What Can Be Done: Guatemala is the most popularly collected country in Latin America. It has an active collector’s society of specialists and considerable specialized literature. The philately itself is not very difficult. The nineteenth century issues are very manageable and not too expensive. The twentieth century is quite easy to collect, and the airmails and special service stamps are interesting and usually available. Specialists of Guatemala tend to gravitate to a few of the classic overprinted issues and especially postal history and covers. Guatemala is a populous country with numerous smaller towns, and trying to find covers and stamps with postmarks from these smaller towns is daunting and has provided Guatemalan specialists with a real challenge.
Like most of Central America, the airmail issues of this country are among the most interesting. All of Central America is little more than a mountain range that falls off to the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. Roads were crude and ever short distances were hard to traverse. Airmail became an early and cheap way to unite the communications of these countries, and every Central American country issued numerous interesting airmail stamps. Guatemalan airmails are one of the more affordable airmail specialties of Central America.
Specialize
d Catalogs: The Scott classic and the general Scott catalog are very good for Guatemala. There are additional specialized books and catalogs as well as an excellent journal that can be found from the International Society for Guatemala Philately.
Specialized Albums: the Scott Specialty series for Central America is excellent.
Availability of Material: Guatemala was one of the most prosperous and developed countries in Central America. In addition, Guatemala had large agricultural export business throughout the nineteenth century which necessitated a large American and European business presence in the country. Many of theses expatriates collected stamps, and at one time, Guatemala City, the capital, boasted several stamp dealers. Guatemala has continued to be popular today, and many listings of Guatemalan stamps can be found. There are few rarities, and a diligent collector could pretty well complete the country for not much more than a thousand dollars.
Expense: As major collecting countries go, Guatemala is quite inexpensive.
Overall grade B