The Aberystwyth books of Malcolm Pryce have brought the true stories of the war between the Welsh settlers of Patagonia in their land of Y Wladfa and the Spanish speaking rebels. These few stamps span the years of that war.

In 1958 the Wilding portrait British Regional Definitives for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales were issued. There was a fourth less well known set for Welsh Patagonia, with the portrait replaced by that of a sacred llama; sacred because of the double-L of course. There were 3D, 6D and 18D values.

When the rebels over-ran the territory they defaced these stamps with slogan overprints. These are numerous and each has many variations. Only some of the commonest examples are shown below

Subsequently the rebels acquired a printing press and other equipment and introduced their own stamps featuring, in true dictator fashion, their illustrious leader General Sanchez. A short series of definitives in various colours was issued, but it is the 1c that attracts most attention. Because of a design fault some plates used for this value showed him cross-eyed. So a direct comparison with a normal stamp couldn’t be made Sanchez ordered that the normal and the faulty should be printed and issued only in tete-beche pairs and that they should never be separated. He was not one of life’s great thinkers! And because this portrait was missing his famous big hat he ordered production of a larger 1 peso stamp complete with his trademark titfer.