Big Blue 1840-1940: January 2026

A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzabar

Monday, January 5, 2026

Spanish Sahara - Bud's Big Blue

1924 Spanish Sahara 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

Spanish Sahara or Spanish Western Sahara, as it was formerly known, was established in 1924 from the colony of Rio de Oro and the territory of Saguiet el Hamra.

With the Berlin Conference of 1884, and the European Powers setting up spheres of influence in Africa, Spain declared an African Coast protectorate from Cape Blanc to Cape Bojador, and informed the other powers on January 14, 1885. (The Sahrawi had nothing to say about it. ) The colony was called Rio de Oro. But the "Rio" was a wadi, there was no gold, and the landscape mainly consisted of coastal fog and desolate sandy escarpments.

(See the Rio de Oro blog post for more history- both real and philatelic.)

The borders of the Spanish claims were not well defined until France and Spain, through treaties, established limits in the early 20th century.

But in 1924, Spanish Sahara was created, and the "Tuareg and Camel" stamp issue was released.

Besides Rio de Oro and Saguiet el Hamra, the lands also included La Aguera, the Cape Juby strip and Ifni.

Spanish Morocco was administered separately.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Spanish Sahara 1924-1931, 47 major descriptive numbers in the regular and semi-postal categories. Of those, 29 are CV <$1-$1+, or 62%. From the point of view of CV, the WW classical era collector should be able to put together a representative collection without much cost. The problem for U.S. based collectors, as I've mentioned before, is Spanish colony stamps are not that prevalent in general collections. One may need to hunt for them.

Big Blue '69, on two pages has 43 spaces for the stamps of 1924-1931 Spanish Sahara. Coverage is a remarkable 91%. !!

The coverage significantly increased, compared to the 40s editions, (Then labeled "Spanish Western Sahara"), where there were only 25 spaces on one page.

The flip side to the generous coverage in the '69 ( and subsequent editions) is there are some expensive stamp spaces to fill.

Specifically...

"Tuareg and Camel" Issue

1929 Scott 11 4p chocolate ($30+)

1929 Scott 12 10p claret ($105) !!

I suspect these stamps may be a couple of the more difficult ones to find for those collectors who are attempting to complete a Big Blue. To wit, a stamp buddy, who has less than 360 spaces to fill in BB, is looking for these stamps. !

For more on the stamps themselves, as well as the checklist, click on the link below.

Spanish Sahara Blog Post & BB Checklist

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Thursday, January 1, 2026

Spanish Morocco - Bud's Big Blue

1903-18 Spanish Morocco in Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Observations

Jim's Observations

Spanish Morocco, on the northwest coast of Africa and consisting of local Berber populations, was a Spanish protectorate from 1912-1956. But Spain has had influence in the coastal area for centuries, and was one of the nations (along with France, Great Britain, and Germany) that had opened up "offices" in Morocco for mail handling beginning in (for Spain) 1903.

But with the 1912 Treaty of Fez between France and Spain, a northern strip of territory on the Mediterranean (Spanish Morocco), and a southern strip next to Spanish Sahara (Cape Juby) was delegated to Spanish protection. The rest of "Morocco", the largest section, was a French Protectorate (French Morocco).

The reason for "giving" Spain protectorate rights over the Moorish coast wasn't entirely altruistic; in fact, a bit machiavellian. Great Britain wanted a weaker power "in charge" across from Gibraltar and the strait.

Tangier was given the status as an "International City" with the 1912 treaty. (Of interest, during WW II, Spain occupied Tangier from 1940-45.)

Overprinted stamps of Spain were introduced in 1914, and Spanish Morocco received their own issues beginning in 1928.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Spanish Morocco 1903-1940, 251 major number descriptions. Of those, 205 are CV <$1-$1+, or a remarkable 82%. Clearly, Spanish Morocco is affordable indeed for the WW classical era collector.

Included in the listings are 25 stamps for the international city of Tangier. These consist of the overprinted 1929 Seville-Barcelona stamps of Spain, and the overprinted 1926 semi-postal stamps of Spain.

Big Blue '69, on six pages, has 134 spaces for the stamps of Spanish Morocco. Coverage is 54%.

The 40s editions coverage is under Spain- "Offices in Morocco".

Big Blue has no spaces needing a stamp with CV $10+.

It appears that when the '69 editors rearranged the 1933-35 section and the 1937 section, they introduced space errors -giving 151, 160, and 162 a second space.

The error is not corrected in my 1992 edition.

The '69 editors no doubt intended, under "1937", that 169, 172, 173 be given a space, (correct in the 1940s editions), but the '69 album has a second "151" image cut, and a description for "160" and "162". To correct for the error, put 169, 172, and 173 in these spaces.

For more on the stamps themselves, as well as the checklist, click on the link below.

Spanish Morocco Blog Post & BB Checklist

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