Thurn and Taxis - Bud's Big Blue

1852-1866 Thurn and Taxis Northern District 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 Thurn and Taxis Princely House (Tassis) has had a long history of providing mail and newspaper courier distribution services- originally since 1290 for Italian city-states, and then spreading by the 16th century to a postal route network encompassing Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Spain, and the Low countries (now Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg). They were named the Imperial Postmasters General for the Holy Roman Empire in 1748.

The Thurn and Taxis private Post was active between 1806 and 1867.

Originally headquartered in Regensburg, it was moved to Frankfurt am Main in 1810.

Stamps were introduced in 1852. Since there were different denomination currencies in the Northern and Southern Germanic States, the stamp issues for the Northern Germanic States were in "Silbergroschen", while "Kreuzer" were used for the Southern Germanic States stamp issues.

In 1867, after the Austro-Prussian war, Prussia took over the postal system on July 1, 1867.  This, in turn, was followed by stamps from the North German Postal District on January, 1, 1868, and finally the stamps of the German Empire on January 1, 1872.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Thurn and Taxis 1852-1866 (under German States), 54 major descriptive numbers (Northern District-32; Southern District-22).

Of those, 18 are CV $1+-$2+, or 33%. All of the low value CV stamps are for unused condition. Clearly, the WW classical era collector can add some classical Thurn and Taxis stamps to the collection without much expense.

Most of the rest of Thurn and Taxis stamps are moderately expensive to expensive (CV $10+-$100+). Of interest, some stamps are much more expensive used. For instance, the Northern District 1866 "Rouletted in Colored Lines" Scott 31 2sgr blue is CV $1.50 unused, while CV $1,300 used! As one would expect, Scott has a note that, when stamps are much more CV valuable used, there are plenty of forged cancellations around.

Thurn and Taxis's stamps come in two major flavors: For the Northern District (valued in Silbergroschen), or for the Southern District (valued in Kreuzer). The districts tend to parallel each other in terms of issues. 

Big Blue '69, one 1/2 page, shared with the North German Confederation, has nine spaces for the Northern District, and six spaces for the Southern District: (Total = 15 spaces). Coverage is 28%. Many of the BB spaces, though, can have multiple stamp choices.

The coverage for Thurn and Taxis is actually located and placed as the first page of Germany. The BB Table of Contents, consequently, does not list Thurn and Taxis separately- or at all. (That goes for the North German Confederation also.)

The 40s BB editions have fourteen spaces (12 blank spaces) for the Northern District, and seven spaces (5 blank spaces) for the Southern District: (Total = 21 spaces).

Remarkably, perhaps, there are no spaces in the '69 BB that require an expensive (CV $10+) stamp. 

For more, check the link below.

Thurn and Taxis Blog Post & BB Checklist

Note: Blog post for the North German Confederation is here.

Page 1

1a

1b

1c

1d

Supplements

Page 1