Big Blue 1840-1940: Venezuela

A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzabar

Sunday, June 7, 2026

Venezuela - Bud's Big Blue

1879 Venezuela 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

Venezuela declared independence from Spain in 1811 (although did not secure it until 1821 under El Libertador, Simon Bolivar ), and from Gran Columbia in 1831.

Although the 1830 Constitution declared a democracy, in practice, Venezuela was an oligarchy, with caudillos (dictatorial strongmen) competing for power throughout the 19th century. The military served to protect the president, and to maintain order.

Stamps for the Republic were introduced in 1859.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Venezuela 1859-1944, 511 major descriptive numbers. Of those, 301 are CV <$1-$1+, or 59%. Clearly, Venezuela is an inexpensive country for the WW collector.

There are also 23 locals listed in the catalogue for Carupano and Guayana. They are fairly expensive. Interestingly, BB has spaces for four stamps (CV $10+-$30) from the 1903 Guayana "steamship" issue.

Just as Chile is known for their numerous Christopher Columbus vignette stamps, so Venezuela has many Simon Bolivar portrait stamps.

Most of the earlier Venezuelan stamps were printed by lithography, also the playground of forgeries.

Big Blue '69, on nine pages has 251 spaces for the regular, air post, official, and registration categories. Coverage is 49%.

Big Blue begins coverage with the 1879 "Escuelas" Bolivar issue. Hence, BB avoids the more expensive 1859-1876 lithographic issues (Scott 1-48). Fifteen of those stamps are CV <$1-$4+, and could have been included.

There are eleven stamp spaces that require a CV $10+-$30 stamp.

For more on the stamps, the forgeries, and the checklist, click on the link below.

Venezuela Blog Post & BB Checklist

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