Don't cry for Argentina - 03 c National Heroes - Series II

National Heroes, Series II "República"

The second series of the National Heroes emission of Argentina, is an extention of the first set.
Because the first set was still in use, some of the 1st set stamps were printed when the second set came out.
As said before, set I and set II are different from the later issued stamps, as they bare the text 'República Argentina'.

This second set comes in two versions, line rouletted and with regular perforation.
The french term 'percé' is often used for this kind of stamp perforation.

percé or pierced perforation

In set I, there is a 5 centavos stamp, with perforation, in set II the stamp comes rouletted.The 'percé-set' exists in 5, 8, 16, 20 and 24 centavos.

8 centavos - percé

16 centavos - percé

24 centavos - percé

Some of those stamps were issued with perforation 12 in 1877-1887; and reissued in 1884, slightly modified : 2, 8, 24 and 25 centavos - 2 and 8 modified.

24 centavos - with perforation

The 8 centavos looks identical to the 5 centavo (except for the face value of course) and comes rouletted in set IIa and later perforated in set IIb.The perforated version of the 8 centavos was reissued in 1884, and so there are 3 versions of this stamp.

8 centavos - National Heroes set II

The difference between the first and the second issue of the 8 centavos, lies in the slightly modified upper corner.
The original design of 1877 (12 million issued stamps), show a double line on the top of the coat of arms, above the left 8.

8 centavos (1877) type I

In the renewed version of 1884, the double line is gone (22 million stamps)

8 centavos (1884) type II

on top : Type I - below type II

Also the 2 centavos green (issued in 1877) was reissued in 1884. Both versions were issued on 50,000 sheets of 100 stamps.
The difference between type I (1877) and type II (1884) is minor, and lies in the size of the image, and is dark green in type I, yellowish green in type II.

Type I - 2 centavos 1877:
image is 19.9 mm by 24.9 mm
Type II - 2 centavos 1884:
image is 19.8 mm by 25.3 mm (so slighty taller)
The catalogue values type I in mint condition a little higher then the later type II - used they are rated equally.

2nd Series - 2 centavos

to be continued ...