Southern Rhodesia - Bud's Big Blue

1924-34 Southern Rhodesia 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

Before 1923, the territory was administered by the British South Africa Company. By way of history, BSAC, which governed and administered the lands by Royal Charter from 1889-1923, named the territory north of the Zambezi  "Northern Rhodesia", and the lands south of the Zambezi "Southern Rhodesia". Both territories were called by the white settlers, "Rhodesia", after Cecil Rhodes, the founder of BSAC.

In 1923, the BSAC no longer administered the territories, and Southern Rhodesia (1924-1964), at the request of the inhabitants,  became a self governing crown colony. (To confuse things, it was known as "Rhodesia", -although not recognized as such internationally- from 1965-1979.)  With independence in 1980, it became Zimbabwe

More precisely, a 1922 referendum showed 59% of voters favoring "responsible government" rather than joining the Union of South Africa.

The capital was Salisbury (name changed to Harare after independence), and the population was 38,000 whites (4%) and 922,000 blacks (96%) in 1927.

Stamps were issued under "Southern Rhodesia" between 1924-1953. (One definitive set was issued in 1964 also.)

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Southern Rhodesia 1924-1951, 78 major descriptive numbers. Of those, 40 are CV <$1-$1+, or 52%.

Big Blue '69, on 1 2/3 page, has 51 spaces for 1924-1940 Southern Rhodesia. The pages are located between Somali Coast and South Africa, with Southern Nigeria sharing 1/3 page.

Subtracting the post 1940 issues in the 1840-1940 catalogue (17 stamps), the coverage in Big Blue is 84%- very good.

Five stamps are CV $10+-$20+

For more on the politics and the stamps themselves, click on the link below.

Southern Rhodesia Blog Post & BB Checklist

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Southern Nigeria - Bud's Big Blue

1901-13 Southern Nigeria 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

The British protectorate of Southern Nigeria was formed on January 1, 1900 along coastal Nigeria and the Niger River by combining the Niger Coast Protectorate with territories held below Lokaja on the Niger River by the Royal Niger Company.

"Southern Nigeria" stamps depicting Queen Victoria were issued in 1901.

The British chartered Royal Niger Company had held the lands along the lower Niger beginning in 1879. This prevented the Germans under Bismarck from entering and controlling the lower Niger in the 1890s.

In 1906, Lagos colony was added, and the status was upgraded to Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.

The capital was then Lagos, and the population was 7,800,000 in 1911.

In 1914, Southern Nigeria and the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria were combined to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria.

So ended the stamp issues of Southern Nigeria.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Southern Nigeria 1901-1912, 56 major descriptive numbers. Of those, 25 are CV <$1-$1+, or 45%. The higher denomination stamps are expensive, but the lower denominations have a reasonable CV for the WW classical collector.

Big Blue '69, on two lines of one page, has 14 spaces for the stamps of Southern Nigeria. Coverage is 25%.

The country coverage is located between Somali Coast and on the same page as Southern Rhodesia.

There are no required stamps crossing the CV $10 level.

Coverage could have been a little more generous, as I count eight stamps @ CV <$1-$1+ that could have been added- and, that does not include the stamps where only one stamp among several inexpensive (different watermarked) choices can be put into a space.

The "1902-07" spaces can take either wmk 2 or wmk 3 "Edward VII" stamps.

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

Southern Nigeria Blog Post & BB Checklist

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South Australia - Bud's Big Blue

1855-72 South Australia 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

The colony was proclaimed on December 28, 1836, intended for free immigrants, rather than a convict settlement. Much of the colony was arid or semi-arid, and the capital, (Port) Adelaide, was where most people settled, and to a lesser extent, along the south-eastern coast and the Murray River..

Stamps were printed in 1855 by London's Perkins Bacon, and, from the same plates in 1856, locally, by Printer of Stamps, Adelaide.

Responsible Government was initiated in 1857.

South Australia, along with six other British colonies, united in 1901 to form the Commonwealth of Australia.

Stamps for South Australia continued to be used and produced until 1912, as a common stamp for the new Commonwealth of Australia (The "Roo") was not issued until 1913. In fact, the "colony" stamps of Australia were valid on postage until 1966!

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for South Australia 1855-1912, 243 major number descriptions. Of those, 20 or 8% are CV <$1-$1+. Raising the bar to CV $10 yields 86 total. or 35%. Clearly, South Australia stamps are on the expensive side. 

In addition, many of the catalogue issues are determined by various perforations/rouletting or watermarks- so careful attention to those details are required.

Big Blue '69, on one page, has 32 spaces for the 1855-1912 stamps of South Australia. No official stamps are included.

Coverage is 13%. The coverage rate is low in BB, but, admittedly, Big Blue '69, on one page, has 32 spaces for the 1855-1912 stamps of South Australia. No official stamps are included.

Coverage is a low 13%. Admittedly, the CV prices for South Australia is high.

The '69 edition BB page is located between Somalia (Italian Somaliland) and Somali Coast (Djibouti).

Several spaces can be filled by seven choices and nine choices!

There are five spaces with CV $10+ required: one of them is CV $45- the 1870 Scott 29 1p grayish green. 

For more on the stamps themselves, as well as the checklist, click on the link below.

South Australia Blog Post & BB Checklist

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Union of South Africa - Bud's Big Blue

1910-1926 South Africa 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

The former British southern African colonies of Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Transvaal, and the Orange River Colony became provinces within the new Union of South Africa on May 31, 1910. This was enabled by the 1909 South Africa Act by the British Parliament. Of interest, Rhodesia was also offered a future admission ticket, but this was rejected by the Southern Rhodesia colonists in a referendum in 1922.

The capital was and is Pretoria (in Transvaal), although the parliament was and is in Cape Town (in Cape Province).

The Union was a self governing dominion of the British Empire, and lasted until 1961, when a republic was created with a new constitution. (After 1931 the autonomy increased, as, the United Kingdom could no longer legislate on behalf of the Union of South Africa.)

The Union of South Africa government was historically elected, formed, and "run" mostly by the white minority.

On November 4, 1910, the first stamp of the Union of South Africa was issued with a vignette of King George V, surrounded in each corner by the coat of arms of the four founding provinces.

Between 1926-1951, most stamps were issued in pairs: One with a SOUTH AFRICA script label, the other with a SUIDAFRIKA or SUID-AFRIKA script label.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Union of South Africa 1910-1952, 237 major descriptions.  And, of major importance, 147 of these descriptions are for pairs- which break down to an English single (a subtype) and an Afrikaans single (b subtype). In other words, 90 descriptions are for the (usual) one stamp, while 147 descriptions are actually a-b pairs  - or 294 stamps approximately (Some are actually collected in strips of three). Therefore, there are ~ 384 different stamps to collect, even if there are only 237 major descriptions. This is of major significance to WW collectors, as collecting separated pair singles is much less CV expensive than collecting intact pairs.

So, with the above in mind, of the total ~ 384 different stamps available, 266 are CV <$1-$1+, or 69%. This high affordability % would be much lower if the stamps are collected in intact pairs.

Big Blue '69, on four pages, has 84 spaces. Many of the spaces (54) are actually for a-b pairs, so major descriptive numbers in BB is (30 +27) 57. Coverage, then, for major descriptive numbers (pairs are one descriptive number) is 34%. (The 70 descriptive catalogue numbers after 1940 in the Scott Classic catalogue were removed for this calculation.)

For spaces, the coverage is 31%. (The 116 stamps in the Scott Classic issued after 1940 were removed for this calculation.)

Big Blue has no "Official Stamps" category coverage of the 30 descriptive numbers (60 a-b stamps) issued between 1926-1940.

If, as a collector, one is put off by the complexities of the 1926-1954 (Scott 23-67) Se-Tenant issues, I have good news: Big Blue ignores the differences entirely and presents one (double) space for each pair.

For the blog post links below, I go into detail regarding the English-Afrikaans Se-Tenant pair issues of 1926-1954 (Scott 23-67). The presentation is based on the Scott catalogue- therefore a bit simplified- but I provide some additional reference to the Stanley Gibbons.

I cover the 1/2p, 1p, and 6p denominations for this Part I post. They were initially issued in 1926 as typographed; later issues were photogravure (rotogravure).

The remaining Se-Tenant 1927-1954 issues, either engraved or using photogravure, are covered in the Part II post.

Union of South Africa Blog Post Part I & BB Checklist

Union of South Africa Part II

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Somaliland Protectorate - Bud's Big Blue

1902-1921 Somaliland Protectorate 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

The Somaliland Protectorate (British Somaliland) bordered on the Gulf of Aden in eastern Africa, and for much of its existence, was surrounded by Italian Somaliland, French Somaliland, and Ethiopia.

The British established a protectorate in the region after signing treaties with the local Somali Sultans, including the powerful Warsangali Sultanate, in 1884. The protectorate was administered from British India until 1898, and then the British Foreign office until 1905, when the administration was assumed by the Colonial Office.

Stamps of British India, overprinted "British Somaliland" were introduced in 1903.

Somaliland Protectorate stamps proper were issued in 1904.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Somaliland Protectorate 1903-1951, 142 major number descriptions. Of those, 35 are CV <$1-$1+, or 25%. If one looks at just the issues to 1938, 18 are CV <$1-$1+ out of 111, or 16%. Raising the CV bar to $4+ for issues up to 1938, yields 56 stamps total, or 50%. The WW collector might find it necessary to spend a bit more for a representative selection.

Big Blue '69, on one page, has 30 spaces for the stamps of Somaliland Protectorate. The coverage is located between Shanghai and Siam (Thailand). 

Total album coverage for the issues up to 1938 is 27%.

The coverage is the same for the 1940s BB editions, except the page is located between Siam and Sierra Leone.

There are only two spaces that require a stamp with CV $10+.

For the 1912-21 "George V' issue spaces, as usual, BB offers only one space for the wmk 3 and wmk 4 stamps.

For more on the stamps, click on the link below.

Somaliland Protectorate & BB Checklist

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