St. Thomas & Prince Islands - Bud's Big Blue

1869-1895 St. Thomas & Prince Islands 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

St. Thomas and Prince Islands (Sao Tome and Principe) are located about 190 miles (300 kilometers) off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa in the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean, and about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from each other.

The islands have been under Portuguese control since 1470. Sugar cultivation, using the labor of slaves from Africa, was prominent in the 16th century. By the 17th century, Sao Tome became a transit point for the slave trade. In the 19th century, cocoa was the major export, and remains so today.

Big Blue '69, on four pages, has 140 spaces for the stamps of this colony. Coverage is 33%.

No surprises in the coverage, and there are no stamps that cross the CV $10 threshold.

The Ceres issue presented in the BB checklist originally had the (now "old") numbers in the 2011 catalogue. By 2015, Scott had parsed the Ceres into 1914 Perf 15 X 14 chalky paper, 1920 Perf 15 X 14 ordinary paper, & 1922-26 Perf 12 X 11 1/2 ordinary paper & glazed paper, all with major numbers. The checklist now shows both  "old" and "current" numbers (See checklist link below).

St. Thomas & Prince Islands Blog Post & BB Checklist

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Supplements

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