A Petro-Stamp is Born: Production
of Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo Petroleum Stamps
of 1938-1947 (Scott C84-113, C235, C254)

© Peter A. Scholle, 2000

On very rare occasions, collectors are able to obtain all or most of the materials that led to the production of a petroleum stamp. Typically that only occurs when the archives of a security printer are auctioned to the public, and then only with permission (or neglect) on the part of the postal service of the stamp-issuing country. One of the classic events of that type was the dissolution of the archives of the American Bank Note Co. (ABNC), producer of a number of beautifully engraved petro-stamps for the Venezuelan and Colombian governments in the 1930's. The archives contained not just specimen copies of the printed stamps, but also the correspondence, the original art works used to design the stamps, test prints and proof engravings of all or part of the designs, and similar production items. Many such items will be illustrated in this article — most are from a series of Venezuelan airmail stamps of 1938 (and later) that depicted oil wells in Lake Maracaibo.

Let's look first at the finished product — a few examples from this multi-stamp set (PHOTO). Some of these issued stamps are themselves quite scarce. For example, only 5,000 copies of the highest denomination, the 20 bolivares stamp (PHOTO), were produced in the initial printing on yellow-toned paper; an additional 20,000 copies were printed at a later date on bluish paper.

The production of these stamps began with a 1937 request from the Venezuelan government for the expedited creation of the stamp series that included three different stamp designs, only one of which depicted a petroleum scene, for a total set of 18 stamps. The production and printing order for these steel-engraved stamps was logged in by ABNC on 22 October 1937 (PHOTO) with the interesting note at the bottom, "all models and die proofs will be approved by us; you may prepare them in any way you see fit which will save the most time as they are wanted in a great rush". In other words, none of the designs would be sent to Venezuelan government approval but would be produced and approved solely by ABNC employees. Even the model for the oil field vignette (the central scene) on the petro-stamps was derived from a commonly available photographic postcard of Lake Maracaibo — that postcard (PHOTO) was kept in the ABNC archives and was included in the auctioned materials. Because all the stamps of this airmail set had to include a modern (for 1938) DC-3 airplane, the postcard was photographically enlarged and an airplane and clouds were added to the design (PHOTO) to produce a model from which the engravers would work.

Another part of the design, the coat-of-arms of Venezuela, posed additional problems. A request must have been made in mid-November 1937 for the Venezuelan consulate to send an official copy of the arms to serve as the engraving model, particularly with respect to the correct colors (and thus the shading on the single-color engravings). A Venezuelan magazine illustration, supplied by the consulate, led to the production of a hand-colored model (PHOTO) with a notation at the very top as to the source of the colors. That, in turn, was used to produce a shaded and properly scaled model from which the actual engraving work was done (PHOTO). It is interesting to read the later handwritten notation on the color version (PHOTO) that states " use print received 11/6/39 on future work" indicating that there may have been some problem with the coat-of-arms or its coloration. The more correct version of the colored coat-of-arms came from a copy of the "Official Gazette of the Republic of Venezuela" of 1930 (PHOTO) that was supplied by the Foreign Department archives of ABNC on 11/6/39, along with a letter (PHOTO) stating that the cover of that journal illustrates "the present Venezuelan coat of arms in color, as authenticated by regulations passed on September 1, 1930". That implies that the design of the arms had not changed since the time of the initial stamp production, but rather that the executed composition or shading had not met Venezuelan standards or that future multi-colored versions were anticipated that might need exact color rendition.

Once each of the individual stamp elements was finalized, the next stage in the production process was to create a stamp-sized photographic proof or model of the completed design. That was completed on 12 November 1937 (PHOTO), just three weeks after the order had been logged in by the ABNC.

The steel engraving work progressed relatively quickly as well. By 3 December 1937 the engraving of the frame design (including the coat-of-arms) that would be common to all the stamps in the set had been completed and internally approved. The work had been completed by three engravers as noted by proof of the engraving at that stage, printed on thin paper and glued onto an index file card (PHOTO). According to the notations on that card, Warrell Hauck did the main engraving with some completion work by H. Osborn and scroll work by C. Mabie. The engraving of the oil field vignette may have proceeded simultaneously with or may have immediately followed the frame production. In any case, the earliest dated proof of the combined frame and vignette that I have seen is dated 17 December 1937 (PHOTO). That master die proof is printed on heavy card stock with central embossing from the printing process; the stamp has blank denomination fields and no printed die number.

From there, individual steel master dies were produced for each stamp in the series, a process that again moved with remarkable speed. Proofs were produced for each denomination in the intended color and with the completed design, including the value designations. These proofs were created on heavy card stock with a central embossed print area and most, but not all, have an accompanying large die number printed above the stamp. Each such proof also has a handstamped "FOR APPROVAL" and a series of initialled and dated "OK's" indicating that they were produced to check for engraving errors and other problems. The dates on these proofs vary with the denomination and range from 24 December to 28 December 1937, showing that this rush work continued right through the Christmas season. Illustrations are provided here for four such proofs, although examples exist for each denomination: the illustrated examples are the 15 centimos violet (PHOTO); the 1.95 bolivares blue (PHOTO); the 3 bolivares green (PHOTO); and the 20 bolivares orange (PHOTO). In addition to the "approval proofs", an additional set of "index proofs" was produced, probably at a slightly later date, for the ABNC central files. These were printed on thin paper and then were cut and glued onto heavy card stock. Two examples of such proofs are shown here (although again, they exist for all denominations): the 3 bolivares green (PHOTO); and the 20 bolivares orange (PHOTO). The overall progress of the production of all the steel master dies wes tracked on a work sheet (PHOTO) that was also part of the ABNC files.

After approval of all the engravings, printing plates were produced in early January of 1938 as noted on the plate tracking sheet in the ABNC files (PHOTO). The initial press runs then were made for the stamp set and the stamps were delivered to Venezuala by 24 January 1938, only three months after the initial order was placed with ABNC. The following petroleum-related stamps were then released by the Venezuelan govenment in February of1938:

15 centimos slate violet (Scott C84)
70 centimos carmine rose (Scott C93)
1.20 bolivares orange (Scott C99)
1.95 bolivares light blue (Scott C103
3 bolivares blue green (Scott C108)
20 bolivares red orange on yellowish paper (Scott C113)

The actual printed stamps were represented in the ABNC files only by full sheets of perforate and gummed stamps overprinted in red with the word "SPECIMEN" and hole-punched to prevent unauthorized use, and some of those specimens are illustrated here (PHOTO).

By April of 1938, the 15 centimos stamp had already been reprinted and re-released in a new, dark blue, color (Scott C85). The ABNC file/index proofs (PHOTO) show that the same master die was used for the blue version as for the earlier violet edition. In May of 1939, two more stamps were released in new colors: the 1.20 bolivares green (Scott C100), and the 3 bolivares olive gray (Scott C109)— a comparison of these issues can be seen in specimens from the ABNC archives (PHOTO).

In late November of 1939, three entirely new denominations with the standard petroleum vignette were released (PHOTO):

30 centimos violet (Scott C88)
90 centimos red orange (Scott C96)
5 bolivares red brown (Scott C111)

The production of these new denominations required production of new dies and plates and thus also new master proofs. A black-line proof was produced for the 90 centimos denomination (PHOTO) and normal issued-color die proofs were also produced for all three stamps — only the color proof for the 90 centimos stamp is shown here (PHOTO).

The World War II period saw a cessation of new issues in this series, but the stamps were widely used for wartime correspondence (PHOTO). In addition, a few varieties were created in Venezuela and overseas. All the stamps in this series were pin perforated vertically or horizontally with the initials G.N (which stands for Gobierno Nacional and designated the stamps for official government use only). Examples of such vertical and horizontal pin perforations on the 3 bolivares olive gray stamp are depicted here (PHOTO). Other varieties were created by "specimen" overprinting of stamps distributed to Universal Postal Union members or for other administrative purposes (PHOTO).

After the war several new items were released. A second printing of the 20 bolivares denomination in orange red on bluish paper, illustrated earlier, took place (listed as Scott C113a until 1975, but now undistinguished from C113, although it is tacitly acknowledged as C227a). This time 20,000 copies were produced as compared to 5,000 in the first printing. However, 18,000 copies of the 20 bolivares stamp were overprinted "J.R.G./Aereo/Vale Bs.20/1946" (Scott C227) to commemorate the first anniversary of the Revolutionary Government Junta (J.R.G.). The vast majority of those overprints were produced using the second (blue paper) printing, but a very small number also have been found on the first (yellow paper) printing and these are highly prized rarities. A pair of second printing overprinted stamps with large and small date varieties are depicted (PHOTO). A few copies with inverted overprints are also known.

In 1947, the last two stamps in this series were produced — a 5 bolivares scarlet stamp in February (Scott C235) and a 5 bolivares olive green stamp in October (Scott C254)(PHOTO). Index die proofs exist for both the scarlet (PHOTO) and olive (PHOTO) stamps; indeed, the same master die was used for both printings and both were planned on the same date. Interestingly, a third index proof exists from the same period. It shows a brown-colored version of the 3 bolivares denomination (PHOTO) with die number 78100; the same die that was used for the previous printings. To the best of my knowledge, this stamp was never produced or released and no specimen versions were found in the ABNC files. Thus, the imperforate brown stamp on the index proof sheet may be unique and provides a fittingly unusual conclusion to this story of the production of a stamp set that spanned a war-filled decade and left behind a set of records so far unmatched by any other petroleum stamps.

Acknowledgements:

My thanks to those who provide information and illustrations of this largely unique material. I hope that if you find errors of fact or omissions, or if you simply want to discuss or trade petro-stamps, you will contact me at: scholle1@nmt.edu

You can find additional information in an excellent article by José de los Ríos titled "The gem of Venezuelan oil stamps" that appeared in the Spring 1985 issue (whole #23) of "The Petro-Philatelist", the journal of the Petroleum Philatelic Society International.

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Last revised: 29 April 2000