1929-31 Vatican City 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
Vatican City, a walled enclave within the city of Rome, consists of 110 acres, and a population of 800. It is the smallest state in the world.
The "State Religion", naturally, is Roman Catholicism, and the everyday language is Italian, although the Holy See uses Latin for official documents.
The "State Religion", naturally, is Roman Catholicism, and the everyday language is Italian, although the Holy See uses Latin for official documents.
Vatican City, as an independent city-state, came into existence in 1929 through the Lateran Treaty between Italy and the Holy See. This explains why stamps for Vatican City have only been issued since August 1, 1929. (Prior, Italian stamps were used on Vatican City mail.)
And collecting the religious themed stamps of Vatican City is big- really big- among the adherents of Christianity, and Roman Catholic Christianity, in particular. It is one of the major sources for financial support of the Vatican City State budget.
The Holy See (Sancta Sedes: Latin) has existed back to early Christianity, and has 1.2 billion members throughout the world
And collecting the religious themed stamps of Vatican City is big- really big- among the adherents of Christianity, and Roman Catholic Christianity, in particular. It is one of the major sources for financial support of the Vatican City State budget.
The Holy See (Sancta Sedes: Latin) has existed back to early Christianity, and has 1.2 billion members throughout the world
The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized catalogue has, for Vatican City 1929-1940, 109 major number descriptions. Of those, 63 are CV <$1-$1+, or 58%. Although Vatican stamps are popular among collectors, there are plenty of inexpensive examples to be had by the WW collector.
One of the stamp ironies of Vatican City, is, although the Roman Catholic Church is one of the oldest historical institutions extant, stamps for Vatican City proper were only issued beginning in 1929. There is a lot of past history of the Vatican - essentially a good deal of western civilization history- that is missing. Of course, the stamps from 1929 on do celebrate much of the church history, but as commemoratives of long ago events.
True, there are stamps of the Roman States, which were under the direct government of the See of Rome, produced between 1852-1868
One of the stamp ironies of Vatican City, is, although the Roman Catholic Church is one of the oldest historical institutions extant, stamps for Vatican City proper were only issued beginning in 1929. There is a lot of past history of the Vatican - essentially a good deal of western civilization history- that is missing. Of course, the stamps from 1929 on do celebrate much of the church history, but as commemoratives of long ago events.
True, there are stamps of the Roman States, which were under the direct government of the See of Rome, produced between 1852-1868
Big Blue '69, on three pages, has 91 spaces for the 1929-1940 stamps of Vatican City. Categories include regular, air post, special delivery, semi-postal, parcel post, and postage due. Coverage is a decent 83%.
There are sixteen spaces that require CV $10+ or higher stamps. Of those, five are in the "Most Expensive" (CV $35+) category, ranging from $42+ to $60.
For more on Vatican City and the stamps themselves, as well as the BB checklist, click on the link below.
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