Ah, the troubles of the life ruler. Eventually you have tried all your ideas and without fresh blood to keep things moving, things can stagnate. However knowing how smart and right you are, and as a student of history, there is the hope that the Gods will smile and the old dictator vindicated. In Mercury we pray. 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.
You may join me in admiring the aesthetics of this stamp. Spain printed their own stamps and so they were a little behind most of Western Europe in adding elaborate color to the issues. There was somewhat an exception for the frequent religious issues. Nobody was worshiping the Roman God Mercury in Franco’s Spain, but he does seem to get the extra care given Catholic symbols. This stamp celebrated a stamp day, and the perforations pictured imply that Mercury was on an older stamp. He wasn’t, early Spanish stamp issues usually featured their Royals. Perhaps Franco would have preferred a Mercury issue.
Todays stamp is issue A274, a 25 Centimo stamp issued by Spain on May 7th, 1962. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations displaying the Roman God of Commerce, Mercury. Spain usually had a stamp issue to present at the big annual stamp exhibition in Barcelona to go with International Stamp day. We covered the 1980 issue here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/24/spain-1980-honoring-postal-as-well-as-royal-heritage/ , that allowed then King Juan Carlos to honor his not well remembered grandfather. Franco had you go back all the way to the ancients. Well stamp collectors can be accused of spending to much time looking back instead of forward. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.
By the 1960s, Spain was failing to catch up with the economic success of Western Europe. Avoiding participation in World War II was not the big economic driver it was in Switzerland or Sweden. The 1930s had seen a devastating civil war and with the ostracism of Franco from much of Europe recovery was slow. Spain was doing better however than communist Eastern Europe, that had the same issue of tired old dictators ruling for life. On their stamps you would have more likely seen the prophet Marx than Roman God Mercury, but I guess you have to pray to someone for new blood. The Spanish Civil War with the choice of Marxist or Fascist was suboptimal.
Mercury is the Roman God of Commerce, Mercury is a bringing over from Greece of their God Hermes. In bringing over Hermes, the earlier Roman God Dei Lucrii was merged into the idea of Mercury. This taking over can be seen in how later Catholic Saints were appealed to in similar ways as were the pre Christian Roman Gods. In Roman times, the Roman Historian Tacitus saw other peoples Gods as being representations of Mercury. He saw this as true for the Germanic God Wotan, and the Celtic God Lugus. None of those had Mercury’s cool helmet. Tacitus was perhaps right about Mercury being absorbed by not just Romans. We see him here on a Spanish stamp, he also was the inspiration for Ford’s Mercury automobile. The American Mercury dime coin, in use until 1946, was not actually Mercury. It was really Lady Liberty, but her head gear on the coin was thought to resemble Mercury’s famous winged helmet.
Well my drink is empty and so I will patiently await tomorrow when there is a new story that can be learned from stamp collecting.