Issued to mark the quincentenary of Columbus's 1492 landfall, which the Bahamas claims as its own — the prevailing scholarly consensus places first contact at San Salvador (Watling Island), though that identification wasn't officially formalized by the Bahamian government until 1986. The broader 1992 commemorative boom produced dozens of competing issues across the Caribbean and Latin America, making national differentiation something of a scramble.
The Bahamas had particular standing to issue this piece, given San Salvador's status as the probable first landfall in the archipelago Columbus called "Las Islas de Bajamar."
Issued to mark the quincentenary of Columbus's 1492 landfall, which the Bahamas claims as its own — the prevailing scholarly consensus places first contact at San Salvador (Watling Island), though that identification wasn't officially formalized by the Bahamian government until 1986. The broader 1992 commemorative boom produced dozens of competing issues across the Caribbean and Latin America, making national differentiation something of a scramble.
The Bahamas had particular standing to issue this piece, given San Salvador's status as the probable first landfall in the archipelago Columbus called "Las Islas de Bajamar."