SPAIN

SPAIN / ESPAÑA.

Hispanic community.
Map of the bay and the city of San Juan de Puerto Rico (1792).
Last stamp in a set of 4, issued on 12.10.1972.
Face value: 8 pesetas.
Printing: Photogravure.
Printef by Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre, Madrid.
Print: 6,000,000 copies.
Size: 29 x 41 mm.

Catalogues
- Edifil No. 2110.
- Michel No. 2005.
- Scott No. 1737.
- StampWorld No. 2011.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 2168.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 1764.

Puerto Rico was an overseas territory of the Spanish Crown from the arrival of Christopher Columbus (who named the island San Juan Bautista) on November 6, 1493 until the promulgation of the Autonomy Charter of Puerto Rico in 1897, and administratively it was a Spanish province from 1897 to the Spanish-American War of 1898. Shortly after the arrival of Columbus, the city of San Juan became the most important military post in America. In 1508, Juan Ponce de León was appointed governor of the island and founded the original settlement, Caparra, to the west of the current metropolitan area. The map reproduced on the stamp, from 1792, is the work of the Spanish engineer Francisco Mestre, and is kept in the Military Historical Service in Madrid.