1919 South Russia 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
"South Russia", in southern Russia next to the Caspian and the Black Seas, was an area where the White forces under General Denikin set up a provisional government in opposition to the Bolsheviks and the Red Army during the Russian Civil War of 1918-20.
For philatelists, the "Fog of War" left tangible pieces of evidence: Stamps issued by the White forces, and used for field postal operations.
The 2014 Scott Classic 1840-1940 catalogue has, for South Russia 1918-20, 55 major descriptive numbers. Of those, 23 are CV <$1-$1+, or 42%. A representative collection should be no problem to accumulate for the WW classical collector.
The most difficult thing for the collector may be just recognizing the stamps, as they give little clue, save for the Denikin issue, of their origin. That is because they mostly consist of surcharges on 1909-17 Russian stamps. !
Even if many of the stamps do not have much catalogue value, most (all?) have been overprint forged. So Caveat Emptor- do not pay much for these stamps, unless one is dealing with a reputable source.
The most difficult thing for the collector may be just recognizing the stamps, as they give little clue, save for the Denikin issue, of their origin. That is because they mostly consist of surcharges on 1909-17 Russian stamps. !
Even if many of the stamps do not have much catalogue value, most (all?) have been overprint forged. So Caveat Emptor- do not pay much for these stamps, unless one is dealing with a reputable source.
Big Blue '69, on two lines of one page (shared with Western Ukraine), has 10 spaces for the stamps of South Russia, all for the 1919 Denikin issue. Coverage is 18%. The coverage is all or nothing: The entire Denikin issue, save for the 7r denomination, is given a space, but none of the surcharged issues are given any room. A pity, because these surcharged stamps are often left as unrecognized orphans in BB feeder albums.
There are no expensive ($10+) stamps required.
The other question one might ask is, why is "South Russia" stuck in the '69 Big Blue between a couple of "W" countries, Western Ukraine and Wurttemberg?
The '69 edition editors decommissioned "White Russia"- as their stamps no longer appeared in the Scott catalogue. Hence, "South Russia" was moved from between Saxony and Senegal in the 1940s editions to reside where "White Russia" had been located.
For more on the stamps themselves, click on the link below.
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