Big Blue 1840-1940 Stamp blog

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2017/06/stamps-of-argentina-1899-1939.html

As mentioned in the Stamps of Argentina 1858-1892 post, as I have now finished the initial survey of 1840-1940 A-Z countries, I can go back and fill in the stamp coverage with greater depth.

This discussion will continue the Argentine thread, with coverage of the 1899-1939 issues.

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2017/06/ascension-closer-look-at-stamps-and.html

The Ascension issues are perhaps a bit more interesting than most British island colonies, as the earlier issues are in a large pictorial format, and then the 1934- 1949 issues include plenty of George V & VI bi-color engraved pictorials.

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2017/07/australia-georges-kgv-stamps.html

Australia, which only became federated in 1901, was of two minds when it came to the British monarchy: either for or against.

The "Roo stamps of January, 1913 were favored by the Labor Party, who was anti-monarchist, and in power at the time.

King George V (who took an active interest in stamps) was a little puzzled, and not a little put out that he did not appear on Australia's first regular issue.

But the Liberal Party came into power, and they were much more friendly toward the monarchy.

Hence, the "Georges" or the "KGV Heads" stamps, were launched in December, 1913 with the engraved 1p red.

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2017/08/austria-1858-59-embossed-stamp-issues.html

On November 1, 1858, a new set of stamps, featuring the 28 year old Emperor, Franz Josef I, was released. There were five denominations for Austria, and five for Lombardy-Venetia.

The issues were valid throughout the Empire.

Because the stamps had embossed portrait flaws (broken loops- Type I), they was replaced fairly soon, as Type II (complete loops) had already appeared by December 1858.

And so the fun begins for the assiduous WW collector!

Great posts as always, Big Blue!

Early stamp issues of Portugal were also embossed, as well as some of the early Russia coat-of-arms issues, I think.  I am away from home at the moment, so no access to my collection to check these assertions, but I think that they are correct.

And of course, postal stationery from many countries, including the US and Canada, have embossed examples.

Now that I am back home and can check my collection and catalogue, here are some specifics on other embossed stamps:

Austria #6-16
Portugal #1-51, 570
Russia #87, 137-138*

*Scott does not indicate explicitly that these issues are embossed, but there is a note which states: "Nos. 87g, 137b, and 138b often show the eagle with little or no embossing."  So, by inference, these stamps are generally embossed.

And of course, you are absolutely right about Great Britain #5-7....  How silly of me to forget, as I actually have one of these in my collection, although it is a pretty rough copy.

Below is a scan of Portugal, Scott #570, with embossed head, issued in 1935.  In terms of which country issued the most embossed stamps, Portugal would seem to be the clear winner, with more than 50 different Scott numbers.  By comparison, Gambia has 19 different embossed issues.

It is the commemorative set "3rd Anniversary of the NSDAP in the Generalgouvernement" Michel 105-9 (Scott NB28-32).
In the centre of the stamps embossed is the "national emblem" of the GG,an eagle holding or sitting on garland of oak-leaves,
what surrounds a swastika.

Just to finish the thought on embossed stamps, it looks like early Switzerland is also a major participant.  Looking in my collection and in the Scott Classic Catalogue, it appears that #14-68, depicting the "Sitting Helvetia" are all embossed.  Scott also mentions something about an "embossed watermark", which I never noticed before.  So, it looks like Switzerland has even more catalogue numbers of embossed stamps than Portugal or Gambia.  Revised list:

Austria #6-26
Great Britain #5-7
Poland #NB28-NB32
Portugal #1-51, 570
Russia #87, 137-138
Switzerland #14-68

Revised to reflect more catalogue numbers for Austria, too.  Thanks to salentin for providing the Scott numbers on the issues from Poland.  I missed those at first because they are post-1940 and therefore not listed in my Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue.

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-austrian-1867-1884-5-kreuzer-rose.html

The Austrian 1867-1884 5 Kreuzer rose stamp: Coarse, Fine, Types, and Ears

As we know from the last Austria post, the Austrian 1867-1884 Franz Josef issues can be divided (more or less) into coarse and fine print.

But a special treat awaits those who examine the 5 kreuzer rose stamp: types and subtypes!

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2017/10/azores-1868-1911-closer-look-at-stamp.html

Portugal began issuing overprinted Portuguese stamps for the Azores in 1868, and the overprinted issues continued for the Azores until Portuguese stamps replaced them in 1931.

The plan is to broadly cover the overprinted Portugal regular issues of the Azores in two posts: 1868-1911 (this one), and 1912-1930 (next post). There won't be much overlap with the earlier Portugal post coverage, as I only reached the 1898 issue there.

The break at 1911 for this post also makes denomination sense. The 1911 and prior stamps were denominated as Reis/Milreis, while the post 1912 issues were in Centavos/Escudo.

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2017/10/TheClassicStampsofNepal.html

With the addition of more material, I've decided to re-publish the Nepal blog post.

The first 1881 to 1930 stamps? Thirty printings! No wonder early Nepal stamps are definitely specialty territory, requiring intensive study, and a very good reference collection of books! And the stamps were all printed from the original- or retouched- 1881 plates!

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2017/11/bahamas-closer-look-at-stamps-and-issues.html

The 2017 Scott Classic 1840-1940 catalogue has, for 1859-1952, 174 major descriptions for the regular, semi-postal, special delivery, and war tax categories. Of those, 62, or 36%, are CV <$1-$1+. The earliest 25 stamps of the Bahamas (1859-1883) are fairly expensive ($tens) to quite expensive ($hundreds-$thousands). No doubt, the close proximity off the coast of Florida of this British colony increases the philatelic interest for collectors from the USA.

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2017/12/bahrain-closer-look.html

. Bahrain is an archipelago in the Persian Gulf with Bahrain as the largest and most important island. During the 19th century, it was known for its pearl fisheries. It was a British protected territory, and, of course, during the 20th century, an oil rich one.

The capital was/is Manama, and the population was 120,000 in 1940, and 1,234,000 (including 666,000 non-nationals) in 2010.

It became an independent sheikdom emirate (which changed to Kingdom of Bahrain in 2002) on August 15, 1971.

All of the stamps during this classical era are either overprinted/surcharged stamps of India, or of Great Britain.

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2017/12/barbados-closer-look-part-2.html

One of the highlights of British Colonies is the George VI pictorial sets produced for many of them. Part of the reason the WW collector looks forward to the pictorial set is the contrast they exhibit vis-a-vis the relative monotony of the monarch stamps.

The Barbados George VI engraved set was released in 1950 with the new currency: 100 Cents = 1 West Indian, later Barbados Dollar.