The classic stamps of Chile-the imperforate Columbus heads- are some of the most interesting in philately. They consist of one design with four denominations that Scott divides into fourteen major numbers and nearly one hundred varieties. I often wonder at the inconsistencies between different country listings. With some country’s classics (I’m thinking Luxembourg here) Scott lists only a very few of the shades and printings of each stamp of the first issues whereas for other countries Scott seems to go whole hog and lists varieties that to my eyes could be normal color variation over the last 150 years since they were issued. I think much of the inconsistency of listing has to do with the philatelic tradition within each country. Early specialists in Chile didn’t have much to collect. The imperfs were of one design and were issued over a period of fourteen years so if early specialists wanted anything to do they had to concentrate on shades and printings. Luxembourg had a more robust stamp issuing policy in the nineteenth century so specialists didn’t have to flyspeck quite so much (I’ll be developing this “critical mass” theory of specialization in future posts). Anyway, what made me think of classic Chile was a group of old auction lots that came our way that shows just how avid collectors of this area are. These will be a lot in our auction #1090.
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