Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take the first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We have an interesting story to tell where we wrestle where the line is about when a country has gone too far in the quest to sell stamps to overseas stamp collectors.
The stamp is really quite large for when it was issued in 1950. This is a definite sign that the purpose is not to mail a letter. The colors are much bolder than a regular stamp issue from 1950 Argentina. When you see that the stamp is issued in connection with an international “filatelica” exposition. Then you notice that the stamp is both cancelled with a picture perfect cancellation and yet is still fully gummed on the back. And finally the audacity of it being a semi postal issue with a doubling of the face value of the stamp. With all this it is not hard to come to the conclusion that this is just not a real postage stamp.
The stamp today is issue B12, a 10 centavo + 10 centavo semi postal stamp issued on August 26th, 1950 to honor the 1950 Argentine International Philatelic Exposition. It was part of a 6 stamp issue, the others of which are also airmail stamps. This to make them easier to mail home for those that had traveled to Buenos Aires for the show. The stamp depicts the art of stamp designing. The stamp artist on the stamp is laboring over an older Argentine stamp featuring General San Martin. According to the Scott catalog, it is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or cancelled. If there was a hot market for this stamp, a real cancelation from actually being mailed should extract a large premium on to the value.
I want to like this stamp. It really is very attractive. Mrs. The Philatelist, who does my website’s photography, found it to be a very attractive and easy to photograph stamp. I also enjoy stamp shows and have no problem with the local postal authority being a sponsor and important participant. I also see every day what artistry is involved in putting together a new stamp issue. So of course I am also for celebrating that artist for whom we will usually not know.
Where this stamp lost me is in the fact that it is a semi postal stamp issue. For those who do not know what that means, a semi postal stamp has an extra fee built in over and above the usual cost of postage. Argentina had many semi postal issues at the time. Most were in support of Eva Peron’s foundation for the support of the poor. This was not that, it was just to extract extra money out of the stamp collectors at the exposition. In my mind, that crossed the line.
Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open the conversation in the below comment section. It would be nice if the stamp collecting hobby were to regrow enough to make stamp issues like todays be lucrative. The Philatelist is doing his part to make that happen. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.