five different face values, each a different color, but all bore the same likeness, a portrait of the Father of Mexican Independence, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, that shows him facing 3/4 forward, showing more of his left profile than the right, and surrounded by a decorative cartouche.

These first stamps used the Spanish 'reales' for their value, and consisted of the blue 1/2 real, yellow one real, yellow-green two reales, red four reales and lilac-red eight reales. Two real was equal to twelve and a half centavos when pesos and centavos began to replace reales after 1868.

The original issues continued to be used from 1856 until April 18, 1861 when it was replaced with the 1861 issue.

The 1861 issue continued to use the same design, but instead of printing different colors, they began printing with black or grayish-black ink on colored papers. Later, the two largest denomination stamps (4 and 8 reales) were printed with dull rose colored ink on yellow paper and green ink on brown paper, respectively.

Ink and Paper Colors
For the 1861 Series

Early period stamps were not perforated. Combine that fact with the uncertain printing technology, and one finds many examples are off-center, poor imprints.

To help prevent counterfeiting and theft, these stamps also had district overprints, which greatly adds to their historic interest. Stamps were sent from the printer to the fifty or so districts, which then used a handstamp to imprint the district name. Without that district imprint stamps were (at least in theory) worthless, so they were less likely to be stolen en-route. There are however many examples of stamps that were used in the mail without an overprint, so the enforcement was sporadic. There were several different font styles used in overprints, and although most were in black there are also ink color variations, with red, blue and green examples known.

In 1864 Mexico introduced a new stamp, the first to bear an image other than Hidalgo ... the Mexican Eagle. Mexican Eagle stamps were used 1864 to 1866. They are often very poorly printed, and the image so obscured by overprints and cancellations that it is hard to see that there really is an eagle in there somewhere. These continued to be produced in reales denominations.

Maximillian was crowned Emperor of Mexico June 10, 1864 and was executed June 19, 1867. This short-lived stamp with his likeness had an even shorter reign, being used part of the year in 1866, and a few months of 1867. It was the first Mexican stamp to use the centavos denomination, though it was simply abbreviated as 'C'.

After Maximillian's execution the old Hidalgo stamp pattern was revived for the rest of 1867 and beginning of 1868, until the new 'full face' Hidalgo stamps were introduced in September 1868.