Scott Catalogue Numbering Question

I have an odd question:

Is there a country where the Scott catalogue numbers with prefixes (B, C, etc.) have gone into the thousands?

In other words, is there a country where the Scott numbers are B1000+, C1000+, etc., or have they all managed to stay to 3 digits (plus the prefix) so far?

Thanks in advance for your help!

-- Dave

I suspect South American airmails are your best bet.

I'm not at home right now to check the full catalogue, but I am pretty sure Venezuela and Nicaragua have hit the four-digit mark with airmails. Probably others, too.

...and yes, I know Nicaragua is not South...Latin American airmails, perhaps?

Cjd: You are correct on both counts! Just checked, and both Nicaragua and Venezuela have airmails that turn the odometer past 1000.

This was very helpful. Thanks very much!

-- Dave

Germany is past B1000 in the Scott listings. There may well be other countries in Europe that have issued more than 1000 semi-postal stamps as well, they're far more common than in the English-speaking nations (hats off to New Zealand in that regard).

Ryan

Ryan: Thanks -- this is also quite helpful!

For a little programming project I'm doing, I can see that I can't make some simplifying assumptions about back-of-the-book items.

If anyone knows of other countries as well, I'd be interested in them.

Many thanks!

-- Dave

Belgium has over 1100 semi-postal stamps.

Regards, Robert

I could never understand why Scott lists airmails and semi-postals
separate.

Like what is the purpose ? They are all legitimate stamps used for postage.
Other catalogues like Michel don't have this. Don't know if SG
does it.


I guess it's another Scott quirk like assigning major numbers to minor plate varieties like they did for most of the classical period.

The answer to the question of why Scott seperated them from regular stamps is because years ago {they weren't sure about stamp trends at that time}.You got to remember people were just collecting airmails or semipostals ,so the seperation made sense .I remember seening albums just for airmail stamps and there was a seperate catalog for airmails also. Its hard to predicte how a hobby will turn out 5 or 10 years down the road .
Just as many collectors are now collecting pre-1940 stamps so Scott started the CLASSIC SPECIALIZED CATALOGUE .

Even so, it still don't make sense especially since the US didnt even
issue any semi-postals until a few years ago.

Even the term semi-postal is a misnomer since they moved the mail
as well as any regular stamp in addition to having a surcharge.

Trainwreck: Thanks also for this info! Much appreciated!

Hi

Stanley Gibbons and I believe Yvert & Tellier combine "regular" and "air mail". Also, the old Minkus catalogs, the Venezuela Blanco and Colombia Barriga and Temprano catalogs do the same. From other catalogs I have seen I believe that Scott is the only one to separate them. However, they now tend not to if they are part of a set.

Some catalogs even list back-of-the-book items together, i.e.; listings in chronological order.

Jerry B

The Sakura general Japanese catalog, and the specialized JSCA catalog, go the other way: they break down stamps into even more detailed categories:

- definitives
- commemoratives
- prefecturals
- national parks
- new year's
- airmails
- plus occupation, military, etc.

Thanks again to all for the info about the 4-digit back-of-the-book categories! (Please feel free to add any others!)

-- Dave
- airmails

There use to be a special AirMail Catalog call Sanabria covered world wide more detail and carried a lot of what we now refer to as Cinderella material!

Chinese catalogues often do the same thing. My Yang's catalogue for the People's Republic of China is bewildering in all the different catagories used for the listings. They have Back of the Book listings separated like the Scott catalogues do - air post, military post, postage due, money order stamps. But the "Front of the Book" stamps have a whole pile of categories of their own, often inscrutably named.

Commemorative Issues
Special Issues
Cultural Revolution Issues
New Series With Number
New "J" Commemorative Issues
New "T" Commemorative Issues
1992-2009 New Series Issues
Z Series
PJZ Series

Absolutely baffling!

Ryan