The Dr James B. Helme Panama
Registered Covers 1881-1906

This document contains photocopies of the registered covers in the Helme collection, most of which were sold as lot 156 in the Shreve's Auction Galleries sale of the collection on 27 June 1998. Fifteen of the covers were offered separately as lots 1036, 1047, 1050, 1066, 1080, 1081, 1088, 1089, 1103, 1107, 1108, 1152, 1153, 1154 and 1155 in that sale .

The collection consisted of the following:

1. Typewritten pages from the Helme Panama Registration Exhibit which was last shown in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1985.
2. Registered covers with stamps of the second Panama issue of 1887-1888, mounted on pages from the Helme Second Panama Issue Exhibit which was last shown at CAPEX 1996. Dr. Helme died while this show was in progress. Many of the covers which were in the exhibit had previously been shown in the Panama Registration Exhibit and these have been returned to their pages from that exhibit.
   
3. Pages with additional registered covers. The pages are both typewritten and handwritten and contain notes such as MOUNT, POSSIBLE MOUNT and FOR REFERENCE. These include additional purchases made after 1985 and items not thought suitable for exhibit.

The above comprise almost all of the registered covers from this period in the Helme collection. The Fourth Panama Overprint Exhibit was sold intact. It had been shown in the 1970's and may have had a few registered covers in it. However, any significant covers were almost certainly incorporated in the Panama Registration Exhibit.

Most pages contain one cover each, but about 5% of the pages have two or more covers. The pages have been sequenced as follows:

• Pre-independence covers are in date sequence - pages 1-152*
• Post-independence covers are in date sequence by town of origin:
  • Panama - pages 153-219*
  • Colon - pages 220-292*
  • Bocas del Toro- pages 293 - 315*
  • Sona - page 316*
  • See all pages 1-316*

LARGE Files:
If you have a fast internet connection you can see the volumes in large PDF files

pages 1-60

pages 61-142

pages 143-220

pages 221-316

Individuals using this reference should keep in mind that the text on the Registration Exhibit pages was written prior to 1985 and reflected what was known to Dr. Helme at that time. Ihave added notes to pages that Iknow to be no longer correct, but users should carefully check references such as earliest date of use, largest franking or items recorded as unique against other pages or later reference works.

JIM CROSS
Editor, COPACARTA
15 October 1998

*In order to see COPACARTA by page you must install Java.

Last Updated October 16, 2012