File:15¢ Columbus Landing.jpg

English: Type I. This stamp was issued for a short period of time before Type II was put into use. For this reason, it is the more difficult of the two varieties to locate. Very costly for the time, Queen Isabella of Spain "invested" the equivalent of $14,000 to finance Christopher Columbus's first expedition in search of a shorter trade route to India. Columbus came nowhere near the North American coast. However, the Columbian Exposition in Chicago and this series of stamps were the first to celebrate his landing on the island of San Salvador. Columbus was helped at the Spanish royal court by four influential members: Fr. Diego de Deza of Salamanca (later Archbishop of Seville); Juan Cabrero, royal chamberlain; Luis de Santangel, King Ferdinand's keeper of the privy purse; and Raphael Sanchez, royal treasurer. Cabrero received Columbus's first letter announcing his discovery of a new world.