Guatemala Domestic Use Only Self Adhesives

For only a few short years, Guatemala issued at least 3 denominations of self adhesive "stamps" for domestic use only for postage that exceeded the 50gram rate of 20 centavos for letters. Packages and large envelopes used the self adhesive 50, 75 and 100 centavo stamps. Nothing fancy; just the value printed on 3 different color self adhesives on a 2.5cm x 1cm. I have the 50 and 75 centavo stamps but I'm not sure of the 1 Quetzal denomination. They were forbidden to be used on international mail and Guatemalan stamp collectors are few and far between, so I doubt very many of these have survived. I've never seen them listed in Scott and it is possible they are not considered to be postage stamps, but never the less, that is exactly how they were used. I have a large cover somewhere with more or less 10 copies of the 50 centavo stamp, .. or sticker,...or whatever.

Sorry, I messed up on the photo upload. Here's another try.

Hi, in the "Postage Stamps of Guatemala 1871 to 1999" I found stickers for interior use issued in 1998. the illustrations are black and white ..but they identify 50 cents color tan, 1Q light green , 1Q blue green, 5Q lilac...thats the most current specialized book I have on Guatemala...yours may have been issued after the book was published ...

Thanks for the info philb. It must be, then, that my cover has the Q1 sticker since I'm pretty sure it has light green stickers. Interesting that your book calls them "stickers". I recall the postmaster calling them "etiquetas" which is translated as "sticker". Somewhere, I have a strip of 4 or 5 MNH stickers and another single, but I don't recall the denominations or colors.
I tried several times to buy MNH for collecting, but the postal employees refused to sell them to me. I finally found a PO that would sell a few MNH just a few months before the supply ran out for the whole country. I believe only 2 of the series were available at the time.
With your book mentioning 4 stickers by 1999 and my 75 centavos as shown, which was canceled December 30, 2003, there are at least 5 different stickers.

Well to be honest..the English side of the page calls them 'stickers' the Spanish side calls them Etiquetas !! I believe theres a place for them in our collections somewhere even if only back of the book !! cheers. phil

Are they really any different than the "stickers" our POs print out and use these days?

In any case, as far as I'm concerned they are absolutely collectible.

I suppose there is no real difference. The Guatemalan "stickers" were of an unorthodox shape and size, although I know other countries have issued unorthodox shaped stamps, ie; not square or rectangular or triangular. These Guatemalan stickers are preprinted self adhesives and as far as I know, the only self adhesives ever issued by Guatemala. Maybe your book, philb, has information on the topic of self adhesive issues.

What difference is there between these etiquettas (labels) or stickers and ATM's.

Sorry, Jayelem, for the delay to reply to your question. The main difference, as far as I know, is that these were available only over the counter at the post office. I really can't make a comparison to these etiquetas and ATM's since there are no ATM machines for postage in Guatemala. I hope this answers your question.

I finally found the "cover" with Q1.00 stickers. Actually it was a sheet of paper taped to box. Thankfully, the stickers are on the packing tape and not under it.




Marty