Colombia Earlies
Bud's Big BlueBud's Observations
When its first adhesive
stamps were issued, Colombia was known as The United States of Granada (rhymes
with armada and Nevada, to be distinguished from Grenada which rhymes with
cicada). I didn’t have any of these
earlies when these scans were made, but later found one (shown above in the
middle of other newfounds). The placename Grenada pops up often enough in
Central and South America, perhaps owing to explorers coming from the Spanish
region of Andalusia, the location of medieval and present day Granada.
Political and
economic turmoil ooze from Columbia’s stamps and serious collectors benefit
from insights into these underlying
instabilities, there being too many to list here. Specialists have long sought
to sort through the philatelic rubble of sovereign states issues, consular
overprints, local posts, private carriers, fakes, provisional issues, civil
wars and revolts -- Panama’s independence providing one of many philatelic
disarrays.
Much work
remains, and generalist collectors can help. Items of uncommon historical
interest sometimes turn up in feeder albums. Sadly, I see none in the following
scans. Tell me if you spot any.
Census: 208 in BB spaces, 26tip-ins,
120 on supplement pages, six in header.
Many of the early Colombians through 1904 were issued in multiple perforation formats: imperforated, sewing machine perforation, and regular perforation. In fact Scott often, but not always, recognizes the Imperf variety as the major number; relegating the perforated and/or "sewing machine perf" to a minor number.
With over 200 stamp spaces in Big Blue, one can hardly argue that the coverage is meager. But Big Blue ignores whole categories of stamps that any collector with a passing interest in Colombia should have. The most egregious absence are the Colombian States, which was dropped by the '69 editors.
Colombia Blog Post and Checklist
Page 1 (Click and enlarge for examination)
1a
1b
1c
Page 2
2a
2b
2c
2d
Page 3
3a
3b
3c
Page 4
4a
4b
4c
Page 5
5a
5b
5c
Page 6
6a
6b
Page 7
7a
7b
7c
Supplements
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Have a comment?
Reharding the Colombian States being cut from the 1969 edition, they are also missing from the 1964 edition.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information.
DeleteThe importance of the '69 edition is either it was a recipient of cuts done by earlier editions, or the cuts were applied first in the '69. Then, since the '69, very little has changed content wise (less than 1% change) in subsequent editions.