Francisco Perez (myztiko@gmail.com)
A few days ago we were able to contemplate a truly unique piece of postal history. It is a 2 centavos prepaid postcard with the effigy of Columbus (PC12). To it was added a 2 centavos stamp of 1910, with the stamp of the “coffee sachet” in red, applied in 1922, to complete the correct franking of the external mail.
The card was mailed from Cartago on January 10, 1923 and was postmarked in Trujillo, Peru, later that month. Correspondence addressed to Peru is particularly scarce, which adds to the interest of this piece.
The sender was Dr. Vicente Lachner Sandoval, an outstanding Costa Rican scientist, physician and teacher, who served as the first director of the Durán Sanatorium and professor of science and biology.
The message, of a personal nature, is a reply to a letter received a few days earlier. In it, Dr. Lachner mentions that he is the director of a school and a hospital and also indicates that his two children are studying in Germany.
Beyond its postal rarity, this card represents a testimony of the intellectual and scientific life of Costa Rica in the 1920s, as well as of the postal use of the 1922 emergency stamps, combined with earlier postal wholes. Pieces like this remind us that philately not only collects stamps, but also personal stories and fragments of the times that, together, make up the written memory of a country.
Dr. Vicente Lachner Sandoval
