Isabella Pledging Her Jewels
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| First Day of Issue: May 22, 1992; First Issue Location: Chicago, Illinois. "By these presents we dispatch the noble man Christoforus Colon (Christopher Columbus) with three equipped caravels over the Ocean Seas toward the regions of India for certain reasons and purposes." So read a royal decree announcing the funding of Christopher Columbus' grand scheme. This great financial gamble was financed in a large part with more than 1,000,000 maravedis put up by the Holy Brotherhood of Spain. The legend that Queen Isabella pawned her jewels because the royal coffers were depleted from the war with the Moors is merely a fable. Although the Queen offered the jewels to the cause, this never was necessary. The legend served as inspiration for artist Antonio Munoz Degrain (1843-1924) for his painting Isabel the Catholic Bequeaths Her Jewels, c. 1878. Although this painting was displayed at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris, since that time, the painting has disappeared. This painting was the basis for the $1 Isabella Pledging Her Jewels commemorative stamp issued in 1893 |
