PANAMA

PANAMA / PANAMÁ.

Airmail definitive stamps.
Map of Panama.
Stamp issued on 04.08.1949.
Face value: 5 cents of Panamanian balboa.
Printing: Recess.
Size: 29 x 25 mm,

Catalogs
- Michel No. 300.
- Scott No. C112.
- StampWorld No. 377.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 232.
- Yvert et Tellier No. PA 105.

In 1501, Rodrigo de Bastidas was the first European to reach the Isthmus of Panama. In 1502, on his fourth voyage, Columbus reached the Atlantic coast of the isthmus. In 1510, Vasco Núñez de Balboa founded Santa María la Antigua del Darién, the first city in current Panamanian territory, called the Kingdom of Tierra Firme, and three years later he undertook the conquest of the interior of the isthmus: on September 23, 1513 he discovered the coast of the Pacific Ocean, which he called Mar del Sur (South Sea), which he took possession of in the name of the Crown of Castile. In 1751 Tierra Firme came under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. On November 28, 1821, Panama proclaimed its independence from the Crown of Spain and joined Gran Colombia. After several unsuccessful attempts, on November 3, 1903, it separated from Colombia and the independence of the Republic of Panama was proclaimed.

CANAL ZONE

CANAL ZONE.

Definitive stamps.
View of Panama Canal and railway.
Stamp issued on 25.06.1929.
Face value: 5 cents of US dollar.
Pinting: Recess.
Size: 40 x 25 mm.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 72A.
- Scott No. 107.
- StampWorld No. 72.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 109.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 79.

The first proposal for a canal across the Isthmus of Panama to join the Atlantic and Pacific oceans was made in 1529, shortly after the Spanish conquest, by Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón, a lieutenant of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, but it took more than three centuries to come true. The concession to build the canal was granted by the then government of Colombia to a French company in 1878 for a period of 99 years. In November 1903, after the independence of the Republic of Panama, the United States negotiated with the provisional Panamanian government the cession of an area of 20 mi wide (32 km) on the isthmus where the canal was built, called Canal Zone (Zona del Canal), which was formally ceded on May 4, 1904 in exchange for an annual financial compensation; however, over time the area became a political and strategic enclave of the United States, until it was reintegrated to Panama through the Torrijos-Carter Treaties on October 1, 1979. The United States issued stamps for the Canal Zone from June 1904 to October 1978.

Construction of the 82 km (51 mi) long canal was completed in 1913, and the seaway was officially inaugurated on August 15, 1914. The works had begun, with great difficulty, in 1881 under the direction of Ferdinand de Lesseps, but were interrupted by economic problems in 1888, and were not resumed until 1904. 

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Thanks to Dragan Buškulić for his contribution (https://worldofstamp2.wordpress.com/).

VENEZUELA

VENEZUELA.

150th anniversary of the creation of Greater Colombia.
Historical map of Greater Colombia (Gran Colombia).
Stamp issued on 16.12.1969.
Face value: 0.45 Venezuelan bolívar.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Printed by Litografía del Comercio, Caracas.
Print: 1,000,000 copies.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 1816
- Scott No. 956.
- StampWorld No. 1835.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 2104.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 796.

Greater Colombia (Gran Colombia) is the historiographical designation of a large disappeared country in South America, which legally existed between 1819 and 1831, created by the Congress of Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar) through a fundamental law ratified in 1821 in Cúcuta, where the national Constitution was drawn up. The country was formed by the union of Venezuela and New Granada into a single nation under the name of the Republic of Colombia, which was later joined by Panama (1821), Quito and Guayaquil (1822). The capital was Bogotá and the first president was Simón Bolívar. Its surface corresponded to the current republics of Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela (including Guayana Esequiba) and other territories that later passed to Brazil, Peru, Nicaragua and Honduras. The country dissolved in the late 1820s and early 1830s, due to political differences between supporters of federalism and centralism, as well as regional tensions.

PANAMA

PANAMA / PANAMÁ.

Census of America 1970.
Stylized map of American continent.
Stamp issued on 14.08.1969.
Face value: 10 cents of Panamanian balboa.
Printed by T.I.E.M. (?), México.

Catalogues
- Scott No. 501.
- StampWorld No. 1234.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 510.