15c Babyhead issues

15c issues

1892 15c red brown

Cliché Type II, Gum Type A.

Sheets of 100 (10 x10) inscribed COMUNICACIONES 200,000 from 2,000 sheets issued 1 January 1892

The colour of this issue was described by Mencarini as “carmine red” and similar descriptions were adopted by Cotter and Galvez in their catalogues. However, other authors have generally favoured the description of “red brown”.

Bartels et al described the occurrence of a “pale reddish brown” shade variety.

The catalogues of Palmer (1912) and Harradine (1987) record the cliché as type I. However, these records appear to be erroneous as only stamps of cliché II are known to exist.

#MP39 15c red brown

The 15c red brown stamps occasionally display a defective or worn plate causing the oval frame to appear broken.

Example with worn oval frame

Examples of 15c red brown shade varieties

Edifil: #101 red brown ‘castana rojizo’ (1891-1893)

Scott: #169 red-brown (1892)

SG: #185 cinamon (1 Jan 1892)

1894 15c rose

Cliché Type II, Gum Type B.

Sheets of 100 (10 x10) inscribed CORREOS 200,000 from 2,000 sheets issued 1 January 1894

The colour description of this stamp is typically “rose”.

#MP40 15c rose

Bartels et al (1904) suggested a range of colours with “pale rose”, “intense rose” and “rose-pink” shade varieties. The early Spanish catalogue descriptions perhaps reflect the intense rose colour with the description “bright pink”.

Cotter (1897) provides a colour description of “encarnado”. However, this appears to be a typographical error with the colour description swapped with that of the 1894 8c red brown issue which is incorrectly described as bright pink "rosa fuerte".

Stangely, Bartels et al when describing the colour for the 1897 surcharge issues record the 15c base stamps as "bright rose pink, salmon pink" and is just an example of the incosnsitencies that arise when describing the colours of these issues.

Edifil: #115 rose ‘rosa’ (1894)

Scott: #170 rose (1894)

SG: #195 rosine, thick paper (1 Jan 1894)

1896 15c blue green

Cliché Type II, Gum Type C.

Sheets of 100 (10 x10) inscribed CORREOS 200,000 from 2,000 sheets issued 1 January 1896

The 1896 15c issue is generally been described as “blue green” in colour

#MP41 15c blue green

Bartels et al (1904) describes a “deep blue green” colour shade.

The typical gum is type C (i.e. white in colour and usually having a distinctly ‘cracked’ appearance) However, an example with Gum Type D and a seperate example with a white coloured gum exhibiting a high gloss, or shinny appearance, with no crackling are also known.

Galvez (1951) indicates the numbers issued to be 210,000 based on the accounts of Madrid Filatelica (November 1898). In contrast, Harradine suggests that 10,000 of the total of 200,000 issued were issued at a later date.