Young Kings are fun to read about and terrible to be ruled by. 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 shows a portrait of a King. It sounds simple. What if the King is young, and effeminate. Do you hide that, or show or even celebrate it. Then add the complication that the stamp is being printed abroad and so the printer has less knowledge of how to proceed. This stamp was first printed in Vienna in 1912 and attempted to play down the King’s youth and flamboyance. This apparently was not correct and the stamp was later redrawn in London with the same portrait modified to show more personality. My stamp is the later London printing.
The stamp today is issue A21, a 15 Satang stamp issued by the Kingdom of Siam on January 1st 1917. It was an 11 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.20 used. A version overprinted to celebrate victory in World War I is worth $6.75, if the overprint is not counterfeit.
King Rama VI was born in 1880 and was a member of the Chakri dynasty. He was the first crown prince to study abroad and did short courses at Sandhurst and Christchurch, Oxford. He came away from this education with much knowledge of languages and literature and came home determined to replicate the elite, all male, environments in Siam. He spent much of his time translating foreign literature into Thai and putting on plays with his young male companions.
When his father died there was an attempted coup by the army who was suspicious of the young King. He stayed in charge and formed a personal “wild tiger corps” of ceremonial guards separate from the army. The country faced many problems and the King did work on railway construction and occasional purges to battle corruption. The cities had a big problem that took on a racial dimension. Merchants of the Chinese minority realized that Thai money contained much silver and that Thai rice could be bought locally and sold for much profit in Singapore. This created a shortage of money and food. The King then penned an article calling the Chinese the East’s Jews and saying that they had no loyalty to Siam and their God was money. A lot of Siamese shared that view but is that any way for a King to describe 14 percent of his subjects. Rice exports were banned and paper money issued. Another big loan from the UK was secured. WWI was better handled, with neutrality until it was obvious Germany was going to lose and then a declaration of war. The Siam expeditionary force arrived in Europe too late to fight but in time to march in the victory parades.
Rama’s lifestyle was creating problems for the succession. For the first 10 years, he was unmarried although there were four failed engagements. Then he attempted to get more serious and he married 4 times in quick succession. Each time, the girl was named Queen but the quickly demoted to Princess Consort and put under house (palace) arrest. Finally his fourth Queen became pregnant as Rama became ill. If a Prince was born before he died, the baby would become King and if not, the title would pass to his brother, but not the one married to a Russian girl. A baby was born 2 hours before Rama died in 1925 but it was a girl. The Wild Tiger Corps was quietly disbanded after his death.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast His Majesty King Rama VI. The sense shown during World War I makes up for a lot. Besides, I would not want the Wild Tiger Corps coming for me. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.