Brazil 1930 – Columns and Southern Cross 

Described in the Gibbons catalogue as ‘Architrave and Southern Cross’, this stamp is the highest-value member of a set of three issued by Brazil in 1930 to commemorate the Fourth Pan-American Architectural Congress. Next to a pair of ancient pillars it shows the Southern Cross in the sky above Sugar-loaf mountain, complete with off-centre fifth star. There is a blunder, though – the cross is a mirror image of the real constellation, a fact given away by the fifth star’s positioning. This same mistake recurs in a Brazil stamp of 1940. 

Incidentally, the lowest-value member of the set, SG 487, shows a sunrise over the sea near Sugar-loaf Mountain, but it is too stylized to qualify as a true astro stamp.

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