Shanghai - Bud's Big Blue

1877-1893 Shanghai 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

The Chinese government allowed a number of ports ("Treaty Ports") to be opened for foreign trade between 1842-1860. Shanghai became the leading port, with British, French, and American settlements established in 1843, or shortly after that.

In 1854, the Shanghai Municipal Council was formed to administer the foreign settlements, essentially independent of Chinese oversight. The Shanghai Local Post was established in 1863, and the first "Local Post" stamp was issued in 1865. Other Treaty Ports also joined the Shanghai Local Post, and more mail was handled by them than the Imperial Customs Post and the Hong Kong Postal Agency combined.

The Scott 1840-1940 catalogue has 183 "major number" stamps issued during the years 1865-1893 for the Shanghai Local Post. Over 35 stamps were issued in 1893. On November 1, 1897, the Imperial Chinese Post Office took over the mails from the Shanghai Local Post.

For the WW classical era collector, the Shanghai Local Post stamps (1865-1896) and the other Treaty Port stamps ( Amoy 1895-96, Chefoo 1893-96, Chinkiang 1894-96, Chungking 1893-95, Foochow 1895-96, Hankow 1893-97, Ichang 1894-96, Kewkiang 1894-96, Nanking 1896-97, Wei Hai Wei 1898-99, Wuhu 1894-97) are really more specialist territory, and also rather expensive. But Big Blue devotes a page to the Shanghai Local Post stamps, and therefore a representative selection can and should (considering the history) be collected

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has (in the China section), for Shanghai 1865-1896, 183 major descriptive numbers. Of those, 14 are CV <$1-$1+, or 8%. If one raises the CV bar from $2 to $10+, 64 more stamps can be added (35%). Shanghai stamps are fairly expensive for the WW classical collector. And some are very expensive- up to CV $28,000. 

Big Blue '69, on one page, has 31 spaces for the stamps of Shanghai in the regular and postage due categories. The page is located after Seychelles in the '69, and after Serbia in the 1940s editions. The coverage is the same for all editions.

The coverage is 17%.

Only two stamps cross the $10+ threshold.

Although the coverage is objectively meager, BB manages to present a representative selection that is not very expensive. 

For more on the stamps themselves, click on the link below.

Shanghai Blog Post & BB Checklist

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Supplements

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