Front:
IL
CAGO
1992
UNTTED STAVES
22
1992
60607
ISAHE
DCIN GHER JEWELS
Back:
ISABELLA PLEDGING HER JEWELS
First Day of Issue: May 22, 1992
First Issue Location: Chicago, Illinois
“By these presents we dispatch the noble man
Christoforus Colón (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 Christo-
pher 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 Muñoz
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 paint-
ing was the basis for the $1 Isabella Pledging Her Jewels
commemorative stamp issued in 1893.
No. 92-23
First Day of Issue Postcard Collection
©1992 Fleetwood®, Cheyenne, WY 82008-0001
Original painting Queen Isabella of Spain Pledging Jewels by Gherman A. Komlev
after Antonio Muñoz Degrain.
Teetwood