Nicaragua: the First Airmail Stamps
Apart from the early overprints in 1929, the first airmail stamp design for Nicaragua was the well known ‘aeroplanes flying over the volcano of Momotombo’. Now the American Navy was in Nicaragua at the time for reasons to prop up the regime and they had one aeroplane a DH-4s. The radio call sign – the QSL – for the naval station was NN 1NIC and showed 2 DH-4s’s flying over the volcano as now seen in the stamp design. The picture had been created by a Lt. Boyden from a photo of the single plane and subsequently the call sign design was accepted unchanged for the airmail stamps without of course the call sign itself.
The stamps were first issued in December 1929 in 3 values and the stamp underwent numerous changes in colour and overprints throughout the next 12 or so years. Remarkably no design errors have ever been described which is remarkable for Nicaraguan philately.
In 1939 Will Rogers the American comedian visited Nicaragua and a set of 5 stamps commemorated the visit. The 4 cent value of the set shows a group of American Marines welcoming Will Rogers at the airport and LT. Boyden is in the group as the man on the far left of the group as they are standing.
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