Honduras - Bud's Big Blue

1902 Post Office

Bud's Big Blue
Bud's Observations

The gringo Seebeck strikes again! And, according to a savvy blog on Honduras stamps, “many Honduran good ole boys” not only profited from his scams but also invented some of their own. These deceits were subsequently advertised by a few US dealers and catalog publishers as being authentic. Worse, the skullduggery perpetrated over a century ago continues to dupe collectors with forgeries, bogus errors, and deliberate overproductions.

What to do? Spend a lifetime grubbing out fakes? Quit collecting Honduras stamps altogether? Rip out BB’s Honduras pages? Jail the offenders, or at least their handiwork? I settled on the last option, sort of (see supplement, last page - Page 6). My “jail” of known forgeries is far from complete; probably always will be. But it will grow. No doubt some stamps in my collection, currently masquerading as authentic, need to be jailed. The double overprints and anomalies on supplement page 4 (bottom) are prime suspects.  Dunno yet.

Moreover, Honduran stamp designs sadly incline toward philatelic hagiography, that is to say, too many politicians. But that’s true of many countries’ stamps, including the US.

One good result of these shenanigans: Honduras stamps remain cheap and easy to collect. Usually $100 will buy a nearly complete set on eBay; excluding, probably, any of the lost but legendary 1925 “Black Honduras” airmail overprints on the Ulua Railway Bridge stamp (see below). Only one survives.

Fortunately, there’s a new sheriff in town. “Honduras Stamps,” a web blog, aims to expose fakes and raise “Honduras to its proper place in stamp collecting.”  See: http://www.hondurasstamps.com/. May their work prosper and their tribe increase. The photo of mail carriers (above) is used with their permission.

By all means you may use the photo.  Please ask if there is any other way I can help.
Craig Anderson

1925 “Black Honduras” airmail overprints on the Ulua Railway Bridge stamp

Rarer than the Jenny inverts and now expensive enough to have built the bridge

Ulua Bridge

Jim's Observations
Bud is right about forgeries and fakes with classic Honduran stamps.

I did a study on the reprints, fakes and forgeries of the 1896 "President Celio Arias" set.

For detail, see...

Honduras Blog Post and BB Checklist

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Supplements
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Comments appreciated!