Big Blue 1840-1940 Stamp blog

Interesting : I looked up my Lourenco Marques, and my album page shows this as the Allegory of "Ceres" (which fits)
Scott has it as the allegory of "Portugal"
I may have been incorrect in my appraisal in the Portuguese Guinea thread.

Luxembourg 1867 2c black "Coat of Arms"

The Luxembourg post is up! If you enjoy classic stamps from the only remaining self-governing Grand Duchy in Europe, check it out.

Bud- really good to see you here.

Thanks! 

Every blog post is different because the country and stamps are different, so no- the adventure (and comments) are always fresh. 

And Jim has made it to the M's! What is so amazing about this achievement is that the Blue International has been around for almost 100 years, and, as far as we know, this is the first time anyone has ever done a checklist. Actually calling it a checklist is an understatement considering all of the useful information Jim brings together.

Madagascar 1930 Scott 151 10c vermilion & deep green "Hova Woman"

Check out the native portraits on the classical era French colonial Madagascar stamps for the blog post just published.

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2013/09/ClassicStampsofMadagascar.html

I nominated one design as one of the top ten French stamps ever produced-seriously!

Like the robust wines of the region, the classical stamp issues of Madeira can be gulped without guilt!

Check out the latest blog post. 

Manchukuo 1935 Scott 72 3f orange "Phoenix"

Manchuria, located in northeast China and inner Mongolia, was traditionally ruled by the ethnic Manchus: hence the name. But when Imperial Japan seized the lands in 1931, the Han Chinese were, by far, the largest ethnic group, although there was also a stewing pot of Japanese (increasing during the puppet years), Koreans, Mongols, and White Russians. To add some legitimacy to the raw takeover from China, Japan formed a puppet government for Manchukuo ("Manchu State"), and brought back the "last emperor" from the Qing Dynasty, Asin-Giorp Puyi.

And Manchukuo produced artistic stamps: certainly, at least, as a propaganda tool.

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2013/10/ClassicalStampsofManchukuo.html

After the defeat of Germany in WW I, the Versailles Treaty specified that much of the Province of Posen and of West Prussia be ceded to Poland. Poland, then, would have a corridor to the Baltic Sea via access to the Free Port City of Danzig (Gdansk).

This was decided without a plebiscite (vote). But some territories, namely Alleinstein in East Prussia, and Marienwerder in West Prussia, because of a vocal German population, and the sympathies of the British Prime Minister Lloyd George, were allowed to vote whether to join Poland or East Prussia (Germany).

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2013/10/ClassicStampsofMarienwerder.html

Martinique, an island in the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea, has been an Overseas Department of France since 1946, but has been a French possession continuously since 1815. Enjoy!

bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2013/11/ClassicalstampsofMartinique.html

Lets put some more faces to this issue/s. I have fought this difficult series for many a year. Just recently I got a couple that I needed which leaves me with one (#358), on my needlist for all the major numbers, which happens to be all that Scott lists in the Classic Specialized. I haven't counted them so I don't know how it compares to your figure. These are all correctly identified. If I cannot be positive about a watermark then it does not go in the collection. I would not buy these from someone who does not have more than a little experience with them. TIP: do not ever just stick a stamp in your album after buying it without watermarking, if it's an issue. It seems more often than not that the seller cannot see well. I have got most of mine from buying many auction lots of multiple stamps.

There are areas in the world of collecting that I consider must haves and constitute a major achievement in collecting the world. It would be interesting to know what others consider issues that are worthy of a pedestal ? ? ? 

Some examples are:
Thurn and Taxis,  German Shields,  Kaiser Yachts,  Belgian Semi Postals,  Uruguay, Pegasus issues,   Argentina Officials,  Venezuela Arms/States Series 
And of course the Brazilian definitive issue.

Below are all but 2 pages that contain stamps of the series. The pages missing have only a couple stamps on each, all overprinted. I'll have to split this up in a couple posts.

I just had to redo this whole post as I was not logged in and when I hit reply it vanished

Really nice Brazil pages- and I have no doubt that the watermarks are correct. 

Mitchell- I agree, by learning the hard way. 

I obtained some Brazil definitives from the APS on-line store thinking APS members lots would be safer. But, after obtaining the stamps, I found that about half had been misidentified.

I had better luck with a Brazil specialist dealer.

Newfoundland is one of my top favorites but I'm not finding much these days and they always go for a pretty good 5 of cat.
I've never gotten to excited about the Belgian railways. I still need about a dozen of those but haven't searched them in a long time, but I need to. I rather like this one, have you got it?

Wow! You guys have some gorgeous material...I am in awe. Thank you.