South West Africa - Bud's Big Blue

1923-26 South West 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

South West Africa, located between Angola and the Union (later Republic) of South Africa, was occupied in 1915, then administered by the Union of South Africa under a 1922 mandate of the League of Nations.

German South-West Africa had been a colony of the German Empire since 1884. It was invaded and occupied by South African troops on behalf of the British Crown and government in 1915 at the onset of WW I. (Of interest, there was sympathy for the German cause among the Boer population of South Africa, and a Boer Revolt (Maritz Rebellion) had to be put down.)

There is still much German legacy in South West Africa (now Namibia 1990), with 30,000 German descendants, German geographic names, buildings, businesses, a newspaper, and a radio station.

After WW I, as mentioned, South West Africa was administered by the Union of South Africa as a League of Nations Mandate territory under the Treaty of Versailles.

South African stamps were used from 1914 to 1923.

"South West Africa" stamps were introduced in 1923, using the stamps of South Africa, which were alternately overprinted in English or Afrikaans throughout the sheets.

he 2014 Scott Classic 1940-1940 catalogue has, for South West Africa 1923-1952, 217 major number descriptions.  This, of course, grossly underestimates the number of stamps to be collected, as almost all of the numbers have an English script stamp and an Afrikaans script stamp, collected either as separate singles or as a pair. Some are actually collected as a strip of three. A quick accounting would suggest there are ~ 405 stamps to be collected during this era.

Of the 405 stamps total, 273 are CV <$1-$1+, counting as singles, or 67%. (Many would be much more expensive if collected as intact pairs.)

Big Blue '69, on four pages, has 103 spaces for the 1923-1939 stamps of South West Africa. As many stamps are actually a double (English and Afrikaans stamp), the major descriptive numbers in BB are 55.

There are 171 major descriptive numbers for 1923-1939 in the Scott catalogue, and therefore coverage in BB is 32%.

There are ~ 311 individual stamps to collect for the 1923-1939 era. Coverage- using this criteria- in BB is 33%.

Expensive stamps in BB: There would be more, but I am only pricing out singles, not intact pairs.

With that, there is only one stamp (1931 Scott J90 6p gray & black) with CV $10+.

BB gives no spaces to Officials.

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

South West Africa Blog Post & BB Checklist

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Supplements

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