Austria - Bud's Big Blue ~ CookingFood.Org

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.)