The Bull's Eye postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

s were the first stamps issued by Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 on 1 August 1843, having face values of 30, 60, and 90 réis

Brazilian real

The real is the present-day currency of Brazil. Its sign is R$ and its ISO code is BRL. It is subdivided into 100 centavos ....

. Brazil was the second country in the world, after Great Britain

Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain

Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain surveys postal history from the United Kingdom and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day....

, to issue postage stamps valid within the entire country (as opposed to a local issue). Like Great Britain's first stamps

Penny Black

The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was issued in Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year....

, the design does not include the country name.

The unusual name derives from the ornamental value figures inside the oval settings and the arrangement of the stamps in the sheet permitted se-tenant

Se-tenant (philately)

Se-tenant stamps or labels are printed from the same plate and sheet and adjoin one another, unsevered in a strip or block. They differ from each other by design, color, denomination or overprint. They may have a continuous design. The word "se-tenant" translates from French as meaning "joined...

 pairs that looked like a pair of bull's eyes

Bullseye (target)

The bullseye, or bull's-eye, is the centre of a target , and by extension the name given to any shot that hits the bullseye...

. The unusual naming of Brazilian stamps continued with the later issues of smaller, but rectangular design, were nicknamed

Nickname

A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

 snake's eyes, and the smaller but similar design to the Bull's Eyes were called goat's eyes (blue colour) and cat's eyes (black colour).

There were 1,148,994 30 Réis stamps printed, 1,502,142 of the 60 Réis value and just 349,182 of the 90 Réis stamp.

The current catalogue values, based on the Brazilian RHM Catalogue (2004) are:

Stamp	Mint	Used
30 Réis	US$ United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....  5,000	US$   750
60 Réis	US$ 2,000	US$   400
90 Réis	US$ 5,000	US$ 1,600

External links

• The Brazil "Bullseyes" of 1843
• Die Ochsenaugen (German
  German language
  German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
  
  )
• The first Brazilian stamps (Portuguese
  Portuguese language
  Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
  
  )
• Brazil’s Bull’s Eyes by L. N. Williams