Major Players in the Black Honduras Story Thomas Canfield Pounds, M.D.: American physician who negotiated the airmail service contract with Honduran government in 1922. Sumner B. “Sonny” Morgan: An American, and the first and only pilot for Pounds’ airmail service in 1925. Julio Ustariz: Owner of the airfield in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, used for airmail flights. Ustariz acquired a single Black Honduras stamp indirectly from Pounds in 1926. Karl Snow: A business associate of Pounds who created the rare Honduran Airmail stamps by overprinting old Honduras stamps. John Luff: 1920s and 1930s Scott Catalogue editor and greatest stamp collector of his time. Luff’s reputation was tarnished by his conduct concerning the Black Honduras stamps during the 1930s. Raúl Duran Membreño: Tegucigalpa, Honduras, dentist, stamp collector and dealer, and later Secretary General of Honduras postal administration. Membreño acquired a pair of the Black Honduras stamps directly from Pounds. H. A. Robinette: Washington, D.C., stamp dealer who received a Black Honduras stamp within a small collection of early Honduran Airmail stamps. Nicolas Sanabria: Airmail stamp dealer and publisher of Sanabria’s Air Post Catalogue. Sanabria negotiated the Robinette Black Honduras sale. Marc Armand Rousso: Controversial French businessman and stamp dealer nicknamed “the Crocodile.” Purchased the Ustariz single Black Honduras at auction and claimed he left it in a taxi or restaurant by mistake. The stamp has never been found. Donald Sundman: President of Mystic Stamp Company, owner of the surviving Black Honduras, the Robinette single. Key Locations Tegucigalpa: Capital of Honduras, located 150 miles south of Puerto Cortés, the closest Atlantic seaport. Distance and the mountainous terrain between the port and capital — along with a lack of rail service — led to the creation of Honduras airmail. Puerto Cortés: Honduras’ main seaport and industrial center. Located in north Honduras on the coast of the Caribbean Sea. 2
Download PDF file