Columbus & Royals

Christopher Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa and became a navigator who wanted to reach India, China and Japan by sailing west. He had developed the plan with his brother Bartholomew by the 1480s, though he had badly underestimated the size of the Earth. Portugal turned him down, but on April 17, 1492, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe. These promised him the title “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” and ten percent of the revenues from any new lands.

He left Palos de la Frontera on August 3, 1492, with three ships, the Santa María, the Pinta and the Niña. After a stop in the Canary Islands, they sailed from La Gomera on September 6. Land was sighted in the early hours of October 12, and Columbus went ashore that morning on an island he called San Salvador. The Indigenous people who lived there called it Guanahani, and it is most likely today’s San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. Columbus believed he had reached the Indies, which is why the Caribbean islands are still called the West Indies.

They went on to Cuba and Hispaniola, where the Santa María ran aground on Christmas Day, 1492. Columbus built Fort Navidad from its wreckage and left 39 men there, then began the voyage home on January 16, 1493. After a stop in Lisbon on March 4, he arrived back in Palos on March 15, 1493.

Note

These stamps, not the extra souvenir sheet part around them, are reprints from stamps that were issued in 1893. The orginals were very well designed and interesting stamps. I have several of them on my Columbus album page. The old ones look much better than these. The colors of the reprints are overly vibrant. I’m not sure if that’s because the ink on the originals have soften after one-hundred thirty years, or if the new ones were intentially made brighter for a modern public that prefers and expects colorful stamps. It could also be the result of a different printing process used by the American Bank Note Company in the late 19th Century.

Contains 6 spots: own 6 – 6 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Mar 7, 2025

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	✓	2626a	Queen Isabella	5c (may 1992) comm., brown
1.2	✓	2626b	Columbus at La Rábida Friary	30c (may 1992) comm., orange brown
1.3	✓	2626c	Recall of Columbus	50c (may 1992) comm., green black
2.1	✓	2627a	Columbus Welcomed at Barcelona	6c (may 1992) comm., black grey violet
2.2	✓	2627b	Columbus Restored to Favour	8c (may 1992) comm., dark pink lilac
2.3	✓	2627c	Columbus Describing Third Voyage	$3 (may 1992) comm., brown lilac & yellow green

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.