BIOGRAPHY: Jesus Terriza de Coca


Jesus Terriza de Coca was born in Almeria in 1929. He studied engraving at the National School of Graphic Arts in Madrid from 1944. In 1947, he went to the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid wher he studied drawing. Two years later, Terriza de Coca started studying painting and engraving at the School of Arts and Crafts in Madrid.

In 1954, Terriza de Coca started working for the FNMT-RCM in Madrid. His first known work dates from 1964, when he worked on lettering of the set promoting the New York World’s Fair. A year later, his first fully engraved stamp was issued: the 30c of that year’s helping of the annual Tourism series. The stamp depicts the Santa Maria Church in Burgos. Terriza de Coca would continue to add several values to this annual set, until as late as 1987, when a 40p depicting the Palace of Soñanes  in Santander was the last one he would contribute.

1966 saw the introduction of another annual series in Spain, depicting castles, which would become such a favourite that this too ran for many years. For that first set, Terriza de Coca engraved the two top values; a 1p value depicting the Madrid castle of Manzanares, and a 3p value depicting Almansa Castle in Albacete. As with the Tourism series, Terriza de Coca contributed to the Castles series for many years during the 1960s and 70s.

After a very productive couple of decades, the number of engravings by Terriza de Coca started to peter out in the early 1990s. While his work on the stamps issued in 1990 still portrays a very fine detail, just look at his Andalucian door knocker or his contribution of the Oviedo stamp to the World Heritage Sites set, his last few engravings would once again merely be the lettering on a number of stamps. In 1994, Terriza de Coca retired.

You will find Jesus Terriza de Coca's database HERE.