Big Blue 1840-1940: El Salvador

A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzabar

Saturday, September 27, 2025

El Salvador - Bud's Big Blue

1867 El Salvador in Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Observations

(From Jim: Bud is well, but has a lot of non philatelic obligations and responsibilities at the moment. With his permission, I will upload country pages in his complete '69 Big Blue that so far has not been shown. He might add his observations later. Enjoy!)

Jim's Observations

El Salvador ("The Savior") was part of the Spanish Empire (New Spain) until 1821, when it became autonomous as part of the Federal Republic of Central America. That union dissolved in 1841, and Salvador became a sovereign nation. Briefly, Salvador was part of the Greater Republic of Central America, along with Honduras and Nicaragua, from 1895 to 1898. (This is reflected in the inscriptions of some of the stamp issues of the time.)

Stamps were introduced in 1867.

Salvador was one of the Central American nations that gave a contract to Nicholas Seebeck for stamp issues between 1890-1899. One can still find most of the issues, and their reprints, in unused condition for close to minimum catalogue value.

Big Blue '69, has 18 pages for the stamps of Salvador, and there are 582 spaces. The only countries with more spaces in BB are Germany (762), Austria (755), France (752), U.S.* (644), Hungary (620), Russia (617), and Italy (617). (*U.S.- the number is actually higher, but I don't collect cut squares.)

The Seebeck era is well represented, as many of them are at, or close to, minimum CV.

There are 10 stamps with CV $10+-$30+, and one stamp, forced by a blank space choice, @ $125!

But that is just half of the story (and there may be a workaround for the $125 stamp).

To see the rest of the story, click on the link below.

El Salvador Blog Post & BB Checklist

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