This large sheet of stamps was a gift from my youngest sister Ferret, who spent the greater part of last year backpacking around the world. She spent six months in Mexico, where she was studying a semester, and she picked up this beautiful stamp sheet for me.
She likes to tell me how much she loves me, by reminding me of the stamp sheet she lugged halfway around the world for me. "Helen - it was RAINING, and I kept those stamps dry. I didn't squish them in my backpack... but I carried them all through Mexico and Europe JUST FOR YOU." (She sometimes adds slightly more colourful language into the mix though.)**
So, thankyou, Eleanor: the stamps are beautiful. These are the only Mexican stamps in my collection, and they are a bit of a mystery to me. I guess they are Cinderella stamps - not postage stamps, given that there is no value amount on them. But I don't know what they would have been used for. As souvenirs? As tourism promotion? That would be my best guess.
Some of the images appear more than once on the sheet, but they are not in order - as in the duplicated images do not appear next to the same image more than once. And I have no idea how old they are, either. I am guessing mid-twentieth century? But who knows? Maybe they are new, but made to look vintage? If anyone can shed any light on them, that would be most appreciated.
Oaxaca sounds incredibly exotic to me, and the images seem to portray a quite spectacular, rustic and interesting place. So if their purpose is to lure tourists... well, I think they are working on me.
**Actually - correction - Ferret (quote) "hauled ass through Mexico in wet season; none of this 'through the rain BS' "(end quote). (Actually to be perfectly honest, ferret would never say BS - she is much more explicit than that, but I feel I should try and keep this blog clean.) :)
