Catalogo Especializado de los Sellos del Uruguay

By Ciardi Hnos. In Spanish, 577 pages, medium soft cover. Published by Ciardi Hnos, 2006. 2nd edition. Free digital copy available at clubfilatelicodeluruguay.com, or second-hand only.

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Reviewer: Nick Salter

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Both Kobylanski and Ciardi have published specialized catalogs in the past, but Ciardi is the one I’d recommend. The most recent 2006 edition was only printed in a run of 200 copies, so they are difficult to come by. However, the Club Filitelico del Uruguay has made it available as a series of free pdfs via its website. Shades of the early issues are covered in some depth together with some overly enthusiastic differentiations in perf varieties. For example, the 5c Blue 1868 issue has listings for perfs 10, 10.5, 11.9, 12.3, 12.5, 12.8 and 13… all individually priced. And this is on the first printing alone! This impressive level of detail is continued throughout the publication. Also noteworthy is the section on air posts with explanations of first flights, associated postal history and guide pricing. General Information about Latin America catalogs: Most of the twenty Latin American republics have produced specialized stamp catalogs at some stage. For the Central and South America collector that has relied on simplified listings, the specialized catalogs offer up a huge range of new possibilities, with a significant numbers of varieties to collect that have never made it into the mainstream publications. Before we look at each country individually, it is worth noting that both Scott and Stanley Gibbons have published “semi specialized” listings that cover all Latin American countries and go into a greater level of depth than is found in their simplified catalogs. Scott’s listings are incorporated into their Classic Specialized whereas Gibbons has separate volumes for both Central and South America. These were last published in 2007 and 2008 respectively, with no prospect of an update on the horizon. SG has sold through their existing stock so your only option is the second-hand market, unless the publisher decides to add them to their growing digital collection. Michel has a single volume dedicated to Central America (Mittelamerika 2019 is the latest edition) and a two volume catalog (Sudamerika 2020/2021) covering South America. One of the biggest benefits of a specialized catalog is that they usually contain information on print volumes per issue, an excellent indicator of comparative rarity (and thus price or value). A quick tip: the older Michel catalogs used to include print volumes in their listings and can be picked up second-hand for very little. My copy from 1988 contains print quantities although I’m not sure in which year they were dropped from the catalog. Finally, Yvert has two volumes dedicated to Central America (latest edition 2016/17) and a single volume dedicated to South America (published 2019). However, for the truly specialized listings, we need to look at the individual countries themselves. Availability Unlike the larger publishers that tend to have more frequent publication schedules, Latin American specialized catalogs are usually published very intermittently, often with long gaps between revisions or new editions coming to market. As such, many of these catalogs can no longer be purchased “off the shelf” and you will need to scour online marketplaces, auctions and specialist philatelic book dealers to secure a copy. Where a catalog is only available second hand, I have indicated the latest edition I am aware of, although earlier editions should certainly not be discounted as they will often contain most of the useful information you are after. Catalog values are usually in the local currency. Time and currency exchange rates will have played havoc with these numbers but, alongside print volumes, they still play an important part in helping you to understand which varieties have the higher levels of scarcity and to establish your own feeling for what a fair market value may be.