Chalco

Stamp Usage ½R 1R 2R 4R 8R Total
Of all not returned 0.27% 1.49% 0.21% 0.18% 0.01% 0.54%
Rank 31 20 32 28 33 25
Chalco, un real.
Second period, consignment 157-1864.
Sub-consignment 24 to Cuautla de Morelos.
Image courtesy Doug Stout.
Chalco District Info
State City pop. District pop. Distance to Mexico City Sub-numbers overprinted? Survival rate
Mexico 2500 45000 32 km. (20 mi.) Yes Above average

Most mail from the district of Chalco went through the sub-office of Cuautla (de Morelos). It's actually a bit difficult to find stamps, without sub-number, cancelled in Chalco itself! Corbett estimated that Cuautla used perhaps three times as many stamps as Chalco itself. Something like 60% of the un real stamps were actually sent to sub-offices. Bash found that very few (less than 20), if any at all, of the 4R stamps were used in Chalco, for example. Corbett found a total of 14 4R stamps, 11 of which were cancelled at Cuautla de Morelos. He did not specify where the remaining three stamps were used.

It is believed that most, if not all, of the medio real stamps were sent to sub-offices. They are all from the first period consignment, without invoice number, and in the scarce brown shade. A few of these are known without the Chalco name, used in Xonacatepec.

Due to the above mentioned facts, it should be clear that catalog prices for Chalco Eagles must apply to the ones used in Cuautla de Morelos, while those used in Chalco itself are much scarcer and therefore should command higher prices. Stamps with sub-consignment numbers are the rule in the Chalco district, not the exception as it is in most other districts.

Only four 8R stamps were sent, and none are known to exist today.

Chalco began overprinting its name sometime after the first consignment. Sub-consignment numbers applied in the first period were in a style similar to the ones used for regular overprints in the second period. It is therefore possible to mistake a first period sub-consignment overprint for a second period consignment overprint. The numbers of the sub-consignments in question are: 17-1864, 21-1864, 23-1864, 24-1864, 25-1864, 26-1864, 1-1865 and 2-1865. These were all sub-consignments of first period stamps.

Some sub-offices were so small, and therefore recieved so few stamps, that it is unlikely that any have survived.

Consignment totals
Period Year Month Day ½R 1R 2R 4R 8R
First       586 1591 1015 124 4
Second       0 1500 1500 0 0
Fourth       0 6500 2000 500 0
Fifth       0 2500 0 0 0
Total sent       586 12091 4515 624 4
Returned 1866 11 22 246 1498 986 336 0
Returned 1866 11 26 3 6 0 3 0
Total       337 10587 3529 285 4

Chalco Sub-offices

Chalco had 8 sub-offices in the Eagle period:

Amecameca, Ayotla, Cuautla (Cuautla de Morelos), Tlalmanalco, Tlayacapan, Totolapan, Xonacatepec (Jonacatepec) and Yautepec.