Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We have an interesting story of an adventurer who got around.
At first glance, todays stamp looks European, perhaps a West German stamp from the 1950s. If you could touch it, a great tactile part of stamp collecting, you would feel that the paper used for the stamp is of a lower quality. This might send your guess toward Spain. This would be getting warmer. It is actually a stamp from Venezuela, albeit one honoring someone born in Europe.
The stamp today is issue C715, a 1960 issue honoring the 100th anniversary of the death of Augustin Codozzi. It has a face value of 25 centavos and is part of a six stamp issue in various denominations intended to be used for air mail. It has a value of $1 in its cancelled condition.
Augustin Codozzi was born in Lugo, Italy in 1793. After attending a military academy in Italy, he served with Napoleon’s army. After the defeat of Napoleon and infused with the ideals of the French Revolution, Codozzi was off to South America. He offered his services to those fighting for freedom from Spain under Simon Bolivar. Many of us have heard of young adventures taking up the cause of American independence. This is the first I have heard of it happening in the South American struggle.
Codozzi was made a Coronel of Artillery and after independence was given Venezuelan citizenship by President Paez. He was then made governor of the region of Barinas. It his then that his real contribution started. He was a cartographer and geographer and set out to do a proper atlas of the new country. The Geography and Atlas of the Venezuelan Provinces was a word respected work. He was even inducted into the French Legion of Honor in 1842. During this time he also promoted the German settlement of Alonia Tovar, which still exists today.
Venezuela was not a stable place in this time period. When President Paez was overthrown, Codozzi was forced to flee to neighboring Columbia. He was allowed to keep up his non political work in Columbia. some of you will remember that the current state of Panama was then a part of Columbia. Codozzi was hired by a British firm to investigate a potential route for a canal across the isthmus of Panama. The British plan came to nothing. The later American construction used the exact route that Codozzi mapped out.
Codozzi died of malaria in 1859. He was held in such esteem that the Columbian town where he died was renamed in his honor. Today it contains 70,000 people. Later his remains were moved to Caracas, Venezuela and placed in the National Pantheon of Venezuela as a national hero.
What I like about this stamp is that it reminds us a figure in his day may only be judged by his politics. Over time however, the achievements are recognized and remembered. This stamp was issued during the term of President Betancourt during an outbreak of democracy in Venezuela. Former President Paez, being of the South American strongman school, would not have been a hero to small d democrat Betancourt. Time has passed and it did not stop Codozzi from receiving the thanks of his adopted homeland.
Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.