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Telegraph stamps of the World

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I have completely revised Hiscocks' original listing, though leaving references to the original designations.
There were only the 1934 (A.B.N. Co.) originally listed. I have brought these prices up to date and added currency selection.
The new designations have 'RH' numbers (Revised Hiscocks) to avoid confusion.

I have added prices for the new additions.
However the prices are very much guesswork as there are few on the market.
These will probably need to be re-numbered as more are reported.
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Honduras.

Steve Hiscocks wrote:
The three values of Honduras exist in two forms — with and without a "control mark" consisting of an indecipherable scribble in purple said to
represent the signature of one J.M. Lopez. Although N.F. Seebeck (see introduction to Ecuador section) did have a contract with the Honduras Government
from 1890 to 1895 he seems not to have turned his attention to telegraph stamps.

My notes:
Steve Hiscocks touched only the tip of the iceberg with this. Many more have been added and there may yet be more to add.
Telegraphy in Honduras began in 1876 with a connection between La Paz and Comayagua. Tegucigalpa was added in 1877,
and later that year, Comayagua was connected to San Salvador.
In 1879, connections were made to Guatemala and Nicaragua, and in 1880 the San Pedro Sula and the San Antonio del Norte offices were added.
This progress owed a lot to Dr Marco Aurelio Soto. Lists of 1906 and 1908 for wireless-Telegraph stations lists nothing in Honduras. Similar lists for both 1910
and 1912 give Ceiba and Swan Island (Islas Santanilla) about 153 kilometres (95 miles) off the northeast coast, then with a United Fruit Co. coconut plantation.
Ceiba had a railway used by the Standard Fruit Co. to gather bananas from their plantations there.
Nearby Tela had a separate railway used by the United Fruit Co. to gather bananas from their plantations.
Apparently the Honduran Government contracted in 1877 with a businessman by the name of J. A. Braam to install a submarine telegraph cable
between Puerto Cortés and Cabo San Antonio in Cuba to gain access to the USA, but I have seen no evidence of this happening.
The telephone service began in 1891, and became automatic in 1932 with a 1,000-line telephone exchange in Tegucigalpa.
In 1921 the Tropical Radio Telegraph Company, obtained a concession from the Government of Honduras for 50 years,
giving it an absolute monopoly over radio-communications in Honduras.

As regards N. F. Seebeck, Honduras cancelled their contract with him 26 November 1893. otherwise things may have been different.

Map of Honduras showing Telegraph stations. By 1880 there was a connection from Tegucigalpa through to San Pedro Sula.
The pink area shows the approximate boundaries of the Kingdom of Miskito which
was an Autonomous territory of Nicaragua from 1860 to 1894, when it became part of Nicaragua.
The part in what is now Honduras, did not become part of Honduras until 1960.
A submarine cable connection at La Libertad in El Salvador linked between San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua to the south and Mexico to the north.

Enigma?

Stamp of 1878/1889
This 2r stamp, courtesy of Rolf Lamprecht, is listed by Scott as issued in 1878 by the National Bank Note Co. of N.Y. in deep blue on thin, hard paper,
and re-issued in 1889 as ultramarine on soft paper, printed by American Bank Note Co. of N.Y.
The 1889 reissue was part of the contract between the Honduran Government and N. F. Seebeck, signed on 20 April 1889.
Section 11 required Seebeck to receive the leftover stock of the previous year and to reprint as many as needed for collectors.
Though they were printed by the American Bank Note Company, Seebeck paid for it. He would then have received the remainders when supplying the 1890 issue of postage stamps.

For the initial issue, the Scott catalogue says that various counterfeit cancellations exist and most used copies are the reissued ones with fake or favour cancels.
For the 1889 re-issue, which they only price for mint, they say they were "not intended for postal use", it says they were valid and genuine cancels are known.
What it does not say is what they were intended for. Chapter 6 of Seebeck: Hero or Villain? says they were sent to Honduras at the end of 1889.
The 1890 issue was on 6 January.

If this is genuine telegraphic usage then this is indeed a nice find, but Seebeck is known to have neatly cancelled many Ecuadoran telegraph stamps for collectors, so it seems doubtful.
Image from RL. - Does anyone have more images ?

'Seal' from telegram of 1890
The 'Seal' from a telegram of 1890 shown below. This compares well with the cancel on the stamp above.
Image courtesy of HondurasStamps.com

1915? Postage stamps. Perf. 11½


1915 UPU Postage stamps. Other values are 10c, 20c, 50c, 1p — Images courtesy of Rolf Lamprecht.	Official overprint, the set was overprinted in red or black - courtesy of Rolf Lamprecht.

Two types of overprints were applied to these for use with Cablegrams.


Type 1 "Habilitado para Cablegramas".	Type 2 10 "Habilitado para Cablegramas" 10

1917? Postage stamps overprinted "Habilitado para Cablegramas".

RH1 - RH5, with Type 1 overprint The status of these stamps is uncertain. — Images courtesy of Craig A..

1918? Postage stamps overprinted "Habilitado para Cablegramas" and surcharged 10c. Perf. 11½

RH6 - RH9, with Type 2 overprint The status of these stamps is uncertain. — Images courtesy of Victor Gugliano.

John Barefoot questions the status of these, pointing out that they have only appeared on the market recently and only exist mint.
Whilst that is true, the same applies to many other stamps of Honduras and also the Dominican Republic.
Normal procedures in telegraphy generally destroy used stamps.

A US Wireless-Telegraph station list for 1906 showed nothing for Honduras.
A similar list for 1910 mentions Ceiba with no details and a commercial installation on Swan Island.
Part of the largest island of the Swan Island group was leased to the United Fruit Company for a time, but it's about 150km from shore.
However, by 1912 the port of Ceiba had three fruit companies including United Fruit, with banana plantations, all American owned.
In 1913 United Fruit Co. established two Railroad Companies and came to dominate the Honduran banana industry.
It is quite possible that United Fruit Co. provided these stamps to growers along their rail network to advise when cargoes were ready.
United Fruit Co. provided their own franks for this very purpose until at least 1913. Perhaps with a monopoly they started charging !
I do find it strange though that they should use the four lowest face values, all overprinted with 10 cents. Colour coding ?
Perhaps it aligned to the practice with their own franks of changing the colour each year.

RH #	Hisc.	Type.	Description	Mint	Used
RH1	-	1	1c purple-brown	-	-
RH2	-	1	2c rose	-	-
RH3	-	1	5c blue	-	-
RH4	-	1	6c violet	-	-
RH5	-	1	10c dark blue	-	-
RH6	-	2	10c on 1c purple-brown	-	-
RH7	-	2	10c on 2c rose	-	-
RH8	-	2	10c on 5c blue	-	-
RH9	-	2	10c on 6c violet	-	-

1917? As above but on Official stamps.

RH10, RH12, RH13 and RH14, with Type 1 overprint The status of these stamps is uncertain. — Images courtesy of Craig A..

1918? As above but with 10c surcharge.

RH15 and RH16. The status of these stamps is also uncertain.
It is likely that more of this set exist. Images courtesy of Victor Gugliano.

RH #	Hisc.	Type.	Description	Mint	Used
RH10	-	1	1c purple-brown (Black)	-	-
RH11	-	1	2c rose (Black ?)	-	-
RH12	-	1	5c blue (R)	-	-
RH13	-	1	6c violet (R)	-	-
RH14	-	1	10c dark blue (R)	-	-
RH15	-	2	10c on 1c purple-brown (Black)	-	-
RH16	-	2	10c on 5c blue (R)	-	-

1934 Lithographed by the American Bank Note Co. White wove paper. No watermark. Line-Perf. 12 x 12¾ (about 11.9 x 12.8)
Dates of 1934 and 1938 in top corners.

The 'control' takes the form a facsimile of the signature of J. M. Lopez or Alfonso Gallardo in purple.

	J. M. Lopez (Tegus area) Alfonso Gallardo (Cortes department)
Type #1 showing a 12c used, with J. M. Lopez control mark. Image from Wikimedia Commons	Types of Controls (1933-34). These were facimile signatures hand-stamped in purple. Only these two signatures have been reported out of a possible 25! Do you unknowingly have a major rarity ? Images from HondurasStamps.com

Specimens of the set seem to be mostly what is on the market at the moment.
These are from a sell-off from The American Bank Note Co.

1938 4c 1938 12c
Image of RH17a (4c) is courtesy of Rolf Lamprecht and RH19a (12c). RH18b (8c) is known postally used (on cover) in March 1936.

RH #	Hisc.	Type.	1934 Description (A.B.N. Co.)	Mint	Used
RH17	H1	1	4c brown (with JML control)	7.50	7.50
RH17a	H1a		without control	5.00	5.00
RH18	H2	1	8c scarlet (with JML control)	7.50	7.50
RH18a	-		with Gallardo control	8.00	8.00
RH18b	H2a		without control	5.00	5.00
RH19	H3	1	12c pale orange(with JML control)	10.00	10.00
RH19a	H3a		without control	10.00	10.00

Does anyone have an example of RH18a ?

Two other companies produced stamps with the same dates in the top corners. The ones above are the only ones recorded with control marks.
It is unclear when the others were printed, or which came first, but they appear to be the only ones available until 1964.
The significance of the dates is also unclear.

Date unknown. As above but lithographed by Waterlow & Sons Ltd. White wove paper. No watermark. Comb-Perf. 12½ x 13¼.


Hiscocks Type 1 Printed by Waterlow & Sons Ltd.
Image courtesy of Mustafa Kocabasi.	One of mine.	Image courtesy of Mustafa Kocabasi.

RH #	Hisc.	Type.	Description (Waterlow)	Mint	Used
RH20	-	1	4c brown (without control)	10.00	10.00
RH21	-	1	8c carmine-red (without control)	12.00	12.00
RH22	-	1	12c orange(without control)	15.00	15.00

Date unknown. As above but printed by the Thomas De La Rue & Co. Ltd., Litho.?
White wove paper. No watermark. Comb-Perf. 12½ x 13