Argentina stamps Buenos Aires year 1858 corner blocks set MNH
The year 1858 is one of the absolute most famous milestones in Latin American philately. At this time, Buenos Aires was not functioning as part of Argentina; it had seceded to form the independent State of Buenos Aires (Estado de Buenos Aires).
To assert its sovereignty and manage its own mail system, the Buenos Aires government issued its very first postage stamps in April 1858. These stamps are universally known to collectors as the legendary “Barquitos” (Little Ships).
The 1858 “Barquitos” Issue
The central vignette of these stamps features a small steamship chugging across the water, framed by an ornate border with the inscription “CORREOS DE BUENOS AIRES”. They were printed locally using a relatively primitive method.
The original April 1858 lineup consisted of four denominations, each printed in a distinct color:
- 2 Pesos (Dos Ps) – Blue: Used for the basic single-letter postal rate.
- 3 Pesos (Tres Ps) – Green: Used for heavier inland mail.
- 4 Pesos (Cuato Ps) – Red: A famous printing error exists on the master die where the word Cuatro was accidentally misspelled as “Cuato”.
- 5 Pesos (Cinco Ps) – Orange/Yellow: The highest denomination of the original set.
The Mid-Year Alterations (The “In Ps” Varieties)
By October 1858, the postal rates were lowered, creating an urgent demand for a 1 Peso stamp and a 4 Reales (half-peso) stamp. Because the Mint did not have time to engrave entirely new master plates, they did something highly unusual—they physically defaced and modified the existing 4-peso and 5-peso printing plates:
- The “In Ps” Error: To make a 1 Peso stamp out of the 5-peso plate, workers literally chiseled out the letters “C” and “co” from the word Cinco. This left the crude, shortened text reading “In Ps” (an approximation of Un Peso).
- The 4 Reales Alteration: They hacked away at the misspelled “Cuato Ps” plate, cutting off the bottom of the “P” to make it look like a lowercase “rs” (Reales).
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