Last updated November 19, 2021 Revenue-Stamped Supreme Court Documents of Nicaragua's Mosquito Reservation

My thanks to Michael Schreiber of the Nicaragua Study Circle, for articles and images from Nicarao.

The revenue-stamped documents from Nicaragua's Mosquito Reservation in 1892–1893 are extremely interesting, both historically and aesthetically. There aren't many 19th-century adheshive revenue stamps that are circular and on colored paper; they make for a striking visual presentation. This page is not intended to be a definitive academic reference to these revenue stamps and documents, but rather a census of on-document examples.

If you want to learn more about the revenue stamps and documents of Nicaragua's Mosquito Reservation, there have been several articles and columns written on the subject. If anyone knows of additional articles not listed below, please contact me.

  • Alfano, Louis. Solving the Puzzle of the Mosquito. The American Revenuer. April 1977.
  • Alfano, Louis. A White Mosquito. The American Revenuer. June 1977.
  • Alfano, Louis. The Mosquito Embosseds. The American Revenuer. May 1979.
  • Jackson, Eric. Revenues of the Mosquito Reservation. The American Revenuer. February 1988.
  • Pruess, Kenneth. Another Mosquito Reservation Stamp. The American Revenuer. July–August 1998.
  • —. For the Record #040-82. Nicarao. October 2012, pp.18–19.
  • —. For the Record #040-91. Nicarao. October 2014, pp. 16–18.
  • —. For the Record #040-105. Nicarao. January 2018, p. 19.
  • —. For the Record #040-108. Nicarao. October 2018, p. 18.

There is no definitive catalogue numbering system for the revenue stamps of Nicaragua's Mosquito Reservation. What I'm going to use here is the numbering system provided in Eric Jackson's February 1988 TAR article.

This page will focus exclusively on the first two issues (the circular revenue stamps), as to my knowledge there are no reported used examples of the third issue perforated stamps printed by the Hamilton Bank Note Co.

For any of the images shown below, please do not attempt to make any comparative assessments regarding color, as the images come from a wide variety of sources, covering a timespan of many decades. In some cases, the only images are black & white renderings from old publications.

☀ = The image shown is of an item that is in my personal collection.

Let's begin with the revenue stamps themselves...

First Issue: 1892. Black on blue paper, circular, cut to shape, 40mm diameter

Cat. # Denomination Number of Documents Reported Image
1 Five cents 10 documents 5-cent denomination stamp
2 Ten cents 20 documents 10-cent denomination stamp
3 Fifty cents 2 documents 50-cent denomination stamp
4 One dollar 0 documents 1-dollar denomination stamp

Second Issue: 1893. Embossed on blue paper, circular, cut to shape

Cat. # Denomination Number of Documents Reported Image
5 Twenty cents 0 documents 20-cent denomination embossed stamp
6 One dollar 0 documents 1 dollar denomination embossed stamp

Census of Examples on Document (Currently 34 Total Documents)

Below are all of the examples on document for which I have been able to locate images. If you have any examples not shown, or better quality images, and would like to contribute to the census, please email me.

The documents appear to fall into 4 periods. Right now, based upon the relatively small number of documents in the census, we only have general dates for the 4 periods. It is my hope that as additional documents surface we can nail down the timeline.

  1. Documents that predate the use of adhesive revenue stamps, documents not individually numbered.
  2. Those signed by George S. Hodgson as clerk of the supreme court
  3. Those signed by H. H. Hodgson as collector
  4. Following the Liberal revolution of July 1893, a new document numbering sequence begins, and the documents are signed by J. P. Moody, "Acting Collector".

Click on any of the images below to open a high-resolution version in a new browser window.

Date Document Number Denomination Collector Embossed Seal Image Notes
1891-06-17 None ☀ None George S. Hodgson Yes
1891-07-07 None None George S. Hodgson Yes
1892-07-15 129 ☀ Five Cents George S. Hodgson Yes
1892-08-10 ??? Ten Cents ??? ?? Possibly a substitute clerk while George S. Hodgson was temporarily unavailable.
1892-09-05 144 Ten Cents George S. Hodgson Yes
1892-09-07 147 Ten Cents George S. Hodgson Yes
1892-09-08 148 Ten Cents George S. Hodgson Yes
1892-09-15 155 ☀ Fifty Cents George S. Hodgson Yes
1892-09-21 161 Ten Cents George S. Hodgson Yes
1892-10-04 169 Ten Cents George S. Hodgson Yes
1892-10-08 177 Ten Cents George S. Hodgson Yes
1892-11-04 200 Ten Cents H. H. Hodgson No
1892-11-05 202 ☀ Ten Cents H. H. Hodgson No
1892-11-24 216 Ten Cents H. H. Hodgson No
1892-11-29 222 ☀ Five Cents H. H. Hodgson No
1892-11-29 223 ☀ Ten Cents H. H. Hodgson No
1892-12-07 231 Ten Cents H. H. Hodgson No
1892-12-20 244 ☀ Ten Cents H. H. Hodgson No
1892-12-29 249 (?) Five Cents (x2) H. H. Hodgson ???
1893-01-09 258 (?) Ten Cents H. H. Hodgson ???
1893-01-18 271 ☀ Five Cents (x2) H. H. Hodgson No
1893-02-22 310 ☀ Ten Cents H. H. Hodgson Notd>
1893-03-30 354 ☀ Ten Cents H. H. Hodgson No
At some point between March 30, 1893 and April 19, 1893 (likely closer to the latter date), the document numbering sequence started over.
1893-04-19 3 ☀ Five Cents H. H. Hodgson No
1893-04-26 10 ☀ Five Cents (x2) H. H. Hodgson No
1893-05-12 ??? Five Cents (x2) H. H. Hodgson ???
1893-06-01 42 Five Cents H. H. Hodgson ???
1893-06-08 49 ? Fifty Cents H. H. Hodgson ???
1893-08-17 123 ☀ Ten Cents J. P. Moody No
1893-08-24 128 Ten Cents J. P. Moody No
1893-09-01 137 ☀ Ten Cents J. P. Moody No
1893-09-13 148 ☀ Five Cents (x2) J. P. Moody No
1893-09-26 157 Five Cents (x2) J. P. Moody No
1893-12-20 217 ☀ Ten Cents J. P. Moody No

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