CUBA

Cuba , officially the Republic of Cuba (Spanish: República de Cuba ), is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean meet. It is east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. The area of the Republic of Cuba is 110,860 square kilometers (42,800 sq mi) (109,884 square kilometers (42,426 sq mi) without the territorial waters). The island of Cuba is the largest island in Cuba and in the Caribbean, with an area of 105,006 square kilometers (40,543 sq mi).

Cuba is an archipelago of islands located in the northern Caribbean Sea at the confluence with the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. It lies between latitudes 19° and 24°N, and longitudes 74° and 85°W. The United States lies 150 kilometers (93 miles) across the Straits of Florida to the north and northwest (to the closest tip of Key West, Florida), and the Bahamas 21 km (13 mi) to the north. Mexico lies 210 kilometers (130 miles) across the Yucatán Channel to the west (to the closest tip of Cabo Catoche in the State of Quintana Roo). Haiti is 77 km (48 mi) to the east, Jamaica (140 km/87 mi) and the Cayman Islands to the south. Cuba is the principal island, surrounded by four smaller groups of islands: the Colorados Archipelago on the northwestern coast, the Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago on the north-central Atlantic coast, the Jardines de la Reina on the south-central coast and the Canarreos Archipelago on the southwestern coast. The main island, named Cuba, is 1,250 km (780 mi) long, The second-largest island is Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) in the Canarreos archipelago, with an area of 2,200 km² (849 sq mi).

The first stamps of Cuba were issues for the Spanish West Indies, for use in both Cuba and Puerto Rico, issued in April, 1855. These stamps are referred to as the "Antilles". At first, Isabella II had her portrait on all regular issues until her abdication in 1868. Cuba had separate stamps from 1873. Postage stamps continued to be labeled only "ULTRAMAR" (overseas) until the word CUBA appeared for the first time in 1877. The portrait of Alfonso XII adorned the stamps from 1876 until 1890, some three years after his posthumously born successor, Alfonso XIII, assumed the throne under Regency status, and had his portrait instead.   Postal cards for Cuba were printed in Spain and sent to their colonies in 1878. With the war of independence for Cuba, the United States intervened from 1898 to 1902. At that time, stamped envelopes and newspaper wrappers became available to the residents of Cuba.

The provisional stamp overprints on U.S. stamps initially consisted of a 1 centavo on a 1¢ Franklin, 2½c on a 2¢ Washington, 3c on a 3¢ Jackson, 5c on a 5¢ Grant, 10c on a 10¢ Webster and a 10c overprint on a U.S. special delivery stamp. It turned out that the 2½¢ stamp was in error as the postage rates had recently changed. They continued to use the 2½¢ stamps anyway and sold them for and valued them at 2¢ so as not to waste the large printing. Later a 2¢ overprint appeared.

Later in 1899, the United States printed a series of six stamps for Cuba. They are known as the "Alegorías Cubana" or Cuban allegory stamps. As with the adhesive stamps, the first provisional stamped envelopes were also overprints on U.S. stock. There were eight different U.S. envelopes that were overprinted "CUBA." and "1c. (or 2c.) DE PESO." U.S. rule of Cuba ended on May 20, 1902 when Cuba became an independent Republic. 

The Cuban government of the República de Cuba issued stamps from its inception in 1902 until Fidel Castro assumed control on January 1, 1959. The first issue was on September 30, 1902. There were no stamps yet printed by Cuba, but they had many of the little used 3¢ allegory stamps of 1899. They choose to overprint these stamps to meet the 1¢ postal rate demand by overprinting a large numeral "1" on each stamp with the legend "UN CENTAVO" "HABILITADO" and "OCTUBRE 1902". Cubans continued to use the allegory stamps of 1899. In 1905, four of the five regular rate allegory stamps were reprinted for Cuba in the United States, but this time the printer made minute changes in each of the stamps before the reprint so as to make them distinguishable. 

The last stamps of the Republic before the revolution were the Christmas 2¢ and 4¢ issues of December 16, 1958. Judging by the Scott catalog numbers, the Republic had issued 380 different regular postage stamps, 194 airmail, 27 special delivery, 34 postal tax, and 10 postage due stamps. With the coming of the Cuban Revolution, the stamps of Cuba proliferated in number.  Topical stamps abound, as do postal cards. About thirty aerograms have been produced.  The postal stationery Mother's Day cards number have been produced in numbers of 20 or more per year and now number in the hundreds.

These covers sent by  Miroslava from Czhech republic, during her vacation trip in Cuba. She specially requested for postmarks and sent all covers as registered too with the help of her friend from US. The covers took a long time to reach in my hand. Miroslava posted these covers in January 2016, I received them in my hands on April 04, 2016. The postmark is really disappointed , she requested several times for clear postmark but lazy and irresponsible staff of Cuban Post didn't care.