Introducing Venezuela's 1871-1880 ESCUELAS Stamps

In 1870, when General Antonio Guzmán Blanco began to rule, he struggled to find a way to make his Free and Mandatory Universal Public Education program a reality. The nation was broke and the country deeply indebted following so many civil wars. So, he created a fiscal tax to be charged on all market transactions. Said tax would be paid by the public, by way of attaching stamps to the document – stamps issued for this very purpose. These stamps were cancelled via the signature of the notary who processed the transaction.General Guzmán Blanco, on the 27th June, 1870, decreed Free and Mandatory Public Education for all those aged between 7 and 21 years old. These stamps carried, for the first time, the depiction of El Libertador, Simón Bolívar.Because the stamps themselves financed public education, they carried the printed word ‘ESCUELAS’ (schools), the name by which these stamps continue to be known. This book is about them. Read more