A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzabar


A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzibar... Now what is between? For the world wide classical era philatelist and stamp collector, a country specific philatelic survey is offered by the blog author, Jim Jackson, with two albums: Big Blue, aka Scott International Part 1 (checklists available), and Deep Blue, aka William Steiner's Stamp Album Web PDF pages. In addition, "Bud" offers commentary and a look at his completely filled Big Blue. Interested? So into the Blues...

Friday, December 9, 2016

Austria - Bud's Big Blue

Austria in Bud's Big Blue
Bud's Big Blue
Bud's Observations
BB affords more spaces to Austria than any other country except the United States and Germany. Thankfully, the stamps are cheap and easily collected. However, when scavenging feeder albums, I sometimes find that a single inexpensive stamp of a larger set goes missing, and it’s difficult to fill that space without buying the whole set at auction or from a dealer. That aggravates me. My pique is ameliorated when I realize that feeder albums also turn up stamps with very high CVs, such as the mint orange Scott #1 (page 1, first stamp; a used yellow #1 Is on page 1 of the supplements). So I accept the trade-off between aggravation and delight.

Austria SON cancels are plentiful, except for the high inflation era. Particularly interesting are the early cancels from cities that, because of national boundary changes, are no longer part of Austria. See the Avio cancel, supplement page 1.

I notice that BB’s Austria pages are printed out of order (1919-22 precedes 1917-1919); perhaps a glitch peculiar to my album. (My album has the same order - Jim)

Even though BB provides excellent coverage for Austria, many stamps remain for supplement pages.

Comments and questions, as always, are welcome.

Census: 755 in BB spaces, 32 tip-ins, 252 on supplement pages.

Jim's Observations
Big Blue has really come through with the coverage of Austria! The postage dues, for instance, are mostly complete. It helps of course that Austria's stamps for the most part are cheap, often cataloging at the minimum 25 cents. Also, many issues are less expensive mint. Big Blue gets an A-. Missing in the '69 & '97 editions are the Military post stamps. Also Big Blue in some cases has lopped off the end of a series of quite inexpensive stamps because, I can only guess, the page was filled.

My BB at the time of this post is missing 11 stamps - mostly in the Italian Occupation, and Offices in Crete and Turkish Empire area.

Big Blue Blog Austria and Checklist
Big Blue Blog Austria- Lombardy-Venetia and Checklist

Note: Lombardy-Venetia is Page 23c

Page 1 (Note: Click and enlarge the scan image for examination.)

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Page 23 (Includes Lombardy Venetia)

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23c - Lombardy Venetia

Supplements
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Page 12 (Lombardy Venetia Supplement)

Page 13

Have a comment?

9 comments:

  1. Several months have passed since these scans were made and, as might be expected, I've made changes in that interim. Several stamps with toned edges have been replaced and new SON cancels have been added. The most changes, however, are in the Italian Occupation and Lombardy-Venetia supplements where some 60 new stamps have been added (supplement pages 10 and 11).

    I'll post comments from time to time about such changes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. With all the feeder albums involved, there must be a lot of remounting.
    Do you have a large supply old peelable hinges since the modern ones are no good?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, I’m doing a lot of mounting, almost entirely on the supplement pages since the regular BB pages are scanned as they are in my album without any remounting.

    Of all mounting systems that have come and gone, I still prefer old hinges for previously hinged stamps (used and mint) and Kleer Guard for mint-never-hinged stamps, which I attach to pages with hinges. Hinges need to be both peelable and secure. Here’s my rating:

    +++ Dennison (note spelling) Sadly no longer available except maybe on ebay.
    ++ Foldo (older yellow bag) Availability? I haven’t tried the “improved” variety in white bags.
    0 Fasto
    - Super Safe
    -- Dennisen (note spelling, it’s a knock off on Dennison)
    -- G&K Supplies
    --- Prinz (excessive glue!)

    All of those with minus rating are impossible to peel without damaging the stamp or page. Manufacturers sometimes say to moisten lightly or “let partly dry”, but how one is to do that when mounting many stamps is beyond me. I use the hinges with minus ratings only for attaching Kleer Guard.

    The mounting systems using plastic coverings of various sorts all have problems, too, especially for world-wide collectors. But that’s another topic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Bud

      I was reading the comments because of your recent comment addition, and realized, I don't know about Kleer Guard. What is it?

      Delete
    2. Kleer Guard stamp mounts are (were?) made by the Prinz company in Germany and distributed in the US by Harco. All of the Lombardy stamps shown above, including the covers, are in Kleer Guard mounts. They have, as implied in the name, a clear background. Scott currently markets similar, also made by Prinz.

      Delete
    3. O.K., I get it. My Scott clear mounts, which are made by Prinz, must be similar or the same then.

      Delete
  4. Nice work Bud! I really like how on the supplemental pages you mount covers along with the stamps. I was inspired recently by a staggering 19th C only album currently on Ebay for $375K(2nd most expensive if you sort by all listings under worldwide lots) where 3 generations of collectors had mounted covers along with the stamps in the albums. Sometimes they even mounted the covers over stamp spaces. It brings the collection to life almost like an exhibit when you can see the stamp in real use. I'm now doing that with my 19th Century Brown.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I try to use only small covers, but sometimes a large one really shows what really needs to be shown. I don't think what I'm doing measures up to exhibit quality, but some of the individual pieces are worth a glance.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Now over a year later, Ebay still lists the same or a very similar 19th century album (a Schaubek) that Mason mentions above, with a recently reduced price of $236,000.00. Selling large expensive collections intact, as the owner stipulated in this case, is difficult.

    ReplyDelete