Although De Oro enjoyed a six months’ trial period at the FNMT-RCM
in Madrid in 1984, his professional career started somewhere else, in the
department of design and engraving at Graphic Arts GAEZ in Madrid, in 1985. He also
worked as a cartoonist for the magazine Salud-3, from 1985 to 1987.
But then, de Oro entered the Spanish state printers FNMT-RCM
in Madrid, where he worked himself up from assistant to artistic engraver.
Spanish engravers are not acknowledged on the stamps, and
are meant to be thought of as ‘the FNMT team’. This makes compiling a database
of their work rather tricky, although signed die proofs and other material does
help. It is therefore highly likely that De Oro’s first stamp was the Charlie Chaplin
stamp, issued in Spain in 1989.
De Oro’s work has been recognised internationally by the
Government Postage Stamp Printers’ Association, winning awards for his 2006 Spanish
stamp depicting Casa Batllo, part of the Architecture set, and his Francisco de
Javier stamp from that same year.
Between 2000 and 2003, De Oro was a Professor of Engraving
at the Casa de la Moneda School of Engraving and Design in Madrid.