Ponta Delgada

1892-93 Scott 2 10r reddish violet "King Carlos"

Perf 12 1/2

Quick History
Ponta Delgada  was a Portuguese administrative district of the Azores, and consisted of the islands of Sao Miguel and Santa Maria.

The Azores- Ponta Delgada Administrative District consisted of

Sao Miguel & Santa Maria islands

Ponta Delgada- the village- was the center of the district, and became a municipality in 1546.

The Island of Sao Miguel with the City of Ponta Delgada

Ponta Delgada became an economic center with the export of citrus products to Great Britain.

Population was 52,000 in 1900.

Ponta Delgada had their own Portuguese colony stamps from 1892-1905. Stamps of the Azores were then used from 1905, and then the stamps of Portugal beginning in 1931.

1897 Scott 14 5r orange "King Carlos"

Into the Deep Blue
The 2011 Scott Classic 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Ponta Delgada 1892-1905, 34 major stamps descriptions. Of those, 24 are CV <$1-$1+, or 71%.

The Scott Classic 1840-1940 also lists 1853-1867 stamps of Portugal used in Ponta Delgada (Barred Numeral "50"). These 25 varieties are all expensive to quite expensive, and since they are really specialist's territory, I will say no more about them.

A closer look at the stamps and issues
1000 Reis = 1 Milreis

1892-93 Scott 5 25r green "King Carlos"

Perf 11 1/2

The stamps of Ponta Delgada are quite typical for a Portuguese colony, except the administrative district did not issue stamps for very long- only 13 years.

The first issue was released between 1892-93, and had the image of King Carlos as shown here. The Scott catalogue breaks the issue down to 12 major numbers and 16 bolded minor numbers. They differ by perforation, and paper (enamel surfaced, chalky). Most, but not all, of the Perf 12 1/2 stamps are given major numbers. The CV for both the major and minor varieties range from <$1-$5+ for 22 stamps.

1897 Scott 15 10r light green "King Carlos"

A 22 stamp set of the 1897-1905 design "King Carlos" was the second (and last) issue to be released for Ponta Delgada. Three of the values (5r orange, 10r light green, 65r slate blue) can also be found as bolded minor numbers with yellowish paper.

1898 Scott 31 180r slate/pinkish

The issue does have a number of stamps printed on tinted paper. Note the "pinkish" tint to the paper here.

CV for the issue is <$1-$2+ for seventeen stamps.

Deep Blue

1897-1905 Issue in Deep Blue

Deep Blue (Steiner) has two pages for the stamps of Ponta Delgada, and all major numbers are given a space.  There are 17 stamps, however, in Scott with bolded minor numbers (Perf variations, chalky or yellow paper varieties) with no designated spaces. One will need to put those on quadrilled pages.

1898 Scott 23 65r slate blue

Note "PontaDel" script on postmark

Big Blue

The '69 Big Blue has Ponta Delgada wildly out of place alphabet wise, as the 1/2 page (shared with the "Roman States" and "Rouad") is between Romania and Ruanda-Urundi. There are 17 spaces- 47% coverage.

Considering that BB is a "representative" album, the coverage is O.K.

There are no stamps with CV of $10+.

Checklist

1892-94

1,2,5,(3),

1897

13,14,15,16,18,19,21,

1898-99

17,20,23,28,29,31,

End

Comments

A) Expensive stamps ($10 threshold): None

B) (   ) around a number indicates a blank space choice.

1897 Scott 27 100r dark blue/blue

Out of the Blue

Another small region of the world where I had no idea that stamps, at one time, were printed for use.  ;-)

Note: Maps and Ponta Delgada pic appear to be in the public domain.

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Port of Ponta Delgada- Circa 1900