Here we have another story involving the lead times of esspecially farm out stamps. The country name on the stamp, Malagasy had gone away with the change of government in 1992. The Cadillac automobile on the stamp is a 1985 model last built in 1988. The date on the stamp is indeed 1992 though the issue date on the stamp is 1993. Time isn’t on this stamps side. 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 shouldn’t like this stamp but I do. I talked above about the timing issues but the fact that they put this particular model of Cadillac on a stamp from a place where I would be surprised if even a single example sold intrigues me. I am actually a fan of this model, but most Cadillac fans hate them as just too small and unflashy. This raises the intriguing to me question of whether the stamp designer just lazily grabbed a stock picture of a Cadillac, or were the picking it to make fun?
Todays stamp is issue A351, a 6o Franc stamp issued by the Madagascar Third Republic on January 28th, 1993. It was an eight stamp issue in various denominations. Each stamp features a slightly out of date model of a different manufacturer. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents cancelled. The stamp is this issue with a Renault automobile is imperferate for some reason and that bounces the value of it to $3.00.
Cadillacs were always very large and flashy luxury cars. Where they had offered a smaller model, it was aimed at female and urban drivers. In the late 1970s, American car manufactures were going to be required by the government for the cars they sell to have a set standard of fuel economy. At first Cadillac tried to finesse the issue by offering diesels and offering a gizmo on their gas engine that could turn off two or even four cylinders of their V8 engine to benefit economy. Unfortunately the economy benefit was not enough and further both gas and diesel engine proved troublesome. What was Cadillac to do? The conventional wisdom was that they should build much smaller cars more in the style of Mercedes.
Instead, and why I really like them, they tried to match as much as possible a traditional Cadillac just on a smaller scale. The cars became front wheel drive and mutch boxier to match the ample room of the old. The car still had a V8 engine, with traditional American low end torque but now smaller, cast in aluminum, and mounted transversely. Cadillac was the first manufacturer in the world to offer such a package and it was never common. Though rack and pinion steering and an independant rear suspension was added, the tuning though was to match the old smoothness and quiet. The car was 2 feet shorter and 800 pounds lighter than the car it replaced. In my opinion, and I am a tiny minority of Cadillac fans, the car was a tech masterstroke. Though early sales were good, rival Lincoln hit back with an all American “Mine’s Bigger” ad campaign. The fact that Lincoln was still bigger had more to do lead times than anything else but small big style Cadillac sales went down and the old Lincoln sales went up. Then later in 1985 the Government froze the fuel economy standard and thus the big Lincoln was allowed to continue. In 1989, Cadillac restyled this car to make it look bigger.
The transition from Malagasy to Madagascar was not very successful. The country had the same strongman since 1975 and in 1991 400, 000 marched to the Presidential Palace outside the capital demanding change. The Presidential guard dispersed the crowd by firing on them from helicopters targeting leaders. The President than agreed to the transition of power and a new election that he lost. Though there was the complication in that the strongman refused to vacate the Presidential Palace. He was right to stick it out as his replacement proved even more incompetent and was impeached. The country then reelected the strongman but he did not revert the name of the country to Malagasy.
Well my drink is empty and I like it when one stamp allows me to gasbag on about vastly different topics. Come again tomorrow for another that can be learned from stamp collecting.