"The South Seas are the Mediterranean of the Future"
Bud's Big BlueBud's Observations
Germans were late entrants in the colonial land-grab race.
While other European nations were claiming vast territories, Germany busied
itself with German unification. Even in the 1880s Bismarck was engrossed with
Europe and social reform, not Africa or the South Pacific. The above cartoon
shows a contented Bismarck, his smoke blinding him
to what’s happening south of the equator -- namely, representatives of other
nations grabbing land. The caption reads “The South Seas are the Mediterranean
of the Future.”
Procolonial interests eventually compelled the reluctant Bismarck
to suit up and protect German shipping and trading. During 1884, the year the
cartoon was published, Germany’s privately administered colonies, including New
Guinea, hatched rapidly. Annexation by
the German Empire followed when private arrangements failed.
German stamps with numerals and eagles were overprinted for
use while the private German New Guinea Company held authority. The yacht stamps
appeared after the German Empire took over, the Company having fizzled in 1899.
Authentic cancels are costly. The Stephansort cancel (8
March 1902, below) was struck at a trading post for German investors in the
Bismarck Archipelago. Like Bismarck himself, Stephansort no longer exists, but
the Archipelago ironically still bears his name.
Some yacht stamps are said to be forgeries, their
identifying feature being connected serifs on the word “Guinea.” Fake “G.R.I.” overprints
are common on British Occupation issues, but BB has no spaces for these. So far
as I know, none on these scans are fakes.
Cartoon credit: Wilhelm Scholz, caricaturist. “Die Südsee
ist das Mittelmeer der Zukunft,” Kladderadatsch,
13 July 1884, page 128.
Census: 14 in BB spaces, three tip-ins.
Jim's Observations
Big Blue,'69, on two lines of one page, provides four spaces for the 1897 issue, and ten spaces for the 1900 (actually 1901) issue. Coverage is 61%. A nice representative selection, marred only by no room for the 1914-19 issue. (One could stuff them into the spaces reserved for the "1900" issue, but that is a stretch.)
There are no "expensive" stamps, although the 1897 issue has three stamps in the $8-$9+ range.
German New Guinea Blog Post and BB Checklist
Page 1
Comments appreciated!
I like the design and colors of the German colonial stamps, but l'm always suspicious that the unused ones were never really intended for postal use. Most likely they never made it anyway close to the colony, and I read somewhere that Berlin kept printing them up even after the colonies had been taken over by Germany's various enemies in WW1.
ReplyDeleteYou are certainly correct - in this instance with the New Guinea 1914-19 (Wmk Lozenges) issue - as it was never placed in use. Australian troops occupied the territory in 1914. Scott acknowledges this reality, only listing unused CV.
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