Beschreibung:

HISPANO-AMERICANA] Exhibition Collection of Colonial Bolivian Revenue Stamp Paper 17th-19th century . The use of revenue stamped paper in what is now Bolivia had its origins in the Colonial period. King Philip IV of Spain, in his efforts to finance the war between Spain and the Netherlands, decreed that effective January 1, 1637 (December 28, 1638 for Spain's colonies), all legal documents should be drawn up upon stamped paper, and in doing so, Spain became the first nation to incorporate the use of such fiscal paper, a practice that subsequently became almost universal in its scope. These revenue stamped papers were an important method by which the Spanish Treasury raised money, though little benefit accrued to the Spanish colonies, though (unlike their northern counterparts) they did not rebel against the Crown. The design of the seal was based on the Spanish Coat of Arms, and initially it was changed annually, until the death of King Charles II, whereupon for almost a century the design remained almost the same, changing only to reflect the name of the current monarch. The size of the seal also varied during the earliest period; the higher the value of the seal, the larger it was. Early printings tend to be neat and readable, but later ones are often blurred or over-inked, especially those printed for colonial use. The payments were collected by the actuaries who were responsible for writing the documents. Four classes of stamped paper were used in the American colonies, including Bolivia. The first class was the Sello Primero, used on all grants issued in the Provinces by the Viceroys, Presidents, Members of the Royal Audiences, Accounts Courts, Governors, Captains General and other ministers. The value of these sheets was 24 reales. By their nature, this is the scarcest class of stamped paper. Stamped paper of the Sello Segundo class was used on the cover page of deeds, testaments, contracts etc. The value of such sheets was 6 reales. Stamped paper of the Sello Tercero class was used for judicial materials and deeds of concern to the administrative authorities in the provinces, and all the certified copies issued. The value of these sheets was one real. Sello Cuarto paper was used in all official documents issued by government initiative, as well as those concerning natives, the needy etc., and the value of these sheets was one quartillo, or a fourth of a real. After a decree issued by Charles IV, July 23, 1794, the value of the stamped paper was doubled, and only the Sello Cuarto price was maintained. This was the only rate change in almost two hundred years. All stamped paper was supposed to originate in Spain, a year in advance of the two-year period for which they were valid and current, but in many instances the paper from Spain was slow to reach the colonies. As a consequence, "rehabilitations" were used, revalidations by overprint or (on occasion) pen and ink notations of revalidation. By its nature, a collection of legal paper of this nature is not just of interest solely from a numismatic aspect, but it also contains records of all aspects of secular life in a major Spanish colony (Bolivia was a major source of Spanish mineral wealth) for a protracted period. The vast majority of these documents have detailed accompanying descriptions identifying the nature of the stamp and the nature of the document. Many of the specimens are extremely rare examples of their kind. The collection also contains a very large quantity of unsorted and undocumented post-Colonial Bolivian paper as a separate wing of the collection. C