Month: May 2018

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Saint Pierre and Miquelon, making the most expensive Frenchmen stop fishing

Explorers find an unoccupied group of islands in a rich area for fishing. Sounds promising even potentially lucrative. Or not. 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 am a little conflicted aesthetically about this stamp. I like the color palate and engraving that place it unmistakably in the French orbit. On the other hand a fairly ugly fish factory  on a prime piece of coast line seems not one should emphasize. I am going to come down on being in favor since catching fish is or at least was the whole point of the settlement.

Todays stamp is issue A36, a 30 Centimes stamps issued by the French overseas Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon on October 22, 1956. It displays a fish freezing plant and was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 95 cents used.

French and British settlement occurred in different periods up to the Napoleonic wars after which the French claim was recognized. The islands sit over 2000 miles from France but only 16 miles from Newfoundland. It was a tiny settlement that eked out a meager existence  from catching fish and occasionally alcohol and tobacco smuggling. During World War II, the islands went with Axis ally Vichy France. It was the closest Axis encroachment of North America. Fearing an Axis forward base, Canada readied a takeover. This was complicated by Quebecois concerns, see https://the-philatelist.com/2017/12/27/canada-supports-the-war-except-quebec-and-churchill-just-ignores/ , and neutral USA’s Monroe Doctrine. While Canada dithered, the Free French under De Gaulle sent a few ships that turned the islands to the Allies, much to the annoyance of Canada and England.

Even with the fishing, the islands require a great deal of subsidies from France to be viable economically. That is how the islands got the reputation of being the worlds most expensive Frenchmen. It also explains why the islands chose to stay with France when independence was offered in the 60s.

The economic situation as worsened with the banning of fishing. Canada from Ottawa and France from Paris agreed to ban deep sea fishing in both Newfoundland and Saint Pierre and Miquelon. The fish factory is now derelict, see below. A new round of French investment is going on to promote the still allowed tourism.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toast the hardy if expensive French of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. I have had the good fortune of visiting Newfoundland and I know the weather extremes in that part of the world. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Romania remembers a long ago artist while having a mini cultural revolution.

A series of local artists self portraits. A fitting complement to the self reflection that must go on during a period of heavy change. 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.

A large well printed stamp in bold colors is always a pleasure. Doubly so when the art being displayed is actually local to the place. The stamp designers in this case decided on a group of Romanian artists’ self portraits. This can be seen as a country looking in the mirror. How appropriate at a time of great change. There is always the fight over what to preserve and what to renew. A great time to look in the mirror.

Todays stamp is issue A608, a 6.5 Lei stamp issued by the Peoples Republic of Romania on August 10th, 1972. The stamp features Romanian artist Ion Andreescu’s self portrait ninety years after his death. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations featuring self portraits of local artists. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents in its cancelled to order state.

Romania in the 1960s had its communist government go through a period of maturation. Many of the Warsaw Pact allies found themselves with governments that were much more hardline than the Soviet Union itself as their leaders did not change when Khrushchev came to power in Russia. This left an opening for China that was much more doctrinally pure. Romania itself was coming out of a period of punishment for being on the wrong side in World War II. It was only just wrestling control of its industries that had been taken over by Russian entities as to guarantee payment of reparations due the Soviet Union.

In 1965, Nicolae Ceausescu took over as part boss. He was able to use some of the developments of the past government to his advantage. Romania had come a long way to transition from a peasant country to an industrial one with the concomitant move to the cities. The previous government had also managed to get Soviet troops out of Romania in 1958. This made it much more difficult to snap Romania back into line as was done with Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Ceausescu had more freedom to operate.

Operate he did. He opened relations both with Red China and with the west. Romania always had a closeness  with France and this rematerisalized. The  ties with the west led to an influx of consumer goods into the cities that was very popular. Also the contacts with China and North Korea inspired Ceausescu to embark on a plan to renew the cities in a Communist modern image. This lead to much construction of apartments and subways and large public edifices. This tended to wipe clean the vestiges of old Romania. The industrialization and urbanization led to a reduction in birth rates. This was addressed by banning abortion and a big push to more children that lead to the largest generation Romania as seen to date. Ceausescu was out to make Romania an important country.

Ion Andreescu the artist on todays stamp had a short life. He was allowed into a local art school and soon was staying on as a teacher of drawing and calligraphy. He was allowed to go on to Paris where he was able to refine his skills and take in the influence of the impressionist movement. He did both landscapes and portraits including a series of portraits of a Romanian peasant girl. At age 32 he returned to Romania sick with tuberculosis. He died of this the next year.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to celebrate introspection. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Saxony 1852, Standing next to Prussia but trying to lean toward Austria

For the German states to be governed separately made no sense. That does not mean it will be easy to convince their rulers to put Deutschland uber alles. 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.

This Saxon stamp shows the genius of the only slightly older originating Victoria stamps of Great Britain. Notice on this stamp how the leader is shown in profile as in a bust on a medal or coin . Notice the style of gummed paper that would be difficult to counterfeit. These are all directly copied from Great Britain and the fact that it became universal almost immediately shows it’s rightness.

Todays stamp is issue A3, a 3 Neu-Grochen stamp issued by the Empire of Saxony in 1851. It is part of a five stamp issue in various denominations displaying then Saxon King Fredrick Augustus II. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $25 used. This stamp had resided for years in an old album owned by my father. He looked it up in his catalog from circa 1980 that then listed the value again as $25. This stamp does seem to stagnate. Saxony being in the East, more copies may have arrived on the market when Germany reunited in 1990. There is a version of the one half Neu-Grochen stamp where they printed it on paper meant for a different value altering the color. It is worth $20,000 mint.

Saxony lies in Eastern Germany bordering Prussia. It experienced a great deal of growth during the period as this area became heavily industrialized. The King Fredrick Augustus II tried to act as a counterbalance for Prussia by often allying itself with Austria and even Napoleon’s France. Thus over time it’s territory shrunk by picking the loosing side of the many wars trying to bring Germany together under Prussia’s leadership.

At first Fredrick Augustus was a fairly liberal leader giving more self rule to Saxon cities and ending serfdom in the Empire. The uprising of 1848 still targeted the King. After making early concessions, Fredrick Augustus changed tact and came down hard. He dissolved Parliament and hid in a rural fortress while his soldiers put down the rebellion. This allowed Fredrick Augustus to survive. What he could not do was produce an heir, at least a legitimate one. His first marriage to Austrian Arch Duchess Maria Caroline was unhappy and childless due to his infidelity and her frequent bouts of epilepsy that killed her in 1832 at age 31. His second marriage to Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria was happier but also childless. He did father a prominent musician of the time illegitimately.

This lack of a heir proved disastrous. While traveling by horse in Tyrol, he fell off and was killed when the horse stepped on his head. The throne passed to his more militaristic younger brother John who shortly got entwined in a final war with Prussia that ended with Saxony forced to join the North German confederation dominated by Prussia. This ended Saxony’s stamp issuance. Now Dowager Queen Maria Anna had a chapel built at the site of Fredrick Augustus’ accident. The graveyard became the preferred resting place for later members of Saxony’s Royal House of Wettin. The House of Wettin is no longer ruling but is closely related to the current English and Belgian Royal lines.

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.

 

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Zambia 2000, How did we get here

I have done a fair number of 19th century stamps lately. So to change it up a little lets move forward to the 21st century. Some things change, but most stay the same. 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.

This is an interesting stamp visually. It was part of a series depicting African legends on the creation of the earth. This is probably too sectarian and divisive a subject for a western stamp. The drawings though are well executed and aimed at children. One issue that crops up being in the modern time is that it is evident that the stamp is more of a curiosity rather than something to use for postage.

Todays stamp is issue A179, a 600 Kwacha stamp issued by the Republic of Zambia on November 10th 2000. It was part of a three stamp issue. The Scott catalog seems to only view the stamps as a sheet together. The three stamps together are worth $1.60 whether mint or canceled to order. I only possess the one stamp featured today so I will guestimate its value at 53 cents.

Zambia was granted independence from Britain in 1964 after a white led federation with Zimbabwe and Malawi could not be sustained. It was originally intended to be a democracy but the first President Kenneth Kaunda ruled for over a quarter of a century with no legal opposition. Originally whites were given a voice in the legislature but this was withdrawn and most left. At independence, Zambia only processed 100 black college graduates. It did have the revenue from all the newly nationalized industries but the educational system required massive investment. Kaunda became a leader in the non aligned movement and a major supporter  of majority rebel movements in the still white lead countries around Zambia. This lead to increased security risks and even clashes with Rhodesia and South Africa.

Kaunda sought and received aid from East and West but much was squandered on corruption and useless military equipment like MIG 21 fighters, that Zambia could not properly maintain or operate. The economy was heavily dependent on copper exports but when price levels of copper dropped the only replacement was debt. The economy contracted 30 percent in the last years of Kaunda’s rule. Eventually the economic distress lead to strikes and coup attempts and Kaunda allowed a real election with labor leader Fredrick Chiluba winning and becoming the second President of Zambia.

The styles of the two men were quite different. Kaunda was famous for his khaki safari suits. In Southern Africa the suit is known as a kaunda suit. President Chiluba was only 5 feet tall and wore high heeled shoes and fancy business suits. The two men were still rivals and sniped at each other. Chiluba tried to have Kaunda’s citizenship revoked for having parents from then federated Nyasaland. Kaunda in turn accused Chiluba of being a thieving, cross dressing, dwarf. Chiluba was accused of stealing 50 million dollars from the government by having the intelligence service wire it to London. Chiluba said it was for foreign missions and was cleared by a friendly local court. Over 60 million was recovered from him after he left office. Kaunda is still around in retirement in his 90s and Zambia still stagnates.

Well my drink is empty and I will now depressingly contemplate what a country is to do when there is no one competent to run it. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Building bridges in Denmark, can we still do that and if so, should we

A new bridge opens in 1985, that speeds travel from place to place. It is an early example of a modern style bridge but represents the last gasp of western infrastructure. 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 very much like the visuals of this stamp. A new bridge naturally makes one thing of a better future with more possibilities. Something there is less and less of in Western countries where so many stamps have us either looking back or at something that is really only aimed at a few of us. To add to the visuals, the bridge design was of the new variety, with diamond shaped concrete supports and different arrangements of steel cables. The bridge allowed a quick transit between the islands of Falster and Zealand while remaining on the modern highway. This allows quicker trips to and from Copenhagen on the island of Zealand.

Todays stamp is issue A25, a 2.8 Krones stamp issued by the Kingdom of Denmark on May 21st, 1985. It is a single stamp issue celebrating the opening of the  Faro-Falster bridge. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

The bridge on the stamp today was meant to reduce congestion on a much smaller bridge that dated from 1937. The older bridge was kept around for rail traffic. This bridge is now in a poor state and is unsuited for an electrified railway. So there are plans to replace it by another bridge that will incorporate two railway tracks, automobiles and a bike path. I say plans because the process for getting anything new built means that plans take decades to materialize. Funding has to go through a political process that not only includes Denmark but also the European Union. It would be crazy not to apply to them for funding but doing so adds so many years to the project that one wonders if the whole point is to make sure nothing happens.  Even in the best of circumstances coordinating the dictates of two separate bureaucracies must be daunting. The infrequency of actually completing one makes one wonder about the quality of the bridge builders, now that a whole career can be spent on just one project. It does not make for well experienced bridge builders that face new and different challenges every few years.

An example of forever delays is the Fehmarn Belt project that is to take traffic off the bridge on todays stamp by creating a tunnel to connect Zealand to Germany. The project has sat on the shelf so long that the proposed route avoids the old East Germany. Remember Germany was reunited in 1990 and there are no longer travel complications from passing through its Eastern areas. Indeed it is preferable to do so from a distance point of view and also to open up more road and rail travel to Poland. The current in service date of the Fehmarn Belt tunnel is 2028 if everything stays on schedule. To scrap it and start with something more fitting to todays world would add decades to the project. I won’t hold my breath waiting for the stamp celebrating the opening of the Fehmarn Belt Tunnel.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to commiserate with the modern builder. Ideas they still have but the pride that comes from making the dream a reality must have completely faded. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Caracas builds up as President Jimenez flies away.

Oil revenue can do much, most of all raise expectations. Most dictators would prefer a lower bar of success. 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.

Today stamp shows the grand façade of the main Carmelite Post Office in Caracas. The oil revenue was seeing much construction in Caracas of the time and yet the post office building was almost 200 years old. The stamps of the time show a lot of these historic old facades. I suspect that the reason for them was that the government believed Venezuela underpopulated and was trying to attract a new crop of European immigrants. The old world style architecture might help attract them.

The stamp today is issue A102, a 5 Centimos stamp issued by Venezuela on May 14th, 1958. It was part of a six stamp issue in various denominations showing the main post office. In addition to this issue there were three other issues of stamps in the previous 5 years showing the façade of the post office. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. Indeed of the 28 stamps featuring the post office, none are today worth more than $1.50. So the office has lost its once large popularity.

Marcos Jimenez was an army officer that ruled for about 10 years in the 1950s. The oil revenue was really flowing at the time and he started massive public works projects in Caracas. His slogan was sow the oil. The reality was that a lot of debt was being built up and much of it was trying to employ large numbers of Venezuelans to avoid revolution. He also tried to attract European immigrants into the capital in order to benefit from their education and to skew the racial makeup of the country. Jimenez did not succeed in this. Though 2 million immigrants came, most only stayed a few years. He hosted a regular show on Venezuelan TV, where he and a historian friend would talk about historical events

Jimenez was not popular with the elites in the cities, nor with the peasants in the countryside. When a coup was in the offing, Jimenez avoided bloodshed from his side by quickly leaving the country. He settled in the USA until 1963, when he was extradited back to Venezuela to face corruption charges. He sat in jail for 5 years before his sentence was commuted and he was allowed to retire to Spain. He died there in 2001. A later fan of Jimenez was Hugo Chavez. He said Jimenez was one of the best presidents, that people only disliked him  because he was a military man, and Chavez was impressed by all the public works that went on in that era.

The Carmelite Post Office was originally built as a home in the 18th century. It later became the War office and in the 1930s was rebuilt as the main post office with the Gothic façade that appears on the stamp. In 1984, the building was declared a national historic landmark. It still stands but has been dwarfed by the huge buildings that now surround it. The look is a little different today as it has been painted bright colors.

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.

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Azerbaijan, No Soviets to police these borders anymore

The colonial power leaves but after being there so long is there a cohesive country still to reconstruct. 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.

During the cold war era, the Eastern Bloc put out for years well printed large stamps on popular topics. They were readily and cheaply available to worldwide collectors and allowed many stamp collectors to specialize in automobile stamps or in this case cat stamps. Azerbaijan got into this act quickly after independence. In a way that is surprising as the eastern system is after all what they were rebelling against. The fact is though the system was still ingrained in those making decisions. To be frank, these type of stamps are not my thing. I don’t like that most are mint and even if cancelled have never seen an envelope. I also prefer the stamps to be more of a mirror to teach about the place of issue.

The stamp today is issue A55, a 250 Manet stamp issued by Azerbaijan on October 30th, 1995. It was part of a 6 stamp and one souvenir sheet issue displaying domestic cats, in this case a Somali cat. One can see the hyperinflation of early days of independence. The Manet currency was only out for 3 years when this stamp was new. Already the Giapicks, cent equivalent, are gone and the denomination of the stamp is 250 Manets. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 65 cents in it’s cancelled to order state.

Azerbaijan had been taken from the Ottoman Empire by Russia in Czarist times. There was a brief period of independence in the chaos after the 1917 revolution but the new Muslim country was at war with next door Christian Armenia and was unable to resist the Red Army when it came to restore both countries to Soviet aethist Republics.

In the late 80s the Soviet system that had kept the peace began to break down. The locals began to have more contact with their fellow ethnics in neighboring countries and the local Soviet authorities no longer had the stomach to stop them. The border lines of Azerbaijan contained an area called Nagorno-Karabakh that was heavily Armenian in nationality and Christian in religion. As the still Soviet republics both got more autonomy from Moscow, the Armenians gave the vote to Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. The outraged Azerbaijan independence front leaders and they began an anti-Armenian ethnic cleansing pogrom that was quite deadly, the numbers are disputed as usual.

In early 1990 this got the Soviets off the dime and a state of emergency was declared and Soviet troops sent in. The troops were lead by later Russian nationalist leader Alexander Lebed. The Soviets were able to regain control but now Azerbaijan had it’s own massacred in what became known as Black January. At the time of the anti Gorbachev coup, the Azerbaijan Popular Front declared itself independent from Tehran, Iran.

Elections and war with Armenia followed. Gaidar Aliyev was an Azeri who had risen high under the Soviet system but was not allowed to compete allegedly due to age. The Azerbaijan Popular Front had two presidents in short order that fought a losing war with Armenia. APF discredited, Aliyev was then allowed to run and won the Presidency in 1993. He arraigned a ceasefire with Armenia and put his son in charge of the national oil company. When he died he was succeeded by his son who remains in power today. Azerbaijan is again close to Russia.

Well my drink is empty and as I enjoy another I wonder how many former colonies would happily elect an old colonial governor. More than a few I would expect. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Bolivia can only find the gate to the sun on its stamps.

When two sides can’t get along, one side gets repressed. Then the other side gets revenge. then the process repeats. 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.

Todays stamp is not well printed but displays the ancient Gate of the Sun. The archway is carved from a single stone and is a relic of the Tiwanaku Empire that ruled the area around Lake Titicaca from 300 BC to about 1150 AD. The Tiwanaku Empire predated the Incas and far predated Spanish Explorers.

The stamp today is an airmail stamp issue C209, a 5000 Boliviano stamp issued by Bolivia on March 26, 1960. The hyper inflation of the era is reflected in the high denomination of the stamp. An airmail issue from five years before was only 50 Bolivianos. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2.00 used.

Bolivia has not had much luck with it’s right of center governments. See https://the-philatelist.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=445&action=edit. In the early fifties those on the left were able to unite enough to get a string of their leaders into the presidency. Change was pretty dramatic but the results were not good. The tin mines were a major source of wealth in Bolivia and the new left wing government quickly nationalized them. The labor union that represented the miners was an important part of the coalition. However the output of the mines dropped off and there were constant strikes and the mines were seriously overstaffed.

There was voter and land reform that saw the number of voters go up by five fold as literacy and land owning requirements dropped away. The left assumed  that the reform would bring a large number of new left wing voters. It did this but there was not enough discipline to see that they all voted for the same left wing party. Elections inevitably left the leading candidate with less than 50 percent of the vote leaving the decision to the legislature and by extension the party bosses.

The military, a right wing organization was heavily shrunk and purged. This left the government unable to disarm various peasant militias that though they were sometimes allies, were a huge challenge to achieving stability. Shrinking the military also angered the USA, whose aid was 20 percent of the national budget. All these challenges lead to hyper inflation, which turned the middle class rightward politically. The left was further divided as to whether the proper model for Bolivia was the one left party state of Mexico or a more pure form of socialism. Soon enough the left was splintered enough that when the next military coup came in 1969, it had support of many on the left.

The gate of the sun was built by the Tiwanaku empire that controlled much of Bolivia and some of Peru. It was not conquered so much as died out. A drought lead to a famine  that spelled the end of the people. The relics of the empire were discovered by the Spanish who first wrote of them. They were studied by some of the great archeologists of the 19th century. The site of the gate of the sun is a UNESCO world heritage site. The foreign archeologists have left the site after Bolivia worried that the site was not being properly respected by the team from Harvard that included many students. Bolivia then stepped up its own work at the site but then stopped when UNESCO protested that their changes were not historically accurate.

The study of the gate of the sun makes a point about the failure of a society. Here is hoping that current Bolivian society  does not have the same outcome. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Burma, after breaking from India, Britain, and Japan, forms a union to try to stand together

Colonial era borders often do not leave coherent borders. So when independence comes, a way to stand together must be found. 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.

Todays stamp is quite small and requires some study to follow. That does not make it a bad stamp. What I like is how different it was from the colonial period. The teakwood harvesting shown as a common feel that just would not be present in a colonial issue. The first governments of Burma contained many leaders of the independence movement that started as a peasant tax revolt. Coopted later of course but even into ruling, the movement at least was paying lip service to the common Burmese. I like that.

Todays stamp is issue A16, a 4 Anna stamp issued by the Union  of Burma on January 4th, 1949. It displays teak harvesting and was part of a 16 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

The territory of Burma was broken off from British India in 1937. This was viewed suspiciously in Burma. Although the bulk of the people were neither Hindu nor Muslim, it was thought that India was on the fast track to independence and this would slow it down. The British introduced a measure of self government but all the leaders it put in place were for independence and willing to collaborate with the Japanese to get it. Three different prime ministers of the shadow self government spent time in British prisons for collaborating with the Japanese in the period leading up to and during World War II.

The Japanese occupied Burma in World War II and Aung San, father of the current Myanmar leader, formed an army of the puppet regime. As the tide of war changed, Aung Sung made contact with Britain in India and changed sides ending the Japanese occupation. He was named prime minister and conducted the negotiations that lead to independence. However left out was former prime minister U Saw. U Saw had been caught meeting with Japanese in pre Pacific war London. He was detained in Uganda for the rest of the war, but post war was back in Burma seeking power. His poor man’s party did badly in elections but then he attempted a coup and assassinated Aung Sung in 1947. U Saw was hung for his part in the coup. A rough place and remains one as there are many ethnic and religious minorities that do not feel much connection to the government of the majority. The majority is itself divided between leftists like Aung San’s daughter and conservatives who seek to impose unity from above, often by force.

Teak is a hardwood that is uniquely suited to maritime uses as it is naturally resistant to water. The largest teak forests in the world are still today located in Myanmar.

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.

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As the British exit the Bahamas they build wellfare centers for the poor while the mob concentrates on drugs and gambling for the rich

Transition a colony to self rule is complicated. A colonial power wants to leave but doesn’t want things to just fall apart. 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.

A late issue in the colonial period of the Bahamas. So another Queen Elizabeth stamp during a victory lap. See this https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/12/british-guiana-going-independant-means-choosing-between-the-indians-and-the-africans/ . What is nice here is the low denominations show things Britain has done for the people of the Bahamas. The low denominations being more likely to be used for bulk postage. So here we show the infant welfare center that was a gift of Britain, In the same set we have high denominations showing Paradise Beach and water skiing. The higher denominations are more of interest to stamp collectors and make the point of Bahamas as a nice place to visit. See also https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/07/the-british-in-cyprus-again-having-to-stand-between/

The stamp today is issue A17, a half penny issued by the Crown Colony of the Bahamas on January 1st, 1954. The stamp was part of a 16 stamp issue of various denominations celebrating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The stamp had a long life. In 1964, the issue was renewed with an overprint announcing the new constitution of 1964. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.90 used. Interestingly the mint version is only worth 25 cents.

Bahamas is very close to the USA so despite being a British colony gets enmeshed in USA issues. Great Britain freed slaves in the empire 30 years before the USA. So when slave ships ended up in Bahamas the slaves on board  were given their freedom. The USA then made a claim to Great Britain, which was paid, for the value of the freed slaves. During the American civil war, blockade running to the South was a lucrative if dangerous undertaking.

When nearby Cuba went socialist and closed the casinos. The American mob figures involved in Cuba became interested in getting new casinos built in the Bahamas. In doing so, they tarnished as bribe takers the last colonial era premier and the first independent prime minister with the stench of the bribes. In the eighties, 90 % of the cocaine entering the USA passed through the Bahamas thanks to bribes paid to Lyndon Pindling, the long serving first Prime Minister. I should say Sir Lyndon, as the Queen knighted him as well as the also corrupt predecessor Sir Roland Symonette. Why not hand out undeserved titles if it gets  you out the door quicker?

Tourism and banking eventually raised the standards of life in the Bahamas. Throughout it has been plagued by pirates and crooks. A problem that the British did mot solve and more importantly the Bahamians themselves have yet to get a grip on.

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.