Cundinamarca

Cundinamarca is a department of Colombia, one of the original nine states of the "United States of Colombia".

Most of Cundinamarca is in the Eastern Cordillera[?], just south of Boyaca, bordered by the Magdalena River[?] on the west, reaching down into the Amazon River basin[?] on the east, and bordering on Tolima[?] to the south. The federal district of Bogota is nearly completely surrounded by Cundinamarca territory, and indeed was formed by carving up Cundinamarca; between this and other divisions, the present department of Cundinamarca is much smaller than the original state.

Principal towns in Cundinamarca include Facatativa[?], Girardot[?], Soacha[?], and Zipaquira[?].

As with the other states, Cundinamarca had the right to issue its own postage stamps, and it issued stamps with the state's coat of arms, starting in 1870 and ending in 1904. Many of these are still readily available. There is one rarity, 2-real provisional stamp[?] from 1883, although there is some doubt as to whether it was sold to the public, since no used copies are known to exist. Likewise, authentic uses of any Cundinamarca stamp on cover are not often seen.