Month: June 2020

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South Africa 1991, keeping a manned science station on Antarctica

We have done a few of these Antarctica stamps. No South Africa doesn’t put out stamps from their Antarctic stations like some others. In 1991 they put out this issue to give hints about what they had going on. 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 issue was on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty. The treaty allows nations to have scientific stations on Antarctica but they must not be militarized. You might be surprised that South Africa took advantage of that but they have a long presence that continues.

Todays stamp is issue A280, a 27 Cent stamp issued by South Africa on December 5th, 1991. It was a two stamp issue in various denominations, this one showing the research vessel S A Agulhas. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

South Africa maintains 3 scientific stations in the South Pole region with one each on Marion  and Gough Islands and the SANAE IV station on the Antarctic mainland. To keep them manned year round is quite an undertaking and the research vessel S A Agulhas was acquired in 1978 from Japan. It is not a full icebreaker but the hull is ice strengthened. The ship is the size of a large destroyer and can accommodate 200 people. Of special importance in the hanger accommodation for 2 large Oryx helicopters. An Oryx is a South African copy  of a French Puma helicopter. Remember the ship must visit all three stations annually to replace staff and carry adequate supplies to last through the winter. All waste from the stations must be taken away as well.

I mentioned that the current mainland station is called SANAE IV. Stations tend to have a short life because over not much time at all the get buried in the snow. The current station was built in 1997 and raised up on stilts to avoid this and to just let the snow blow through. This design has been copied by newer stations. It houses 10 in winter and 50 in summer.

SANAE IV station. Notice the stilts and the red painted roofs to make it more visible from the air

The Agulhas had a bad December 1991 despite being honoured that month with a stamp. The ships rudder broke and it got stuck in a ice drift off of Gough Island. The German icebreaker and research ship R V Polarstern was able to free it. In 2002 The Agulhas’s helicopters were able to free the crew of the Russian cargo vessel M V Magdalina  Oldendorff. Part of the Antarctic Treaty is that everybody cooperates regarding safety.

Not everything is safe on board though and not just from the cold. There have been two shipboard murders on board. One by axe and one by stabbing. The charges were dropped in the first case and the suspect in the second case went overboard to escape justice. The ship was replaced in 2012 in it’s Antarctic duties by the Finnish made S A Agulhas II. Agulhas still serves as a training vessel.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the hearty crews of Antarctica stations and the ships that supply them. Sounds like great adventure but I wish they would describe more what scientific advances are being made. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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United Nations(Geneva offices)2000, Painters for the new century

When you enter a new century, it is a good time to check out what is going on in the arts. The UN is in an especially good place to do that as they have offices and representatives everywhere. What did they find? 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.

The competition featured artists from around the world and all the entries went on a traveling exhibition from London to Brussels, then Stockholm, then New York City. Six stamps featured art from the exhibition with 2 stamps each issued by UN offices in New York, in Geneva, and Vienna. The artists were 1 American, 1 Japanese, 1 Philippine, 1 Kenyan, 1 Greek, and 1 Lebanese, Rita Adaimy the painter of “The Embrace” on this stamp and the only female.

Todays stamp is issue A319, a .90 Swiss Franc stamp issued by the United Nations on May 30th, 2000. The two Geneva issues had different denominations with this the lower. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.10 used. Though this is a Geneva issue, I got it in a pack of stamps I bought at the UN headquarters gift shop in New York in 2013. After getting home from that trip, I put the pack aside unopened till I found and opened it last week. Ah, Lost treasures…

The millennium art competition show us where the art world was at. Despite attracting entrants from around the world the entries turned in were remarkably uniform. In this case it might lead you to believe that Auguste Rodin might have an outsized influence on the contemporary female artists of Lebanon. Perhaps he does and maybe that is not so bad. Imagine a similar competition from the dawn of the 20th century, you would have had fewer entrants from fewer places but you would have had much more diversity of style. You also would be dealing with art from Rodin himself rather than someone who ripped him off.

Artist self portrait as a cross stitch pattern. Try that Rodin

Ms. Adaimy is still an artist and Pharmacy educator in Lebanon. She recently participated in a multi section mural at the Lebanon Museum of Contemporary Art. The mural is in the graffiti style and sponsored by the European Union in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the UN Human Rights Commission.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the UN for showing us the state of the art world in this millennium. That the state is not so good in not their fault. At least they are not yet doing a stamp set on the current state of postage stamp gasbaggery. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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West Germany 1970, showing off a little of Munich in the excitement leading up to the 1972 Olympics

When Bavaria was a separate German Kingdom, much work was done transforming Munich into an important cultural center. This legacy meant there was still a lot to show off when it was Germany’s time again to shine at the Olympics. We know the 1972 Olympics didn’t come off the way West Germany hoped, but this stamp lets us go back to the runup when people were excited that it might. 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 semi postal issue, the surcharge went to Olympic promotion, shows off some of the architecture of Munich. In this case the Residenz Palace. This housed the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach when in Munich. The castle was started in 1385 as a sanction against the City of Munich after an uprising against King Stephen III. The castle was much expanded over the years and is today the largest urban palace in Germany. The facade shown on the stamp is the Konigsbau, which was added by King Ludwig I in 1835. The Wittelsbachs are of course no longer in residence. I did a stamp of the last Bavarian Kings here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/14/bavaria-1900-with-king-otto-too-crazy-to-rule-the-prince-regent-peacefully-eases-into-germany/     . As a result when war damage was repaired, it was done in a much simpler style. The current Wittelsbach pretenders still reside in the separate Nymphenburg  Palace, which sounds like a fun place to live, but not for locked up Otto.

Todays stamp is issue SP299, a 10 +5 Pfennig stamp issued by West Germany on June 5th, 1970. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

Munich was awarded the 1972 Olympic Summer Games over bids from Madrid, Montreal, and Detroit. The slogan for the Olympics was the “Cheerful Games”. They went all out on new Olympic venues and the female hostesses dressed in traditional Beer Garden atire. For the first time there was an official mascot for an Olympics, a dachshund plushtoy named Waldi. The course of the marathon was laid out in the shape of a dachshund. Is it just me or does all of this sound a little out of Germany’s comfort zone. Well maybe Bavaria is a little different.

Waldi and pretty girl from Munich

God did not grant Germany a cheerful Olympics. Israeli athletes were attacked and held during the second week of the games by Palestinians. There was a shoot out eventually at a military airport and 11 athletes, a German police Sargant, and all but three of the attackers were killed. Germany perhaps compounded their black eye by trading the facing trial attackers for hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. Israel over the next years hunted down and killed two of the Palestinian attackers in operations that very much resembled Nazi Hunters from the decade before.

The Olympics were not a success. They had also cost three times what Mexico spent on the 1968 games. Waldi took a little bit of a hit to his reputation. The dachshund was supposed to represent resistance, tenacity, and agility. These are good things for an athlete. There were however now unofficial posters of Waldi using the Olympic Tower as a fire hydrant.

Well my drink is empty and and I will pour another to toast Waldi. Sure the Olympics didn’t work, but Germany was asking an awful lot from one of it’s plush toys. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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USA 2020, This is a REAL stamp. Hmmmm…..

I got this in the mail from a charity. This label showed though a clear window on the envelope with a big “This is a real stamp” and an arrow to it, see below. Whether it is or not is a good question. 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.

The envelope I got

Stamps. com allows you to download an image and have it printed on their shipping label. The Paralyzed Veterans of America, a charity I do support, hoped that by including a stamp you are more likely to return their request for a donation. Their logo of a wheelchair bound veteran/soldier saluting is included. Interestingly the request included a no postage necessary business reply mail envelope so they wanted you to return the label to them unused. To me this is not a good message from the charity. They will spend any donation I give soliciting more donations rather than on helping the American hero in the wheelchair.

While this has no value to a collector. Remember the old stamp collecting rule, if it is not in the catalog, it is not a real stamp. So we have the basic argument between collector and postal patron. The patron will remind you that this will get your letter mailed, so case closed. I disagree, so will a metering label but people understand that is not a stamp. It does have a value of 55 cents though, and that is more than twice the catalog value of most of the stamps in my collection.

Stamps.com was founded in 1996 in El Segundo California by three Masters of Business Administration candidates at the University of California at Los Angeles. The original name was Stampsmaster but it was the bubble stock market dot com era and the name was quickly changed. Interesting that no stamp dealer had grabbed stamps.com. When I started this site nearly 3 years ago, I had to put the dash in the domain because I couldn’t get thephilatelist.com. The dash probably cuts my views in half. Well enough of my whining, lets get back to the go go big money 90s. In a year and half the company had received 36 million dollars of angel investor funding, including a personal investment from American Postmaster General Marvin Runyon. They then, still within the year and a half, cashed out with an ipo in the public market that raised over 50 million dollars. The postal service was working with them on private but official postage delivered over the internet. The iffy double dealing with the Postmaster saw the law changed to allow advertising on the internet label-stamps.

Then Postmaster General and former Ford and Nissan executive Marvin Runyon. His nickname was Marvelous Marv.

After the dot com bust, stamps.com realized what the postal service or any stamp dealer could have told them. Stamps are a small margin business with declining volume over time. They still exist as they have diversified by buying shipping companies but are loosing money.

The download your own picture to our label model was spoofed in 2004 by the celebrity mug shot website, thesmokinggun.com. They successfully ordered USA legal stamps with images on them of notorious figures like Slobodan Milosovich and Monica Lewinsky of blue dress fame. Stamps.com refined their rules to ban any vintage image.

Well my drink is empty and I think I will have a few more while I ponder angel investors with big money interested in money losing stamp websites. Come again on Monday for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Brazil 1933, Lets talk more of Rio and less of Sao Paulo with all their coffee and cream politics

Power centers can shift in a large country with internal migration and economic change. During this time Sao Paulo was in open rebellion after it’s monopoly on power was removed. 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.

The stamp celebrates the first century of the small city of Vassouras near Rio. One century sounds like a short time but Vassouras was an older city that harkened back to the days of Empire, before Sao Paulo took center stage.

Todays stamp is issue A112, a 200 Reis stamp issued by the Central government of Brazil on January 15, 1933. That year the rebels in Sao Paulo had their own stamps which were weirdly declared real Brazil stamps after the uprising was put down. This was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents used.

In the 1880s slavery was abolished and there was a large migration of the newly freed to the south. The economy was also shifting with less emphasis on the sugar cane agriculture up north to coffee production in the south. The Monarchy was also fizzling out with no realistic heir and what replaced it was the new coffee and cream politics centered on fast growing Sao Paulo. Between 1890 and 1930 an informal arrangement was made between the comparatively rich and populous southern states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais that former governors of the two states would rotate as President of Brazil. The style of ruling was called coffee and cream politics because of the backing of gentry coffee planters and the creamy whiteness of the politicians.

Change is constant and the early 20th century began to see a growth of a middle class and industry in the cities. These people were to the left of the coffee and creamers that had an electoral lock on the Presidency. In 1930 a new coffee and cream guy was elected but the state refused to inaugurate him. Instead the army appointed former general Getulio Vargas as interim President and suspended the constitution. In 1932 Sao Paulo rebelled demanding a reinstatement of the Constitution and the seating of elected in 1930 coffee and creme guy. In control in Sau Paulo, the Paulites began to march toward the capital then still in Rio.

Uncle Coffee Planter wants you for the Revolution.

The Army proved loyal to Vargus and successfully blocked the path to Rio. The Brazilian Navy then began to blockade Sao Paulo preventing the arming of the army the coffee planters had raised with imported heavy weapons. The fight than seemed to shift to the idea of Sao Paulo  breaking away to become independent of Brazil. However the Paulista rebels were badly outnumbered and gave up before the national army reached Sao Paulo.

Counterpoint, The kids love Vargas

In 1934, Vargas was elected as President and ruled off and on into the 1950s. His opposition increasingly became hard leftists and facists. This took the form of coup scheme called the Cohen plan. Then there was a Nazi Intregalist coup attempt. Despite surviving all this and being one of Brazil’s longest rulers, Vargas got tired of the fight and killed himself while in office in 1954.

Well my drink is empty and I am now convinced that it is no fun being the President of Brazil. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Tahiti 1934, Will Britain help defend the eye eating Queen Pomare

The Dutch, the British, and the French were rushing around the islands of the pacific staking their claims. Often under the guise of bringing Christianity to non believers. What happens though when a local Queen has already been converted and here comes another ship of Europeans of another country and denomination? A war. 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 usually am a fan of French colonial stamps but this one leaves me a little flat. I suppose spear fishing is exotic if not unique, I did a British Guyana stamp showing an Indian spear fishing here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/13/british-guiana-1934-interesting-picture-but-the-wrong-type-of-indian/    . The French presence in Tahiti was cloaked though in the duty of of bringing civilization and Christian Salvation to Tahiti. Might a small part of that include giving the local fellow a fishing pole?

Todays stamp is issue A12, a 2 Centimes stamp issued by the French Colony of French Oceania in 1934. This was a long running 37 stamp issue in various denominations. Among the variations were versions overstamped France Libre to signal Tahiti being in Free French hands during the war  and a version considered fake that lack the RF in the corner. They were put out by the Vichy government but not actually used for postage. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth 35 cents unused.

Tahiti was first occupied by Polynesians around 300 AD. They had came by small boat from the west. European visitors included first Portuguese, then Dutch, then British,  and even Spaniards coming from the other direction, their colony in Peru. Individual islands in the area often had a local King or Chief who was affiliated but not directly ruled by Queen Pomare. The London Missionary Society had established a permanent presence in the area in 1797. They were Protestants lead by a Welch Congregationalist. In 1812, they succeeded in converting the Royal Family of Tahiti.

In 1834, a group of French Catholic Missionaries landed but were not allowed to stay. They reported back that Tahiti was still far from civilized. The easily understood and true point that they harped upon was the tradition of Queen Pomare to eat the eye of a defeated foe. Ignoring the sovereignty of the “eye eating” Queen, France unilaterally declared Tahiti a French Protectorate to allow their Catholic Missionaries to operate freely. They backed up their words with a few gunboats and 400 marines. The Tahitians fought and fought hard. It took over 3 years for the last of the Queen’s strongholds to fall to the French. Giving hope to the Tahititians and making the French quite nervous was the presence of a large British naval squadron off shore. The ships were vaguely on the Tahitian side as they were aware of the presence of the London Missionary Society.

Queen Pomare sought refuge on the nearby island of Raiatea that had successfully repelled a smaller French landing. British Admiral George Seymour was invited ashore to have an audience with Queen Pomare. She tried to get the British to intervene on Tahitians behalf. She pointed to how long they had held out and how much stronger the British fleet in the area was. The Admiral came out and said that in his opinion the French declarations regarding Tahiti were null and void but that he did not have authority to intervene without instructions from London. Despite having disappointed Queen Pomare, he was allowed to return to his ship with his eyes. She then agreed to a new offer from the French that she be allowed to return to her Throne on Tahiti in return for accepting French Protectorate status. Queen Pomare IV stayed on her Throne for another 30 years in her new status. The French apparently got used to working with an eye eater.

Queen Pomare IV of Tahiti

The London Missionary Society had a lasting effect. Even after 150 years of French Catholic rule, the church going population of Tahiti is 60 percent Protestant versus 30 percent Catholic. One wonders if the French Marines, many who died, would have elected to stay on their gunboats if they knew the outcome.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the efforts of the London Missionary Society. Tahiti definitely seems a place you should go in with your eyes wide open. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Honduras 1976, don’t worry Honduran girls, Bananagate bribes will trickle down to you

What is a country to do when it comes time to participate in a United Nations Year of the Woman. Well to be honest things aren’t too good for women in Honduras. So how about just show the First Lady and the youth centers she claims to have done so much for. 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 stamp shows a youth center in San Pedro Sula and First Lady Gloria de Lopez Arellano. I can find no current listing for the youth center, though it may have evolved into the San Pedro Sula Dream Center  that allows Americans to sponsor a poor child there and hosts Christian mission trips. Speaking of not being current, the stamp is from 1976 when the year of the woman was 1975. Also not current, the First Lady, her husband General (de facto President Lopez Arellano) had been forced out the year before after being caught up in Bananagate.

Todays stamp is issue C575, a 30 Centavo airmail stamp issued by Honduras on March 5th, 1976. It was a 7 stamp issue in various denominations. Overprints with various currency revaluations of this issue were coming out into the late 1980s. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents used.

Former Honduran Air Force General Oswaldo Lopez Arellano had first served as de facto President after a coup in 1963. In 1971 there were elections that installed a new President. The new President left Lopez Arellano as head of the armed forces and was rewarded with another coup a year later. The central American countries were attempting to form a cartel to control and get paid more for banana exports to the USA. Europeans were getting their bananas from the Guyanas and were not involved,. The cartel attempted to impose a doubling of the fee per case on bananas exported. Allegedly half of the increase went to the governments and half went to independent farmers.

United Brands, the parent company of Chiquita Bananas got much of their supply from Honduras. The new fees were costing the company 7.5 million dollars a year. The then CEO Eli Black had the idea to bribe Lopez Arellano 1.25 million dollars of company funds immediately with an additional 1.25 million when the export fee in Honduras was cut in half. When this was done it spelled the end of the central American banana cartel. The American Securities and Exchange Commission found out about the bribes. When Eli Black could not convince the SEC to drop the case, he committed suicide by jumping from the 47th floor of the Pan Am building in New York City. Two months after Black’s suicide, Lopez Arellano was forced out by a coup by a rival General. The new General naturally blamed Chiquita and nationalized the local facilities. The episode is known in Honduras as Bananagate

Chiquita Banana CEO Eli Black and the Pan Am building he jumped from

A year of the woman stamp requires that we check in how women are fairing in Honduras. The UN keeps such statistics. Their Gender inequality index is .479 which means women there have 52% of the prosperity of men. The UN includes much talk of toxic machismo and introduces a term I hadn’t heard before. They claim the country on average suffers 32 instances a month of femicide. A femicide is the gender based murder of a woman or a girl by a man. The UN further ranks Honduras 132 out of 189 countries based on their treatment of women.

Well my drink is empty and I am wondering if Honduras would have been better off skipping their late celebration of the year of the woman. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Austria 1983, 150 years of preserving the history of Linz

Modern stamps do so much to honor milestones of institutions. Perhaps too much, wouldn’t today’s letter writer rather get excited about where his people are going rather than how his ancestors were long ago. So to make it more relatable, I thought I would get into why the institution on this stamp got going, and a little on how close it is sticking to it’s mission. 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 afraid this is a fairly drab likeness of the historic building that houses the Francisco-Carolinum Museum. The drab presentation is done perhaps to imply correctly that the museum has itself downplayed the historic in order to display mainly modern photograph arts. Well those folks probably throw better conventions than the history crowd.

Todays stamp is issue A655, a 4 Shilling stamp issued by Austria on November 4th, 1983. It was a single stamp issue honoring the 150th anniversary of the museum administative organization of Upper Austria in Linz. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

The museum was founded by Linz lawyer and city administrator Reichritter Anton von Spaun. von Spaun was an avid collector of historic documents and his personal collection became a basis for the archive. A special interest of his was the folk music and folk dancing of the area. He felt knowledge of this past was at risk of being lost with the movement of people to the cities.

Museum and Upper Austria archive founder Anton von Spaun

The historic building that houses the museum was acquired in 1895 and the agency has since acquired a local castle and taken charge of several other historic sites around Upper Austria.

Understandably there was a big reorganization of the organization in 1946. The emphasis of the flagship museum changed from preservation of the historical record of the area toward displays of a now fairly extensive collection of modern art with an emphasis on photography. Perhaps an interesting lesson of what happens to even a well funded history museum  and archive when nobody cool wants to talk history.

A print by Eva Schlegel from the modern photography collection

Well my drink is empty and perhaps I have had enough as that photo of the girl from the museum collection just seems a blur. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Nigeria 1936, the Apapa Port Complex helps make Lagos an important city

The British involvement in Lagos began as part of their early 19th century efforts to stamp out the slave trade. That accomplished, why not stick around and see what can be done with the place. A railroad could be built that went right up to the port. If there is to be a port for real ships, there will have to be dredging of the sandbars and something must be done about the violent tides. Gosh this sounds like a lot of work. Here’s hoping when it is done people will remember who got it done in a desolate place. Maybe if there was a stamp? 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 stamp was part of the Silver Jubilee stamp issues that came throughout the Empire celebrating the long, and nearly over reign of King George V. What was really great about them is that the standard design allowed a window into the actual colony. What a great thing for a collector, the comfort and beauty of a standard design and then the intrigue of the window to the far off place. The Apapa port really was a lot of work, and still important 100 years later, and stamp collectors get to open a window to it.

Todays stamp is issue A2, a half Penny stamp issued by the Colony of Nigeria on February 1st, 1936. It was a twelve stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.50 unused.

The area around Lagos was first spotted by the Portuguese. The name comes from the Portuguese word of Lakes. After the British declared the slave trade illegal and that slave ships were pirate ships, the Royal Navy sent a naval squadron  to patrol the west African coast from Sierra Leonne south. There was still many slaves going to Brazil and Cuba. The slaves the navy freed were often dropped off in Lagos. The freed slaves began to wield some power in the African lead Kingdom of Lagos and when the Lagos King went after them, the British intervened on their behalf. The Kingdom of Lagos accepted British domination and outlawed slavery. With threats perceived from nearby French outposts, it was decided to formalize Lagos as a colony.

Well with a lot of new people and the banning of the biggest industry, thing may have not looked so rosy for Lagos. Well there still was the palm oil trade and agricultural opportunities and starting in 1898 the British constructed a rail network deep into the interior of the country. The spot where the new train got to the coast at Apapa was chosen to be the main port of Lagos. There were big problems. Sandbars made navigation through the harbor difficult and near impossible  for big ships. The tides also were a big challenge regarding water depth. In 1906, British money was appropriated for a massive dredging of Lagos harbor and two large moles were constructed. Moles are large stone breakwaters the ease the tide issue. Then in 1919 a 180 foot wharf was constructed  and four large ship berths with a total length of 1800 feet were completed in 1926. The port has had three major extensions since.

One thing the British got wrong was the overemphasis on the train line. By the time the port was operating and especially after independence, trucks became much more important in the movement of goods. Dealing with the traffic congestion has been a constant and ongoing issue. Meanwhile the railway system deteriorated with all rail service ending and the government owned railway declared bankrupt in 1988. Lagos however is now a megacity with the busiest port in Africa and over 16 million people. The port is now, since 2005 operated by the Danish firm Maersk.

The hustle an bustle of Apapa in more modern times

Well my drink is empty and thanks to this stamp we can  pour another to toast those with the vision to construct a large port where nature wasn’t on their side. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Poland 1951, Hilary Minc has a 6 year plan to get German industry working again and build a Socialist Dream city in Nova Huta

I like a good communist 5 year(well in this case 6 year) plan stamp that tells the people what their leaders will be doing for them. Promises can be measured against results. At the end of this 6 year plan, Hilary Minc, the architect of it, was tossed out of the Politburo, so there were consequences for failure. 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 Philatelists.

This stamp presents an understandably misleading picture of the 6 year plan. Constructing of urban apartment blocks was actually slowing under this plan. The last plan had been about rebuilding. This plan was about redeveloping industry and a communist dream city in Crackow. Chemical factories and utopias for bigshots might be a little too honest to put on the stamps.

Todays stamp is issue A193, a 30 Groszy stamp issued by Poland in 1951. It was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

The first 3 year plan from 1947 -1949 had gone reasonably well and concentrated on rebuilding the cities after the damage of the war. For the next one, more ambition was shown. Much assistance from the Soviets would be involved and Stalin personally picked Hilary Minc to lead the effort. He was a Jew that had gone east to avoid the Germans during the war and joined fellow travelers in Russia in forming the Union of Polish Patriots that sought to replace the prewar Polish regime with a Jewish, communist one post war.

Hilary Minc

Who he was had a great deal of influence on what was in the plan. There was a special emphasis on getting old German industry in the former German territory working again but without Germans. The chemical works that had once belonged to IG Farben and the synthetic rubber plant Buna Werke. These plants had been closely associated with forced mostly Jewish labor from Auschwitz during the war. It was thus very important that the previous crimes there be revenged by Jewish ownership. Understandable until you remember Poland is a large majority Catholic country. The Soviet help was still industrial but at least more aimed at the people with help with steel mills and car factories, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/03/11/philatelist-2-parter-polish-pontoon-today-versus-tomorrows-german-fintail/  .

A six year plan should also include a vision of a better future. The area of Crackow known as Nowa Huta was singled out for redevelopment. The model city was designed to resemble Paris. Remember the Union of “Polish” Patriots had lived much of their life in exile, and lefty exile in Europe means much time in Paris.

Nowa Huta, socialist dream city

The 6 year plan was not much of a success. Poland was falling behind economically. They even had to reintroduce some rationing because agriculture was being neglected and mismanaged. The formerly German industry was no longer using Jewish labor, just Jewish management. In October 1956 workers rose up in strike and protest demanding a more Polish route to socialism. The protest centered on Wroclaw, the former German city of Breslau. In response there was a purge in the higher ups of Polish leadership. It was marketed as a repudiation of Stalinists, but hit pretty hard on the Union of “Polish” Patriots. Hilary Minc was even forced out of the communist party.

Well my drink is empty and I will ask that my stories be judged as a body of work and that I not be purged. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.