United States, Scott #5703, used(o), 2022, Mariachi Guitarist with moonlight scene and Mexican village in the background, second issue celebrating Spanish Heritage month; the issue honors Mariachi Music, its cultural value to Mexico, and its rise in popularity in the United States; this style of music developed in rural Mexico where the large estates (haicendas) used music, in a style known as ‘ranchera’ with lively rhythms encouraging robust dancing and using almost exclusively stringed instruments, to entertain the workers in very much a participative performance, but then, slowed down and interspersed with a love song, ‘la serenade’, a song from a young man to his sweetheart, a tradition rooted in a culture where young males were kept apart from young females; following the Mexican Revolution, when the estates were broken up, many of these musicians became traveling performers setting up and playing in busy town plazas where their traditional upbeat folk songs and love songs were blended with polkas, waltzes, marches, and modern music, featuring themes of machismo, love, betrayal, death, politics, revolution, but never leaving country life; early mariachis dressed in peasant garb, usually white, though since the early 20th century, mariachi bands typically have worn the attire of the cowboys of Jalisco, the ‘traje de charro’, matching uniforms with tight, ornamented trousers, boots, wide bow ties, sombreros, and short jackets; Mariachi has long been considered a uniquely Mexican sound and one of the nation's new international symbols; stamps were issued as forever stamps with a counter value of 60 cents, issued with non-water soluble self-adhesive gum, serpentine die cut simulated perforations: 10¾, lithography printed by the Banknote Corporation of America (BCA). multicolored, Scott Supplemental Catalog Value: 40¢, nicely centered, black-inked, horizontal, wavy line cancellation across the top half of the stamp and over into the main image, good perforations, this stamp was soaked from the mailing envelope using the Bestine solvent and placed on a piece of black trimmed card stock for an attractive album mounting; mounting and centering warrants a selling price premium. This is not a 'bait-and-switch;' the stamp you see will be the one you receive.
Please review my terms of sale. If you are not ordering from the United States, there is a $US1.55 additional postage expense that needs to be added to the price of the stamp. If you are ordering from the United States, there is only a $US0.68 added postage expense. Also, if you make additional purchases from my offerings, they can all go in one mailing at no extra shipping expense for the added purchases. I will send the purchase by US first class mail, since the relatively low value of the stamp does not warrant signature or tracking mail. Hence the buyer assumes risk of loss or non-delivery. I will keep a scan of my mailing to verify that the correct mailing address was used. If not satisfied, return the stamp to me at your own expense, and I will refund the cost, but not my postage to you. If the stamp is not as described, I will refund the cost and reimburse you for postage both ways.
By way of reference, I am an American Philatelic Society (APS) member (195176) and an American Stamp Dealers Association )ASDA) member. Thank you for looking, and I hope this is the perfect stamp to fill that gap in your collection.
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