Dominican Republic-Inverted Centers!

At the Stamp Club meeting last night, I was offered a complete set of "inverteds": The Dominican Republic 1902 Scott "400th anniversary of Santo Domingo". How could I pass it up?

And the stamps are gorgeous even when not inverted.


1902 Scott 144a 1c dark green & black "Francisco Sanchez"

Francisco Sanchez was one of the three hero-patriots of the Dominican Independence (from Haiti) movement in 1844. When Duarte was exiled, Sanchez was the voice of the rebellion. The Son of Afro-Dominican parents, he was a man of action, but also taught himself Latin and French. He was exiled by General Santana for four years, but then returned. When he objected to Santana returning the Dominican Republic to Spain as a colony in 1861, he was executed.

Note the lovely portrait of a sailing vessel under the "1502" date? Then note the more modern ship under the "1902" date? Interestingly, the modern ship is still equipped with sails.


1902 2c scarlet & black "Juan Pablo Duarte"

Duarte is considered the Father of the independence movement from Haiti. The highest mountain in the Dominican Republic (Pico Duarte) is named for him, and there is Juan Pablo Duarte Square along the Avenue of the Americas in New York City.
He was asked to be the first President in 1844, but was exiled by General Pedro Sanatana. Now Santana and his conservative cohorts believed the best way to prevent being absorbed by Haiti was to align the Dominican Republic with Spain's interests. In fact, as mentioned, in 1861 Sanatana returned the Dominican republic to Spain as a colony. Duarte died in exile in Caracas, Venezuela.


1902 5c blue & black "Juan Pablo Duarte"

Note the wonderful period artistry of the stamp with the native portraiture on the left, and the "modern" poles and wires on the right.


12c purple & black "Ramon Mella"

Note the man with a torch under "1502", and the street lamp under "1902". There is a woman on a pedestal below the street lamp. What does that signify?


1902 20c rose & black "Ramon Mella"

Ramon Mella was the third patriot of the Independence movement. He was known for "the shot". When the rebel group was vacillating about strategy- inviting failure- a load from his blunderbuss shook the group out of their hesitation.


1902 Scott 150a 50c brown & black "Ft. Santo Domingo"

Note the man on a horse on the left, and the 'modern" train on the right.


Comments welcomed!

Very nice. I notice the native character is carrying a letter. Obviously an allegory for communication, old and new. I guess all the dual portraits on each stamp represent progress. Though one does have to wonder about the woman sitting under the lamp. The 20 centavos may be pink, but I hope the light isn't red.

Nice!

Lovely stamps, nice scans
Indeed how could you pass them up?

albeit you failed to say how much....

Price scares me off sometimes.

Now then....
what are oars doing, poking from the gunwhales of a Caravel


I also note Telegraph Insulators on stamps

$6.50/stamp

About 10,000 times less than the 1901 U.S. Pan-American 4c inverted....

I would be curious to know who produced these stamps, and of course why the inverts? An innocent and perhaps neglectful mistake,or a more knowing philatelic purpose?

Rod, it is clearly a roman galley disguised as a caravel

Scott's (2003) lists these right along side the regular issues, and costing not a huge amount. Makes me wonder whether they were produced on purpose or, like Dag Hammarskjold were produced en mass once the mistake was discovered. The Columbian broken hat issue also comes to mind.

Really nice stamps there, I would have done the same ( bought ).
Good point there Jamesw, that was actually the first thought that went trough my mind.
I mean how rare it would be to have a set, nut neverthelessi would have bought them.
Bacause they are nice in their desing...

Are those some telegraph insulators I see. I am surprised His Rodness has missed them.

I can't answer the question about the circumstances behind these inverts, but I can point to Liberia #62a which is a great philatelic rarity (only one sheet of 100 stamps known) and it only catalogues for $1250 ... about 100 times less than the inverted jenny (C3a) from the US (same number of stamps found). The key is demand. I would guess there's not a lot of demand for the DR. Now if those were US stamps, imagine the price!