Big Blue 1840-1940

A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzabar

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Vatican City - Bud's Big Blue

1929-31 Vatican City in Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Observations

(From Jim: Bud is well, but has a lot of non philatelic obligations and responsibilities at the moment. With his permission, I will upload country pages in his complete '69 Big Blue that so far has not been shown. He might add his observations later. Enjoy!)

Jim's Observations

Vatican City, a walled enclave within the city of Rome, consists of 110 acres, and a population of 800. It is the smallest state in the world.

The "State Religion", naturally, is Roman Catholicism, and the everyday language is Italian, although the Holy See uses Latin for official documents.

Vatican City, as an independent city-state, came into existence in 1929 through the Lateran Treaty between Italy and the Holy See. This explains why stamps for Vatican City have only been issued since August 1, 1929. (Prior, Italian stamps were used on Vatican City mail.)

And collecting the religious themed stamps of Vatican City is big- really big- among the adherents of Christianity, and Roman Catholic Christianity, in particular. It is one of the major sources for financial support of the Vatican City State budget.

The Holy See (Sancta Sedes: Latin) has existed back to early Christianity, and has 1.2 billion members throughout the world

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized catalogue has, for Vatican City 1929-1940, 109 major number descriptions. Of those, 63 are CV <$1-$1+, or 58%. Although Vatican stamps are popular among collectors, there are plenty of inexpensive examples to be had by the WW collector.

One of the stamp ironies of Vatican City, is, although the Roman Catholic Church is one of the oldest historical institutions extant, stamps for Vatican City proper were only issued beginning in 1929. There is a lot of past history of the Vatican - essentially a good deal of western civilization history- that is missing. Of course, the stamps from 1929 on do celebrate much of the church history, but as commemoratives of long ago events.

True, there are stamps of the Roman States, which were under the direct government of the See of Rome, produced between 1852-1868

Big Blue '69, on three pages, has 91 spaces for the 1929-1940 stamps of Vatican City. Categories include regular, air post, special delivery, semi-postal, parcel post, and postage due. Coverage is a decent 83%.

There are sixteen spaces that require CV $10+ or higher stamps. Of those, five are in the "Most Expensive" (CV $35+) category, ranging from $42+ to $60.

For more on Vatican City and the stamps themselves, as well as the BB checklist, click on the link below.

Vatican City Blog Post & BB Checklist

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Supplements

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Friday, May 29, 2026

Tobago - Bud's Big Blue

1885-96 Tobago in Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Observations

Jim's Observations

Tobago is a small island (40 km long and 10 km wide) in the tropical West Indies just off the coast of Venezuela, and close to the sister island of Trinidad. And, yes, the name comes from the same Spanish and Arawakan root word- "tabaco"-as Tobacco. Originally, the Island Caribs inhabited the island.

Christopher Columbus sighted the island in 1498, and subsequently the Dutch, English, Spanish, Swedish, and French fought over/occupied Tobago until the British received possession through the treaty of Paris in 1814.

When the British were there earlier (1672-74), a plantation culture was developed. African slaves were brought in for labor, and, by 1777, rum, cotton, indigo, and sugar were being exported.

After 1814, the sugar trade was in ascendancy.

Slavery was abolished in 1838

In 1841, the British established a branch post office in Scarborough, the capital, for overseas mail.

In 1879, Fiscal stamps were introduced, and were also used provisionally for postal use.

In 1880, postal stamps proper were issued. The population at that time was 18,051.

But the sugar trade collapsed, partially because of hurricanes, but mostly because of the financial ruin of the agriculture and shipping industries. The independent colony of Tobago became subordinate to Trinidad in 1889 (Colony of Trinidad and Tobago). By 1898, the island was fiscally broke and in debt, and it became a ward of Trinidad on January 1, 1899.

Stamps of Trinidad were used until issues inscribed "Trinidad and Tobago" appeared in 1913.

By 1908, limes, cocoa and coconut were being successfully grown.

The new Trinidad and Tobago constitution of 1925 established Tobago as one of the seven constituencies.

Trinidad and Tobago became independent in 1962. In 1976, the country became a republic within the commonwealth.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Tobago 1879-1896, thirty-one major descriptive numbers. Of those, nine are CV $1+-$3+, or 29%. One should be able to obtain a small representative collection at a modest price. However, if one wishes an example of the 1879 issue (six stamps) or the 1880 issue (five stamps), the minimum CV is $75 and $35 respectively.

Big Blue '69, on one line of one page shared with Seychelles, has five spaces. Coverage is 16%.

One can be forgiven if one thinks that Tobago is not represented in BB. Not only is Tobago wildly our of place alphabetically in BB, the Table of Contents in the '69 BB does not even list the country!

My 1992 four-part BB also does not list Tobago in the TOC, not surprising as the '92 edition is essentially the same as the '69 BB.

The 40s editions of BB have the same coverage, shared also on the same page as Seychelles. But, at least, Tobago is listed under the TOC.

The coverage in BB is from the relatively inexpensive 1882-96 issue. Consequently, there are no expensive ( CV $10+) stamps.

For more on Tobago, click on the link below.

Tobago Blog Post & BB Checklist

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Monday, May 25, 2026

Timor - Bud's Big Blue

1885-1895 Timor in Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Observations

Jim's Observations

Situated in the Malay Archipelago, off the northern coast of Australia, the mountainous and coastal mangrove swamp island of Timor was divided between Portuguese Timor (Colony founded-1702), and the Dutch East Indies by the Treaty of Lisbon in 1859. The colonial powers agreed to split the island between them: the Portuguese inhabited the eastern section, while the Dutch colonized the western part. The border was finalized in 1914 - it is still the official border between modern day East Timor and Indonesia.

The Portuguese mainly ruled through liurai (local tribal chieftains). Timor remained somewhat of a backwater trading post for the Portuguese.

Stamps were introduced in 1885 by overprinting the stamps of Macao.

In 1910-12, a Timorese rebellion was put down by bringing in troops from Mozambique and a gunboat from Macau, resulting in 3,400 deaths for the East Timorese.

Although Portugal was neutral in WW II, the island was attacked by Japan in the Battle of Timor in 1942. Ultimately, there were 40,000 to 60,000 civilian casualties.

After WW II, Portugal reclaimed the colony, while Dutch West Timor was absorbed into Indonesia, which became independent as a nation in 1949.

The Portuguese began a withdrawal program in 1974-75, and the territory was declared independent.

But then Indonesia promptly invaded. However, the United Nations did not recognize the annexation. The territory continued to be occupied by Indonesia until 1999.

Finally, the former Portuguese colony became independent as East Timor in 2002.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Timor 1885-1938, 296 major number descriptions. Of those, 134 are CV <$1-$1+, or 45%. There are enough inexpensive stamps for the WW collector to have a nice grouping.

As is usual, the stamp designs of Timor should be familiar to collectors, as they share the same designs as the other Portuguese colonies.

Big Blue '69, on four pages, has 143 spaces for the stamps of Timor. Coverage is 48%. The coverage, in my view, is actually not bad for a representative album,

The 40s BB editions have the same coverage.

There are no expensive stamps ($10+) required for the BB spaces.

For more on Timor, click on the link below.

Timor Blog Post & BB Checklist

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Thursday, May 21, 2026

Uruguay - Bud's Big Blue

1877-80 Uruguay in Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Observations

Jim's Observations

Uruguay, the second smallest country in South America, is located in the temperate southeastern region, and is bordered by Argentina and Brazil.

The country first became independent in 1828 with British support.

Government stamps were issued in 1859, resembling the private carrier stagecoach (Diligencia) stamps of 1856-58 (Soles de Montevideo (Montevideo Suns)).

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Uruguay 1856-1944, 843 descriptive numbers. Of those, 578 are CV <$1-$1+, or 69%. Clearly, Uruguay is an inexpensive country to collect, in general, for WW collectors.

A fly in the ointment is the earlier issues can be found forged. The genuines were printed with lithography, which is also the playground of the counterfeiters.

Also, the earlier "Carrier" issues (1856-58: Scott 1-6) are expensive (CV $120-$2,700+), and are really specialist's territory.

Big Blue '69, on nine pages, has 298 spaces for the regular, postage due, parcel post, special delivery, semi-postal, official, and air post categories. Coverage is 35%.

Coverage is adequate, but not generous.

BB only has two stamp spaces that require $10 CV.

For ore on the stamps themselves, click on the link below.

Uruguay Blog Post & BB Checklist

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