How About A Big Blue 1840-1940 Thread?

I've been concentrating on U.S. revenues and neglecting the Big Blue for quite some time. My last count was 27,403 on May 1, 2017, and I have a file box with maybe a couple of hundred more stamps that haven't been mounted. Now may be the time to catch up. Just because I haven't posted it in years, this is the cornerstone of my Big Blue collection.

rustyc-
Beautiful margins and Maltese cancel!!

Very spiffy Penny Black! 27K is not too shabby either. 4 binders?

I'm still getting caught up on Jim's Big Blue page. (also thank you to Jim for the Minkus reviews too)

I agree with floortrader that anyone really serious about completing a Minkus Supreme would run into roadblocks. One small benefit to collecting Minkus is that I have been able to find lots of spare used binders, since most collectors are looking for more Big Blues. Yup, use Big Blues or about 15 years and you will be looking for replacements. The first think I do at a stamp show is scope out all the used binders for people I know looking for them. They all go quick.

Is US #2 still the most expensive stamp in the Big Blue? I'm thinking it is... I don't even want to think about the most expensive stamp in the Supreme. I'll look into it though.

The Big Blue doesn't have a space for the 1d black, does it?

GeoffHa ---Yes it has the picture in the first space .

Lando ----yes the U.S. #2 is the most expensive but easy to find . Trying to find some cheap space fillers can take years ,if your not willing to buy complete sets .

Here's what that spot looks like in the BB



I've seen some dreadful US Scott #2 spacefillers but they still command a pretty high price. One fun story was told to me at a club meeting where a collector traded with a stamp dealer for a US Scott #2. I can't recall what he traded though.

It looks like the Big Blue left it up in the air whether you put in a Penny Black or not. The date covers both the Penny Black and Penny Red. Printed in black and white, there is no difference between the two stamps.

The only manner in which they differ is in the colour of the printing ink. Most of the ten black plates were also used to print the red stamps and one red plate was used to print the black stamps.

The same holds for the Two Pence Blue. The one in that second spot is the stamp issued in 1841, not the one issued 6 May 1840. The 1841 issue had the white lines added below 'POSTAGE' and over 'TWO PENCE' to make it easier for post office staff that were often illiterate to discern between the 1d and 2d stamps.

Are there similar spaces to the right of these stamps, or does the Big Blue not discern between the perforate and imperforate 1d and 2d stamps either?

NSK, there are perforated stamps to the right of the imperfs. I'm just happy that the BB album did not include GB #5,6 and 7! And yes, I took the easy (cheaper) way out and inserted a #4 in the spot of the 2d Blue:

Nice page ,always neat to see a completed page .

@ray.mac,

No criticism intended. Just an observation that the caption appeared to indicate GeoffHa's remark was not far off the mark.

That is a great page you are showing. Quite some well-centred stamps that are not very easy to assemble.

A very fine Penny Black will set you back £ 150 - £ 200 and the Two Pence Blue is even more expensive. If you collect the world, spending those amounts on single stamps may proof somewhat of an obstacle to your ambitions. If you are willing to accept some imperfections, you can fill that gap and have money left to fill quite a few others. And it is how they were used. The stamps were cut from a sheet with scissors. Four good margins are rare. The post office clerk may have had other things to do than cut in the middle of the margin for 2022 Penny Black collectors.

Also, plates for no. 4 were prepared from the same die as both 1840 stamps.

In an earlier post, I read that Big Blue - rather unknown here - did not include all stamps to allow collectors to complete their collection. Your page gives a nice impression of how they did that. There is a lot to say for that. Imagine having just that one missing Blue Mauritius or Magenta British Guyana stamp!

As I mentioned in another post, I have collected WW for over 50 years in what started as a Harris 2 volume Standard Album. It has since expanded to 11 volumes and currently holds over 90,000 stamps.

In 2021 I decided to switch to Big Blue. I purchased a used album at auction with about 3600 stamps. Over the course of the past two years, I have added another 7000 from my duplicates, 4000 from a Scott Junior (very strong on British Commonwealth), 1000 from a Brown album, 2400 from Ken Relyea ebay auctions, and another 2500 from miscellaneous purchases, for a current total of about 20,750 mounted stamps. I have purchased new binders and the single album is now two. I have also inserted glassine interleaving between most of the pages. I have not yet cannibalized my Harris album, but I am considering it. I think that would net me another 5000 stamps. Also not included are another few thousand stamps from the right time period for which there are no spaces in Big Blue. These will be added later on separate pages. In general, I am not fond of albums where these are placed under other stamps or plastered all over the available white space.

To date I have completed 16 countries, but these are each represented by fewer than 20 stamps. Of larger countries some of my best showings are Nyassa and Switzerland at 99% complete, Hungary at 94% and Belgium at 93%. There are 20 countries (or perhaps stamp issuing entities) for which I have no stamps. And then there are countries like Batum where I am sure that all of my items are forgeries or reprints. For most countries my weakness is in BOB, particularly semi-postals, which is to be expected.

In addition to Big Blue volume 1, I have also purchased a couple of volume 2's, and volume 3 and 4 in the last 6 months. I think I will quit there. Again, my decision is whether to cannibalize the Harris album to fill in these albums.

I think I am at my floortrader limit and any further purchases of Big Blue volume 1's will have diminishing returns. And lastly (for now) I do not have a Syria 106c

Thanks Wildwood, it's fun to read other people's album evolutions! Cannibalizing other albums is a tough choice for me!
When I was first considering picking up my first Big Blue, around 2007 or so, there was a really inspirational web page about a collector giving advice about stating a Scott International Collection. I think the title was "plentiful and cheap" and I can't seem to find it anymore. There weren't very many webpages about Big Blues back then. I'll have to keep looking to see if I can find it.

Disclaimer: I do not wish to hijack this thread. I am merely speculating on possibilities.

I envision an expanded Deep Blue for the masses. Let us call it Final Blue.

AlbumEasy could be used to create the album, illustrated, which would mirror the current
best Deep Blue available. The AE source code would be freely available so that the end
user could edit to taste. Once a user had a decently filled page, it could be printed out.
It would be prepared one country/entity at a time, perhaps on a team basis, using one
standard for preparation.

One-sided, 8.5x11 sheets. No doubt this would be a show-stopper from the "schoolboy binder"
crowd. But, you would eliminate the need for interleaves (ever). You could have the border
you want. You could have the layout you want (tight, sparse, etc.). You could even print
it out on larger blank pages.

The key to this option is that the end user can edit to taste. It would revolutionize
"First Century of Philately" collecting.

Pipe dream?

I sincerely believe that such a thing is possible with the current tools available.

John

John - aside from the capacity to fiddle, isn't this just the pre-1940 pages from the Scott Nationals.

Have you seen what it would cost to have a worldwide collection in Scott National ,your talking about $15,000 to $22,000 without all the supplements so add another $4,000 . But there is another issue that a person needs to address , it is space and weight , my house in Chicago could not handle the weight and the larger size bookcases need to hold everything on a second floor .

I don't want my money in a set of albums that will not return a penny if my collection goes up for auction .Besides all the extra blanks pages needed in all my albums would add another 2 or 3 thousand to the cost .


I would concider myself a "DEEP BLUE " collector . For those new readers or new collectors to understand ,that is someone who collects using the Steiner Pages for pre-1940 stamps .