Issue date: 28 Sep, 2018
200th Anniversary of the birth of Cosme García Sáez.
With the issue of this stamp, Correos pays a well-deserved tribute to the Rioja native Cosme García Sáez – one of Spain’s many forgotten geniuses. He was born in Logroño on 27 September 1818, to a humble family. Self-taught and with an inquiring mind, from an early age he showed great talent for mechanics and technical subjects, which years later would lead to the creation of inventions relating to weapons, printing, mail, and sailing.
He moved to Madrid at the start of the Progressive Biennium, and two years later, in 1856, presented his first three inventions: a breech-loading rifle, a portable printing press, and amechanism “for all types of ink stamps”. This last invention was adopted in 1857 by Correos to mark letters withthe dispatch date on the front and the arrival date on the back,hence its name: 1857 or Type II dater, replacing the 1854 or Type I model. Made abroad of high-quality steel, it left a mark of two concentric circles with diameters of 19.5 and 11 millimetres. In the centre the date appears, showing the day, the first three letters of the month slanted to the left, and the last two numbers of the year. At the top of the circles, the name of the town, and below, the provincial capital are shown, and in the case of a main Post Office Administration, its rank number appears at the bottom. This type of dater was used until the late 1870s.
The sale and maintenance of around 600 dater machines from 1857 to 1861 gave Cosme García the capital he needed to continue his career as an inventor. On his visit to the main Post Office Administration of Barcelona he discovered the sea for the first time, and immediately began to develop his most famous patent: a submarine. His first model was tested in the sea off Barcelona in 1858, one year before the Ictíneo I of Narciso Monturiol.
It is only fitting that Correos should introduce an innovation in a stamp honouring an inventor; rubber is used instead of paper, and the design is in relief: the silhouette of Cosme García, a sketch of the submersible under the sea, the text and the imprint of the 1857 dater, which stands out at the right side of the effect.
Rate A - €0.75. For a “standard” letter or postcard within Spain, up to 20 g.
Rate A2 - €0.85. For a “standard” letter or postcard within Spain, between 20 g and 50 g.
Rate B - €1.65. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to Europe (including Greenland), up to 20 g.
Rate C - €1.75. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to the rest of the world (except USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand), up to 20 g.
Rate D - €2.10. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, up to 20 g.