The Vinebre Local War Tax Stamps and Covers

The Vinebre covers (1937-1938)
How did a village of 700 come to issue 1 million stamps during the Spanish civil war?

Vinebre is a little town near the Ebro river, in the Catalan county of La Ribera d'Ebre. In 1937 it had some 700 inhabitants. But the name of this apparently insignificant village is a reference for the Spanish Civil War local war tax stamps collector. This town produced some of the rarest pieces available today to the collectors. In this article I'll try to systematize the classification of the covers bearing Vinebre local war tax stamps. The catalogue references will be to Galvez (G), Gomez-Guillamon (GG) and Sofima (S).

Little is still known about what prompted the Vinebre town council to issue their tax stamps, and despite no definitive proof, all seems to indicate that their issues had a speculative nature. My own investigations using numbered uncut plates have shown that nearly one million stamps were printed. To establish this, I've used as reference the highest serial number registered on the different uncut sheets I've seen. This is a brief summary of the issued quantities deducted from the multiplication of the number of stamps per sheet and the number of sheets printed:

First Issue, May 13, 1937 as per Galvez (G714/744T; GG1482/1497; S1/4phcs): four colours, perf. and imperf. sheets of 25 stamps. Highest serial number on a sheet: 600. 600x25 = 15,000. That's 15,000 stamps for each colour perforated, and 15,000 for each colour imperforated, with a total print run of 120,000 stamps only for the first issue.

Second Issue, July 19, 1937 as per Galvez, or July 15, 1937 as per Evans (1), except souvenir sheets (G745/755T; GG1498/1503; S9/11phms): two colours, perf. and imperf., sheets of 30 stamps for each colour perforated and the same for imperforated. That's a print run of 155,400 stamps.

Second Issue, souvenir sheets (G757-I/758-IIIa; GG1504/1505; S13/21) (2): blocks of four stamps per sheet, imperf. Highest serial number on a sheet: 12156. 12,156x4 = 48,624 stamps in 12,156 souvenir sheets.

Third Issue, September 9, 1937 as per Galvez and Evans, except souvenir sheets (G759/762a; GG1506/1509; S25/26s): two colours, perf. and imperf., sheets of 36 stamps. Highest serial number on a sheet: 732. 732x36 = 26,352. That's for each colour perforated, and idem for each imperforated colour. The total print run is 105,408 stamps.

Third Issue, souvenir sheets (G767/770; GG1510/1513; S27/28s): two colours, perf. and imperf. blocks of four per sheet. Highest serial number on a sheet: 24258. 24,254x4 = 97,032 stamps per colour perforated and the same for each colour imperforated. This is a total of 388,128 stamps in 97,032 souvenir sheets.

Charles H. Evans, in his reports about Vinebre souvenir sheets published in The Souvenir Issue, 1938, gives the number of 13,000 for the second issue souvenir sheets print run, and talks about 11,000 sheets of each colour, perforated and rouletted, for the third issue. He is possibly right about the second issue print run, but his estimation of 13,000 sheets per type when talking about the third issue is no doubt short, as the highest serial number I've seen in more that the double of what Evans says is the limit.

If we add up all the reported quantities, we found that, at least, 817,560 stamps were printed. And I say "at least" because I've just counted up to the highest serial numbers I've seen. This does not mean that the series could not be larger.

The little town of Vinebre did not have the capacity to generate such a large quantity of correspondence that could make this number of stamps necessary for its postal usage. So it seems clear that the whole issue had a speculative aim, and in the following pages we will see how right this supposition is.

The Covers
Almost all the surviving covers with Vinebre stamps are philatelic. I've only seen two or three that are non philatelic, but we will talk about this in a moment. There are relatively large quantities of covers addressed to well known deaers from Spain and abroad. That's the case of Manuel Galvez, who during the Spanish Civil War moved to Belgium to avoid it. But it appears the sender had given exclusivity upon the different issues to different dealers; no covers are found mixing issues, and meanwhile the first issue was addressed to one dealer, the second and third went to another, and no exceptions are seen.

The First Issue Covers
I will call "first issue covers" those covers bearing first issue stamps. The majority of them went to Mr. G. Resten, 11 bis Rue Say, Paris 9eme, France. Supposedly he was a dealer, and he got some of the rarest stamps of the whole emission: the inverted centers.

Only Sofima catalogues them (numbers 2i clear green and black; and 3i, rose and black). Nevertheless, I have an unlisted inverted center in my collection (figure 12), rose lilac and orange, and Matthew Bennett Stamps (Baltimore, USA) auctioned an ex-Florence cover with a rose lilac and orange tete-beche pair, inverted center, in their auction number 320 from October 19 & 20, 2007, lot 1318 (3) (figure 1). This is, no doubt, a unique piece.

Mr. G. Resten received the following stamps from the first issue on covers, apart of the very rare inverted centers (Gomez-Guillamon catalogue used for reference numbers): 1482 perf., 1484 perf., 1485 imperf., 1490 perf., 1491 perf., 1492 perf., 1496 imperf., 1497 perf. & 1497 imperf. All these covers were sent via registered mail, with a postage of 1.20 Pts plus the local stamps, between July 12 and 13, 1937. They all have a Paris arrival postmark on the back dated July 15 or 16, 1937, and they can have, or not, Barcelona censor mark Heller RB3.13. None of them was effectively opened by the censor.

In this group there are the only two covers I've seen with first issue stamps that I believe are the only ones that were non philatelic, despite they are addressed to relevant figures in the philatelic world. The first one was no doubt circulated through the mail on April 27, 1937 addressed to H. R. Harmer, a London stamp dealer (figure 2). It was sent registered with the correct postage of 1.20 Pts plus a clear green and black local, GG1483 perf. It was opened and sealed again by the censor, bearing Heller mark RB3.13 on the front and the back, and on the back too it has a registered Barcelona postmark dated April 28, 1937. The cover was not designed to have a nice appearance, and the local was placed on its low left corner. But this cover has something that makes it very special: it contains the sender information. There only is another cover with the sender info on its back, as we will see later. The cover to Harmer was sent by Mr. Joan Mestre, the Vinebre town council secretary. In Spain the town council's secretary is not a mere administrative worker. Although he has no legal power, he has a de facto power. In Spain it is commonly said that a secretary is more powerful than a mayor, as the mayor is voted every four years while the secretary stays in his place. So if he was addressing a letter to a London stamp dealer, he possibly was only spreading this local war tax stamps business that someone started in Vinebre. He was part of the plot, if this can be called a "plot".

The other cover that may not have been philatelic is addressed to Zumstein et Co., the Swiss stamps catalogue publisher. It is franked with 0.60 Pts, the correct postage for regular mail abroad, and local GG1482 perf. with sheet serial number 0001 on its upper edge band. It has a Vinebre postmark from May 13, 1937, and no back-stamps or censor marks. But what makes me believe that this cover never circulated by the post is the fact that it is still open, never closed, with its original gum intact (figure 3). It is hard to know, but it is possible this cover was part of an order with pre-cancelled stamps on uncirculated covers. This is of course, just a speculation, but a way to explain why the cover was never sealed.

The Second Issue Covers

Figure 1. This tete-beche cover with inverted centers, formerly owned by Denny Florence, was recently
auctioned and may be one of a kind

Figure 2. This is one of the few non philatelic covers in existence using the Vinebre locals. It was sent to a stamp dealer by Mr. Joan Mestre, the Vinebre town secretary, indicating that he was possibly in on the money making scheme behind the stamps.

Figure 3. This cover was never sealed, leading the author to believe it was never actually circulated.

Figure 4. This cover was circulated to M. Galvez in Belgium where he waited out the war. It is an example of the second Vinebre issues.

Figure 5. This cover is unique in two ways. First it was mailed from Barcelona, not Vinebre, meaning that there was no postal requirement for the sender to add the
locals. They are like a gift to the addressee.
Secondly it is one of the very few covers that has the senders return information written on the back, probably indicating this was not an entirely philatelic cover.

Figure 6. This Type 1 souvenir sheet cover is double postmarked, with both a Vinebre cancel and a train
cancel. It is likely the sender got a favour cancel in
Vinebre and then carried it the same day to a train
station outside the village where it was cancelled
again and sent on to Barcelona

Figure 7. This cover was sent to Vicenta Ventura,
who also received many of the very rare covers
franked with the Macia sheets. Despite having
a larger print run that the Type 1 sheets, this
Type 2 sheet is extremely rare on cover.

Figure 8. All of known Type 3 covers such as this
one were mailed the same day, Aug. 31, 1937,
regardless of the receiptent.