Month: December 2017

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Celebrate the savings and loans now, the party is almost over and the hangover terrible

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your Tums and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We will pass on the adult beverage because the situation here would have benefited from more sobriety.

This stamp just did not age well. The old fashioned piggy bank did not fit the savings and loans of the go go eighties. In fact the times were the undoing of the savings and loan industry. Their undoing caused the nation to loose much wealth and perhaps cost the first President Bush his second term.

The stamp today is issue A1298, an 18 cent stamp issued by the USA on May 8th, 1981. It was a single stamp issue honoring the sesquicentennial of the Savings and Loan form of bank. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Savings and Loans are in theory a useful form of bank. In their most basic form, they borrow money from depositors at 3 %, make home mortgages at 6% and keep overhead under 2%. This works for everybody. A profit of 1% works out to 10% on a banks equity, so owners win. A decent return on deposits allows area older people to have a more comfortable and secure retirement without risk. Available mortgages allows responsible younger people to own homes to raise families and build wealth. Not many young people could have houses if they had to pay for them in full. 20 percent down can be done with a little saving and perhaps help from parents.

The inflation of the 1970s destroyed this model and eventually the saving and loans themselves. Inflation pushed up home prices and this pressured mortgage rates to compensate for the higher prices. Then the government raised interest rates dramatically to slow inflation and the economy. This forced the Savings and Loans to raise rates on deposits. This increased the wealth of some quite a bit. Their home value was much higher but their mortgage balance was still low and at a low rate agreed to long ago.

You perhaps can see the problem for savings and loans They are paying more for deposits but receiving the same old rate on the long term house mortgages. To counteract this, the savings and loans start making loans at higher rates to more risky real estate development. Developers than get the idea to start savings and loans themselves to fund their development projects. This was not going to end well.

End well it did not. The recession of the early nineties reduced real estate values and caused enough defaults on the risky loans to bankrupt the savings and loans. There was a government guarantee on the deposits at savings and loans and the government paid depositors in full in the middle of the recession, when government revenues are already depressed.  This contributed to a large deficit at the time and added to the belief that the first President Bush mismanaged the economy. After the bailout of depositors, the government got a little bit of a windfall as the foreclosed properties were sold off. Ironically, this made President Clintons recovery stronger. A similar thing happened in the later Obama years. Old bailouts from 2008-2009 were paid back making the deficit look better. This is over now so current President Trump  should be worried about the direction of the deficit.

After the nineties savings and loan crisis, the small surviving banks repackaged themselves as community banks but were never able to recapture the old financial model and many failed 2007-2012. Now again the survivors are repackaging themselves as credit unions without the profit motive. We will see how that turns out.

Well now I need a drink so I will turn over the conversation. For many years I was in this industry and a great believer in it but today find myself disillusioned and believing the lack of old fashioned banking will spell the death of many small towns as the next generation has no opportunity to stay. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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See the museum, but don’t buy a membership, it won’t last to get the benefits.

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 to tell of a museum that is celebrated by a stamp, shortly before being destroyed in a civil war.

This is a great looking stamp. It is well printed and does a good job showing off the museum by putting it in the ancient social context of the area. Lebanon might have been newly independent and still greatly threatened, but there was many years of civilization in the area. At the time, Beirut was a major tourist place, mainly for beaches and nightlife. However, a trip to the museum might lead to a follow-up to the markets where the local handicrafts were available. All this leads to keeping skills and history alive.

The stamp today is issue C697, a 100 piasters stamp issued by Lebanon on December 1st, 1973. It shows the Museum of Handicrafts. It was part of  an eight stamp issue in various denominations showcasing various Lebanese craft people. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.40 cancelled. A mint version would be worth $8.00.

Lebanon was successful and independent when this stamp was issued. There had been no trouble on the border with Israel between 1948-1968. This changed with a large influx of armed Palestinians mainly from Jordan who were intent on harassing Israel militarily. Egyptian President Nasser made an agreement that precluded the Lebanese armed forces from taking any action against these armed groups. This amounted to ceding southern Lebanon to the PLO. To get around the agreement, Christian armed militias formed to try to push out the PLO before Israel invaded. A spate of PLO hijackings lead Israeli commandos to attack Beirut airport and destroyed 10 Arab flagged airliners in retaliation. This understandably angered Lebanese Arabs who also formed an armed militia.

In 1975 all these armed militias and the PLO fought a civil war. For the most part the Lebanon army remained in barracks. Beirut was divided and saw much fighting over the next 17 years. Israel and Syria were also players in this fighting which did not let up when the PLO was removed in 1982-83.

When Beirut was divided into warring districts, one of the dividing lines was Museum row. The museums did there best to remove objects to basements and then seal up entrances but damage was still terrible. The basements flooded damaging much of what was attempted to be saved. The  handicraft museum in Lebanon was put back together in 1993 and was privatized in 2007.

There are still groups trying to encourage the production of handicrafts in Lebanon. Ironically they specially seek out widows of the long civil war to learn the old skills and support themselves while preserving Lebanon’s long heritage.

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. Were any of our readers able to tour the Maison de L’Artisan before it closed? How about after it reopened? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Asia productivity year 1970. Getting Ceylon, India, Pakistan and one of the Chinas to agree and issue stamps!

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 foreign powers trying to influence post colonial Asia for good, they hope.

The stamp today was issued by an independent Ceylon. In 1970, they were still using the British colonial name. Today the island is known as Sri Lanka. The stamp recognizes Asia Productivity Year 1970. Similar stamps were issued by India, Pakistan, Taiwan, and the still colony of Hong Kong. There are some pretty diverse politics and ethnicities involved so to get them to agree is in itself an achievement.

The stamp is issue A146, a 60 cent stamp issued by Ceylon on June 17th, 1970. It was a single stamp issue and shows symbols of agriculture and industry along with the white circle with the upward arrow that was the symbol of the Asian Productivity Organization. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

Ceylon had colonial periods with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and then the British. The interactions changed the island in ways that are still being dealt with today. The Portuguese, through Saint Francis Xavier, tried to convert the local population to Catholism, to the annoyance of local leaders. This lead to a deal with the Dutch to remove the Portuguese in exchange for Dutch trading posts. This lead to a class of Burghers, that were Dutch and mixed Dutch and played an important role in the commerce of the island. Lastly it was the British, who brought with them a large group of Indians to work on tea plantations. These numbers were so great that they were the majority in some rural areas. The Indians spoke a different language and were of a different religion. All this outside interference, done I believe unthinkingly rather than out of hostile intent left the newly independent locals with a difficult country to govern. I count three languages and also three alphabets on this stamp.

The Buddhist majority government tried to favor their language around the time of this stamp. This angered the Burghers and many of them fled the country, doing much to disrupt the economy. Many of those of Indian descent rebelled and a hot and cold civil war went on for many years. Eventually the majority Indian areas received some autonomy and the Indian army sent peace keepers to allow the area to feel secure.

The Asian Productivity Organization also has an interesting history. Formed by Japan with the help of USA foreign aid and the philanthropic Ford Foundation, it sought to help along economic, education, and eventually ecologic progress in Asia. It seems to offer an alternative to communism and to allow Japan to again take a wider, peaceful role in Asian affairs. The presence of Taiwan keeps mainland China out even as former communist countries have entered. This may be just as well as having China would perhaps mean throwing out Taiwan and ceding to China control. The organization still exists.

Well, my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the discussion in the below comment section. Getting vastly different countries to issue similar stamps seems a worthwhile token, similar to Olympic stamps. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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My music would get a lot better if I could make it more Czech and maybe have a few affairs

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 to tell of when the excitement of a new nation can inspire your music to a new level and success teamed with tragedy  can make the eyes wander.

The stamp today is from the early days of communist Czechoslovakia. As such there is a great deal of emphasis on the culture of the Czech majority in the country. The effect is perhaps lost  on the many ethnic minorities in the country. The effectiveness is also held back by the low quality of the printing. It really was several steps below what was being put out in Vienna, the former seat of the old empire.

The stamp is issue A243, a 1.60 Koruna stamp issued by Czechoslovakia on June 19th, 1953. The stamp features the music composer, teacher and historian Leos Janacek. The stamp was part of a two stamp issue issued to celebrate a music festival in Prague that year. According to the Scott catalog. the stamp is worth 25 cents in it’s cancelled state.

Leos Janacek was born to a schoolteacher and at an early age was recognized to have great musical talent. He was accepted into music school on scholarship and trained and made his home in Brno, in what was then still the Austria-Hungarian Empire. He stayed on as a teacher and married one of his students, Zdenka, who was also the daughter of the headmaster of the school. He split his time between composing and teaching and his early output was very heavily influenced by the German Wagner.

Over time his work gradually began to reflect the Czech nationalism that was growing up around him. Moravian folk music and Czech speaking styles became very evident in his operas, a first. In 1903, his family visited Saint Petersburg Russia to experience the music scene there and his daughter stayed to study Russian. She quickly got very sick and Janacek returned to bring her home to Brno where she died. The parents were naturally distraught and Zdenka attempted suicide. Leos threatened to divorce her, but they agreed to stay married and continue to live together but live separate lives.

Janacek’s eyes began to wonder and his operas took on a much more romantic feel. This helped get them beyond provincial Brno and productions were now able to be seen in Prague. After meeting a married woman named Kamila who was forty years his junior, he began a love sick correspondence. There are over 700 letters from him to her with her remaining aloof but in touch to his romantic writings. Her husband was in the army and often away. She became the inspiration for some of his most famous operas including “Jenufa”, and “The cunning little Vixen”. Kamila was with him and Zdenka at his bedside when he died in 1928 at age 74.

It is a little surprising that Janacek was honored with a stamp. The communist culture minister was not a fan regarding much of his work as unpolished. He had just carried out a purge that hit hard on former students of Janacek. It was though an international festival and Janacek’s work was known and performed abroad.

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. A flirtatious couple today with 700 texts would probably not inspire operas. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Parliament House designed by the guy who named himself president for life

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 to tell about a building designed to house the rubber stamp of a president for life but that for periods since house housed a real Parliament.

The stamp today is very attractive. The idea of putting a home like structure on the front of an ceremonial building is quite effective. It seems to invite the citizens of Ghana to come in and participate in running of the government. Sources allege that Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah was the designer of the building. I see no architecture training in his extensive educational career, but perhaps he made insightful suggestions. Either way, good job on the building.

The stamp is issue A156, a 20 pesewas stamp issued by the republic of Ghana on August 4th 1980. The stamp shows the Parliament House that was built in 1965. It was part of a three stamp issue that showed off the architecture of the democratic institutions of Ghana. This was done to recognize the third republic since independence from Great Britain in 1957. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

As I stated above the Parliament House was opened in 1965. This was about the time President Nkrumah was having the Parliament approve the only legal political party as his and that he was to be head of that party and President of the “Republic” for life. The initial optimism that had greeted Mr. Nkrumah on taking office in 1957 had come under pressure by inefficient economic performance, rising debt, and the inability to pull off his goal of a Pan-Africa political union in post colonial Africa. In 1966 there was a coup,and Mr. Nkrumah was forced into exile in neighboring Guinea. Guinea’s President for life Toure’ named Nkrumah honorary co president, a title he held for the rest of his life until he died of prostate cancer in Romania in 1972.

Kwame Nkrumah was born into modest circumstances in the then Gold Coast. He was born under a different name and it is believed his father was a goldsmith. He was taken into Catholic school and was a teacher and headmaster in still colonial Gold Coast. He was gradually politically indoctrinated and this lead to coming to America and given scholarships  to study. Here he was further indoctrinated under Trotsky teachers and African American leaders like Stokey Carmichael. Nkrumah sat out World War II. With the war safely over he went to London to study further, his American teachers introducing him as not to bright but anxious to throw all the Europeans out of Africa. This reference seemed to open many doors in England. Seems strange, but I guess you can’t always expect the beliefs of academia to line up with government policy. Unless of course you have a President for life and one legal political party. Maybe Mr. Nkrumah did learn something.

The Parliament in Ghana has a somewhat checkered history. From one party state to military coup to failed republic to coup to failed republic. This stamp honors the third republic that was removed by another military coup the year after this stamp. Since 1992 a multi party republic has been in power in Ghana. At least Mr. Nkrumah’s Parliament House was ready to host it. The building was renovated in 2012.

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. We can see how difficult and still incomplete European political integration was. Africa was not able to try. It is interesting that the ideas of it were coming from African Americans who perhaps had more distant ties to tribe, language and local religion. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Saying goodbye to Mr. Stable

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. Today we talk about a leader who offered stability, which compared with what went before and afterward seems pretty good.

The stamp today is from Algeria from the late seventies when the post independence socialist pan Arab movements were maturing. A sign of that maturity is that the subject of the stamp, President Bourmedienne, had not appeared on a postage stamp prior to his death in 1978, despite being in charge since 1965.

The stamp today is issue A225, a 60 centimes stamp issued by Algeria on January 7th, 1979. It was a single stamp issue commemorating the death of long serving President Bourmedienne. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Houari Bourmedienne was born in simple circumstances to an Arab only speaking wheat farmer. That part is agreed to. There are alleged birth dates between 1927 -1932 and several possible villages where he might have come from. His birth name is nothing to do with his presidential name. He seems to have taken on a persona rather like a rap star or Joseph Stalin. Stalin really wasn’t a man of steel and Bourmedienne wasn’t really a modern embodiment of ancient heroes after whom his name was fashioned. In 1955 he joined the FLN that was involved in armed struggle against the French forces that were still the colonial power. He rose to the rank of Coronel, the highest rank in the force. The FLN eventually won independence from France.

Bourmedienne was named defence minister under the first independent Algerian President. Foreign owned lands were forcibly seized by the peasants that worked them and there was then the should have been expected drop in farm output. More troubling there was also a major purge with massacres of Algerians who were too closely associated with the old colonial forces or with rival independence groups. The murders even extended in large numbers to the immigrant Algerian community in France. There was also a failed “sand war” fought with neighboring newly independent Morocco.

In 1965, Bourmedienne acted and there was a bloodless coup where the former president was put under gradually less strict house arrest and Bourmedienne  led a council of military officers who were his close associates. He nationalized the oil industry and used the revenues to start a massive drive to industrialize the country. The population of the country was rising rapidly and only a tiny fraction of the land of Algeria  was arable. This seems a sensible policy, with people not able to be farmers and the oil industry providing revenue but few jobs. The challenge of the fast growing populations seems to be such a common theme in newly independent countries. This is probably why five year plans and state owned enterprises were so common. There were simply so many people that needed to be occupied productively. A fact seemed forgotten in the rush to laisse-faire in the 90s.

There was some success with GDP per capita rising to 30% of the USA by the end of President Bourmedienne’s life. This compares with 7.5 percent today. Algeria also became an important force in the nonaligned movement offering support to many African anti colonial forces, the PLO, and the ANC. Considering where he came from, where ever that was. It is a pretty impressive level of achievement. It is hard to imagine trying to handle yourself on the world stage with such a humble background and the responsibilities of finding things to do for such a big population. In his last year in office there was an election where he was elected president and over the course of his rule democratic institutions were gradually put in place. After instability  and an unsuccessful bout with  Islamists, one of Bourmedienne’s deputies was made President in 1999.  He still is in office today but is getting older so that some critics refer to him as “the living dead”.

Well my drink is empty and I would pour another to toaste President Bourmedienne but I don’t think that is appropriate with an Islamic leader. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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Taking time out at the Carifiesta, to remember Mr. Collymore

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 to tell of a teacher in a small country who did so much to inspire a local literary life.

The stamp today is from a set of stamps celebrating an Caribbean  arts festival in Barbados. So bands and folk dancers are to be expected. For there suddenly to be a bust of a literary figure is a pleasant surprise. The Carifiesta was first in Barbados in 1981 and returned in 2017. So this is a good time to look back at the man on the bust.

The man on the stamp is Frank Collymore. It is issue A87, a 55 cent stamp issued by Barbados on August 11th, 1981.It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the Carifiesta, which Barbados hosted in 1981. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents in its cancelled state.

Frank Collymore was born in Barbados in 1893.  He attended and later was a teacher for over 50 years at the Combermere School. The school can list as other notable alumni a prime minister of Barbados and the singer Rihanna. Mr. Collymore did much to encourage reading and writing among his students even loaning them his personal books.

He went further than even this good work. He founded a magazine named BIM that got local writers an outlet for their work. Through a friend at the BBC, he got several of his writers on a show called Caribbean Voices. This was broadcast by the then BBC Colonial Service. Several of the writers were able to find a much larger audience and represent their small countries in the worldwide literary scene.

After Collymore died in 1980, a local bank set up a scholarship in his honor and a local playhouse was named for him. He would be happy to know that his magazine BIM has been restarted and is again offering an outlet for local writers.

Well my drink is empty and so I take the opportunity to pour another and  raise it high to toast Frank Collymore MBE in the old British way. Hip Hip Horay… Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Never mind the war, lets have a fish fry

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 to tell of people fishing while their nation refuses to stand on it’s own.

The stamp today is from the last days of a failed state, in this case South Vietnam. One imagines the leaders of the country  would be trying  to rally support. Or perhaps tell how great things will be after victory. But this stamp looks to be showing off an almost Hawaiian style luau. Were they out of touch or was someone else doing their stamps for them.

The same year, 1972, North Vietnam was putting out a series of stamps with a running total of American planes shot down. The one from October 1973 showing a Mig 21 fighter going in for the kill number 4181 on a big Boeing B52 Stratofortress was most dramatic and evocative of victory. Even in North Vietnam there are so many stamps bragging on the Soviets. Their space programs, even their white leaders. Wasn’t the North’s best argument that the government is a matter for Vietnamese, not outsider pirates and their vassals. All those Lenin stamps make the North look rather vassal like themselves. Hey, our masters are better than yours. I guess it was a Russian T54 tank breaking through gates while Saigon fell and American UH1 helicopters were flying off the roof.

The stamp today is issue A129, a 7 piaster stamp issued by the republic of South Vietnam on January 2nd, 1972. The stamp showed net fishing from a small boat. It was part of a 3 stamp issue celebrating fishing in South Vietnam. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

With the withdrawal  of the French colonial power in 1954, Vietnam broke into a communist north, and a southern government that was more aligned with the older French authorities. The south had a larger population and more economic clout. Over time French aid and influence was superseded by American aid and influence. There was much more corruption in the South and the fact that so many of the higher ups were Catholic, a tiny minority in the country, separated government from people. Many leaders in the North were also French educated. This was a time though that many young third world educated youths returned home from a Paris education as a believing communist.

A third world proxy war develops with massive military aid given to both sides by their puppet masters. Chinese troops come in to North Vietnam allowing the NVA to fight in the south. When the local South Vietnam army proves not capable, the USA makes the colossal mistake of sending in large ground forces under President Johnson. The American forces win every battle but take losses that are simply not acceptable to the people back home. The cost in aid is also extreme and causes the South to rely on it rather than standing for itself. What a mess.

In the end the ARVN would not fight the NVA and begged for more aid. This was cut off and those loyal to the South Vietnam government rushed for the exit. A cargo plane took a resigned President Thieu to Taiwan with a plane load of gold and he settled in London where his son was studying at Eton. Those less connected resorted to dangerous boat rides to Thailand and many to the USA eventually. Or course the end saw a gradual drying up of Soviet aid to united Vietnam and so there was no great leap forward with peace.

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the discussion in the below comment section. Getting the Americans out of Vietnam was a major undertaking by Nixon. Too bad he couldn’t get the Soviets to cut off their corroding aid at the same time as the USA. Maybe the locals would then have learned to work together and stand together. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Look Zhivkov gave us a new chemical plant, er uh, great I guess?

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 to tell of when central economic planning forgets who they are planning for.

The stamp today is from Bulgaria. I have to give credit to the stamp designer. In their wisdom, the government wanted to show off new industry. But how do you make a few new chemical and power plants look like an achievement instead of an environmental hazard. Answer, don’t show the plants at all but rather show the new looking apartment buildings to house the workers. Good job in saving the leadership from itself. There was a shortage of urban apartments and people moving to the cities.

This is issue A887, a 10 stotinki stamp issued by Bulgaria on April 7th, 1976. It is part of a 5 stamp issue celebrating the accomplishments industrially of the most recent five year economic plan. This stamp shows a residential complex attached to a new chemical plant. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

This is probably one of the last, 1976, issues of 5 year plan stamp that was a staple of socialist and third world stamps twenty years before. The stamps made a lot of sense in the early years of a new government. After all, at there most basic, they preached hope and change. People were poor and had suffered though turmoil but smart people are now in charge and they are working for you to make things better. This was well expressed by the Albania cigarette factory stamp I wrote about a few weeks ago. https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/09/communism-provides-smokes-for-atheists-and-then-a-refugee-camp-for-muslims/. Cheap readily available cigarettes will make life easier, and the giant factory on the stamp looks ready to start churning them out. But chemical plants? who drew up this plan and why?

By 1976, Bulgaria was being run by Todor Zhivkov, who had been in office for over twenty years. He had placed his children in prominent places and there was a cabal of aging ex partisan fighters that retained special privileges. It almost seems that they are who this stamp and the five year plan was aimed at impressing. After all they would be sophisticated enough to understand the importance and value of new chemical plants. I bet more than a few of us can think of politicians that got off course this way.

There was some real progress in 1970s Bulgaria. People were living longer and being better educated. They were more likely to have TV and refrigerators and even cars. No stamps about that though. Just who are the people in this peoples republic?

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. How are these long ruling leaders viewed today. There was stability missing before and since. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Mosque of Omar, The Mandate to try to stand between

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 to tell of a conundrum, for the British, and the Muslims, and the Jews. Perhaps never to be truly solved.

The stamp today is from Palestine from the period of the inter world war British mandate. During the early period of the mandate, Egyptian stamps were overprinted for use in Palestine. The mandate given the British by the League of Nations was to move the country toward independence and unique postage stamp issues are a part of that and came in 1927 with this issue. The stamp is printed in English, in Arabic, and in Hebrew. Gosh.

The stamp today is issue A4, a 13 milliemes stamp issued by Palestine on June 1st 1927. It features the Mosque of Omar, which today is probably better known as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It was part of a 22 stamp issue put out over 15 years depicting historic local sites. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used. A mint version would be worth $17.50.

The British came into possession of Palestine at the end of World War I with the collapse of the Ottoman Turks. The local Arabs had fought with the British under the belief that they would be granted independence. Instead there was separation from the French mandate in Syria and a great number of Jews that were emigrating back to the ancient land. At the time of the 1922 census, the Jews made up 11 percent of the population but there numbers were rising fast. The British having agreed to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

There was much distrust of the British for allowing the emigration and the mandate saw frequent riots and the Jews arming themselves in protection. In 1939, the British sought to limit the numbers of Jewish émigrés to pacify the area. This angered the Jews but they still lined up to fight the Axis with the British in far greater numbers than the Palestinian Arabs, some of which hoped for a German victory. After the war, some elements of the Armed Jewish groups attacked the British. After WWII, Britain was in no mood to keep 100,000 troops in Palestine to be attacked by both sides and petitioned the UN to end the mandate. Israel and neighboring Transjordan declared sovereignty and a war was fought with Israel the victor. There was much displacement  of Arab population and Jordan offered citizenship to Arabs with Mandate papers and tried to ban the terms Palestine and Transjordan in favor of the newly declared Jordan that included the west bank of the river and the eastern part of Jerusalem. This history lead the Israelis to declare the Arabs not stateless but Jordanian.

The Mosque of Omar was completed in 691 AD. It is built on the site of an earlier temple to the Roman god Jupiter. Before that it was the site of the second Jewish Temple. It was designed by Arab architects in a style similar to the Byzantine churches of the time. It is considered especially holy in Islam as the site Mohammed ascended to Heaven. At the time of the stamp, the dome was coated in lead, not the gold leaf that was added in the 1950s when the site was under Jordanian control. The tiles that coat the outside date from Ottoman times.

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.