Turks islands - Bud's Big Blue

1882-94 Turks Islands 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

Two groups of islands in the northern Caribbean (The larger Caicos Islands and the smaller Turks Islands), separated by the Turks Passage (2,200 m or 7,200 ft deep), have always been associated with each other. But Grand Turk Island was the first island colonized by Bermudians for the salt industry in 1681. Cockburn Town became the capital in 1766, and Grand Turk Island- sometimes referred to historically as "Grand Cay" - remains the cultural and historical center of the islands group.

Stamps were issued for the island groups under "Turks Islands" from 1867-1894, while "Turks and Caicos Islands" labeled stamps were issued after 1900. As the Scott catalogue has separate discrete sections for each era, I will focus on "Turks Islands" here.

As mentioned, the Turks Islands were noted for salt, which was mined by raking salt among the shallow waters around the islands, and that industry drove the initial settlement in 1681. After the American War of Independence, British loyalists were the first settlers in 1783 on the Caicos Islands.

The Islands group became part of the Bahamas in 1799. (Bermuda and the Bahamas had both desired the islands for themselves, and "ownership" was disputed between the two throughout the 18th century.) The Turks and Caicos became a separate colony in 1848, under the supervision of Jamaica. Then the Islands group was annexed to the Jamaica colony in 1873. They remained a dependency of Jamaica until 1959.

The Islands group has never had much of a population. Even today, Grand Turk Island has only 4,000+ people, while Providenciales Island, with the largest population in the Caicos, has 33,000+.

Presently, the Turks and Caicos is a British Overseas Territory, and, since 2002, the inhabitants have full British citizenship.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Turks Islands 1867-1894, 58 major number descriptions.

Of those, eight stamps are CV $2-$5. (14%)

The catalogue for Turks Islands, based on CV, can be divided into two sections.

I) The 1867, 1873-79 & 1881  "Queen Victoria" stamps (all the same A1 design) for Turks Islands, and then the many surcharged stamps of 1867-79 based on these "Victoria" A1 issues (43 stamps total), are all quite expensive ($50+ minimum-$hundreds-$thousands). This is clearly an arena for the wealthier specialist.

II) 1881-1894 issues- A1, A2, A3 "Victoria" designs (15 stamps) are generally much more modest in cost ($2-$10+ for 11 stamps).

Postage stamps inscribed Turks and Caicos Islands were then used after 1900. 

Big Blue '69, on two lines, shared on the same page with Tahiti and the beginning of Turks and Caicos Islands, has seven spaces. All of the spaces are from the less expensive 1882-1894 era.

There is one "most expensive ($35)" stamp- the 1883 Scott 44 1p orange brown. Since BB specifies the "orange brown" color for the 1p, by rights, this expensive stamp should be put into the space. But there also was an 1889 Scott 45 1p carmine lake (perf 14), and an 1887 Scott 54 1p carmine lake (perf 12) issued. Perhaps they could be candidates for the Turks Islands blank spaces in BB.

Of interest, the 40s BB editions also have an 8th space, which is a blank space, under the 1894-95 year heading. The blank space in the 40s editions is puzzling. Both the current 2014 Scott catalogue, and the 1947 Scott catalogue only show one 1894 stamp (Scott 57) available, and there are no further entries after 1894. What would one put in there?

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

Turks Islands Blog Post & BB Checklist

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