Seychelles - Bud's Big Blue

 1890-1900 Seychelles 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

Seychelles is an 115 island archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 900 miles (1500 km) from Southeast Africa. French and English and Seychellois Creole are the the spoken languages. 

The Seychelles were uninhabited during historic times, so all current inhabitants are descendants of those that were brought to the islands. The British gained control over the French by 1810, but allowed the French settlers to remain.

The islands were attached to the colony of Mauritius from 1810 to 1903. Seychelles became a crown colony in 1903.

Stamps for the Seychelles were introduced in 1890. Prior to that, there are examples of Mauritius stamps cancelled (B64 Obliterator) from 1861-1887.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Seychelles 1890-1952, 175 major number descriptions. Of those, 78 are CV <$1-$1+, or 45%.

Of interest, there are 58 "A" prefix numbers of stamps from Mauritius used (cancelled) in the Seychelles between 1861-1887. These are expensive, are specialist territory, and I will say no more about them.

Big Blue '69, on two pages (Tobago has one line), has 56 spaces  for the Seychelles. Coverage = 40%  (I subtracted the 35 stamps issued after 1945).

There are two "expensive" stamps and two "Most Expensive" stamps (CV $45-$70) required, all from the "1938" issue. This is because of color specifications by BB, although there are less expensive stamps of the same denomination issued in the 1940s in different colors.

1939 Scott 142 75c gray blue ($45)
1938 Scott 144 1r yellow green ($70)

For more on Seychelles (including Die varieties), click on the post below.

Seychelles Blog Post & BB Checklist

Page 1

1a

1b

1c

Page 2

2a

2b

Supplements

Page 1