I Can't Find Anything On This Costa Rica Telegraph Stamp!

I picked this stamp up at a show for very little because I liked the design, and it APPEARS to be a telegraph stamp.

I have spent a LOT of time searching online for a similar telepgraph stamp, and have found nothing like it. None of the teleggraph designs found online match. I also looked in my Scott Classic catalog, and found nothing. I even started thinking maybe it ISN'T a telegraph stamp, but regular postage. STILL, didn't find it in the catalog.

I think it shows Columbus, and note the "UPU" in the corners. Columbian Expo era?

If anyone has any info, please let me know! I am stumped!

JD

I don't think that the phrase "correos y telegrafos" means telegraph. I've seen that phrase on many central and south american stamps.

Also, the pictured stamp is not listed in Hiscock's world catalog of telegraph stamps.

The stamp is listed in Minkus as N141, 5c Slate. 1892. 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. Ordered by the government, printed by A Gast, New York. Engraved, perf 12. Not issued!

"Correos y telegrafos" means that the stamps were intended for both postal and telegraph use.

"Not Issued"??? Oooooooh, well maybe THAT is the reason! Still though, you'd think I'd have found something relating to that fact. Now I have a different way to search, I think!

:-)

Just in case, though, does anyone know more?

I did a little additional "Googleing" but couldn't find any more information beyond the full name of the printer: August Gast. There is an article "An 1892 Essay" by L N and M Williams, published in the January 1939 issue of the West End Philatelist that might be on this stamp. The Society for Costa Rica Collectors publishes the Costa Rica Postal Catalogue, 3rd edition 2004, by Hector R. Mena et. al., the last part of which is devoted to a "variety of miscellaneous issues..." I'm intrigued now, too, and hope someone will be able to provide additional information.

Update: Missed this the first time through: Costa Rica's "Columbus" Stamps from Non-Issues to New Issues / Nye, David E., 1991 Winter. Oxcart (Article). The Oxcart is the journal of the Society for Costa Rica Collectors.

Armed with info supplied here, I did some more Interweb searching, and only found this - line 41: http://www.stampworld.com/stamps/Costa-Rica/
Also note no value/sale price listed... I assume this isn't a $$ stamp, BUT you'd think I'd find SOME other mention of it online. I don't have access to the other stamp catalogs, obscure or otherwise. Might have to head to the library and see if the full "C" Scott volume lists anything. My Classic does not.