What Can Be Done: Uruguay is a wonderful country to collect. The classics are interesting and hard to find, but not particularly pricey. The Uruguayan first issues are called the “Suns,” and they have long had tremendous specialty interest by themselves. The later nineteenth century has many better stamps (and in Uruguayan philately a “better” stamp sells for $50 where in US or British philately it would sell for $500). There are many surcharged issues in the latter nineteenth century (There are probably more surcharged issues in Latin America from 1870-1930 than the rest of the world combined. Many of these Latin American countries were poor, and inflation and economic problems were common. It was far cheaper to surcharge stamps when rates and taxes changed than it was to create new issues. Many surcharge varieties exist as the print shops that did the surcharging work were primitive and the workers ill trained. Uruguay had its share of interesting overprint varieties, and they make for good collecting).
Twentieth century Uruguayan philately is a very nice collecting experience. The stamps are plentiful enough to make the search interesting but not overly expensive. The postal issuing policies of the Uruguayan post office have been conservative. There have never been an excess of new issues (Until about 1990 when the postal agencies of many third world countries was taken over by businesses in New York, countries that had small domestic philatelic demand generally issued few stamps as there was no one to buy them. These countries make for good collecting). Uruguay airmails are very interesting and have many better sets, and the Officials are fun too.
Specialty Catalogs: Scott is pretty good for Uruguay. By straight listings, Uruguay is not a particularly difficult country to master and for which to make a pretty comprehensive collection. The varieties are tough, though, and there are many of them. I think the Officials are particularly interesting and that the Scott catalog prices on these are particularly off base. The prices for Officials are low and yet collectors almost never have them, and they are rarely offered for sale. (Officials of most countries are often among their most interesting issues. They were always issued for definite postal purpose and never have a philatelic-issued-for-collector-demand component. Notification of their being issued was rarely made in advance, and many are surcharged at the last minute for particular purposes and in very small quantities. I’ve never seen a specialized collection of Officials of the world—it would be a great way to specialize).
Specialty Album: The Scott Specialty series is very good for most of South America, and Uruguay is no exception. Davo (a Dutch album producer) makes a good specialized Uruguay album, and there is a hingeless version of the album that I’ve seen and which is very nice. Davo is imported to the United states, so it should be easy to find.
Expense: Uruguayan philately is in the “Goldilocks zone” (ie. just right, being neither too expensive nor too cheap). The first twenty or so issues are pricey and then, too, some of the Airmails. Besides that, the country is very manageable from a price standpoint.
Availability of Material: This is the best part of collecting Uruguay. The stamps are not too hard to find, yet they sell quickly so that diligence and the ability to pull the buying trigger is necessary to making a good collection. Uruguay is one of those countries with great interest outside of country natives (which is fortunate as, with a population of only three million, Uruguay couldn’t have much of a domestic collector base).
Overall Grade: A