Columbus Sheets

On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed from Palos, Spain, with three ships – the Santa María, the Pinta (“painted one”) and the Niña (“girl”) – hoping to reach Asia by going west. Instead, he landed in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, and believed he had reached the Indies. After exploring Cuba and Hispaniola, where the Santa María was wrecked on December 25, he returned to Spain in March 1493.

The second voyage left Cádiz on September 25, 1493, with 17 ships and was meant to convert the Indigenous people to Christianity. Columbus explored the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico, found that Fort Navidad had been destroyed, and founded the settlement of La Isabela on Hispaniola in January 1494. On his third voyage, which began on May 30, 1498, he reached Trinidad and the South American mainland near modern Venezuela. However, unrest among the colonists led to his arrest, and he was sent back to Spain in chains in 1500.

Columbus left Spain for the fourth and last time on May 9, 1502, searching for a westward passage to the Indian Ocean. He explored the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama but never found it. After storms wrecked his ships, he was stranded on Jamaica for about a year and finally returned to Spain on November 7, 1504. He died in 1506.

Note

These souvenir sheets are released the same time as a set of souvenir sheets are released in the U.S. (see Columbus Voyages) and in Spain and Portugal – the countries of origin of Columbus and his crew. They’re identical except for the text is in the local language and face amount is in their respective currency.

The stamps, though, contain reprints of a series of U.S. stamps commemorating Christopher Columbus and his voyages to the Americas. The stamps were issued in 1893 (see the Columbus page) – roughly on the four-hundredth anniversary. These souvenir sheets were issued on the five-hundredth annniversary.

Contains 6 spots: own 6 – 6 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Sep 5, 2023

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot

own

catalog

subject

description

comment

Columbus’ Expeditions - Quintennial

1.1	✓	2000	Columbus Soliciting Aid of Queen Isabella	400₤ (may 1992) comm., dark red brown
1.2	✓	2003	Columbus at La Rabida	700₤ (may 1992) comm., red
1.3	✓	2006	Recall of Columbus	1000₤ (may 1992) comm., black blue
2.1	✓	1998	Columbus Sighting Land	200₤ (may 1992) comm., black grey blue
2.2	✓	2005	Columbus’s Fleet	900₤ (may 1992) comm., dark violet blue
2.3	✓	2007	Queen Isabella Pledging Jewels	1500₤ (may 1992) comm., dark orange red

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.