A pleasant Commonwealth Christmas stamp from a country ever less comfortable in the Commonwealth. 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. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
I think this is the only stamp that I possess that is of this shape. To make the shape doable, they were sold in sheets of 60 with every other row inverted. In this period there were many British Empire/Commonwealth stamp collectors. Their philatelic needs were handled by farmed out stamps, in which extra care was done to catch the eye. Any hard feelings toward Britain are also airbrushed out for the stamp offerings.
The stamp today is issue A85, a 1 penny stamp issued by Malta on October 3rd, 1968. The stamp celebrates Christmas with a view the Star of Bethlehem, shepherds and an angel. It was part of a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
Malta is populated by people of mainly Sicilian heritage. They are mainly Catholic. During World War II, the island suffered greatly with German and Italian attacks on the British air and naval forces it was hosting. After the war, Britain was quick to grant self rule to the Colony. There was even a unique offer to allow Malta to integrate into Britain itself. Malta was the only colony this was ever offered to. A vote was taken and while the vote was substantially in favor, (77%). The vote was tainted by a boycott of the vote by one of the two main parties and the Church. A change in government in England also saw a cooling of the idea. The people of Malta would have been overwhelmingly Labour Party, perhaps enough to influence elections. The British Navy was also quickly shrinking, and with it the need for military bases on Malta.
When the British Navy laid off 40 dockworkers, this was used as an excuse by both sides to end the scheme of integration with Britain. Independence was granted in 1964. A small British military presence remained till 1979. The day they departed is celebrated as Freedom Day in Malta.
The newly independent government sought close ties with Italy and surprisingly Libya under Coronel Quadaffi . Muslims had before this mainly been thought of as pirates but were now being marketed as blood brothers. Quadaffi offered aid and built a mosque in a new country that was not having much success with it’s brand of socialism. This came to a sudden end when an American oil platform licensed by Malta to search for oil was approached by a Libyan gunboat. The case later went to the International Court of Justice. Malta was more successful later integrating with the European Union.
Well my drink is empty and so I will open the discussion in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting