British Central Africa - Bud's Big Blue

"Coat of Arms"

Bud's Big Blue
Bud's Observations

Bantu tribes settled what became British Central Africa some thousands of years ago, the British Central Africa Protectorate was proclaimed in 1889, British Central Africa became Nyasaland in 1907, and Nyasaland became independent Malawi in 1964. Malawi is one of the world’s least developed countries.

A motto “Light in darkness” (irony noted) is inscribed beneath a coat of arms on the 1895-96 stamps, although dropped from those that follow. Two Bantu men stand on tiger pelts holding European-style mining tools but, as it turned out, prospecting was bleak until the days of uranium and rare earth extraction. At the top is a tree where one might expect to see the likeness of Queen Victoria. Here my knowledge of British heraldry falters. It’s too symmetrical and frail to be a Baobab, the tree normally associated with the region. But it looks suspiciously like cannabis, a forerunner of today’s “Malawi gold”, the local name for export-quality pot.

I noticed, only when Jim pointed it out, that the space BB reserves for the 1895 1d has been occupied by a 2d and the 1d is stuck on the supplement page.

Census: seven in BB spaces, three on the supplement page.

Jim's Observations
"BCA" stamps are not found much in Big Blue collections. Why? The stamps in the Scott Classic catalogue tend to be expensive- from the $10's to $100's to 1891-95 Scott 17 ten pound red brown @ $4,000+! The seven "checklist" stamps are more reasonable at <$1-$10+. 

British Central Africa Blog Post and Checklist

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