Month: September 2020

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Germany 2005. Die Brucke, For 100 years there has been a bridge, should you take it?

“We call all young people together, who carry the future in us, we want to wrest freedom of our actions and our lives from the older comfortably established forces”. This was from the manifesto of the young German expressionist art group that this stamp remembers 100 years later. The group called itself the bridge, but was that really the only bridge to take? Might there have been another that uplifts the viewer of the art not just the artist. 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.

Look at the darkness of this woodblock image on the stamp. An underage girl, not trying to make a record of her innocent beauty, but rather how she appeared in the twice her age artist’s den of “free love”. Was the artist made better from the experience. Was the young girl. Was the viewer of the art. Or are we all just a little dirtier.

Todays stamp is issue A1174, a 55 Euro cents stamp issued by Germany on May12th, 2005. It was a single stamp issue. According to Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 75 cents used.

Around 1900, there was much innovation going on in the Paris art world. Where does that leave the artists of other places. To a group of German artists toiling away at their upper middle class University this was an opportunity. They were not interested in creating traditional art. Rather they wanted to to do a more German version of what was going on in Paris with the Fauvists. Typical not as smart as they think they are out of the box thinking that is really pressing up on the box. There were of course paintings, but they went back to pre Christian Germany and sought to recreate the old woodblock art of that time. To banish their minds of their upper class comforts, Die Brucke rented a former butcher shop in the seedier side of Dresden. The studio justified their mostly underage subjects by saying the bodies are less damaged by the corsets of period mature women. Also more fun to have in a free love den where nudity was encouraged.

Self portrait of the artists of Die Brucke. Notice the pink factory outside the window to give them that “men of the people” look.

Most of the artists of the group faded away into jobs in academia. Their art, though remembered, was not commercially successful in the period. As the young rebels matured they faced a different Germany that was as denouncing of them as they were to their parents. The style of art was branded un German, anarchist, and Jewish, some of the artists were some weren’t. The Nazis were or course wrong about so much, but I am not sure they were wrong about Die Brucke.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast those that push back against the drive away from civilization. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Saint Kitts & Nevis 1920, The Society of Adventurers survives the Bloody Point thanks to Barbe

Saint Kitts and Nevis are islands in the Leeward chain that are only two miles apart. The portraits of British King George V show him in an explorative mood, so why not learn a little of the colonies founding. 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.

These issue of stamps show the King in various adventurous poses beside his official profile. This is perhaps in keeping with the colony being founded by a Society of Adventurers acting with a Royal patent. Most would not have thought of George V as an adventurer. Philatelists knew different. The King had put together one of the world’s great stamp collections. To do that requires more than a little adventure.

Todays stamp is issue A3, a half penny stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Saint Kitts and Nevis in 1920. The two islands now have separate stamp issues. This was a thirteen stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $6.00 used.

Before Europeans found the islands, there were three groups of Indians that had occupied the volcanic islands. Not much of known about the first group called Sibony because they left behind no relics of having been there. The Taino people followed about 800 AD but were believed to be fewer in number. Lastly the islands were conquered by the Caribe Indians, who were quite warlike, and perhaps because so, were again fewer in number. Christopher Columbus was the first European to spot the islands on his second voyage and later Sir Francis Drake visited. One early British explorer that did well financially from his visit was Bartholomew Gilbert. He did not try to set up an outpost but rather collected samples of exotic plant life and their seeds that he then traded back in Britain. He had done the same thing on Cape Cod in the USA.

In 1620 three British gentlemen received a patent from King James I to colonize the Leeward Islands. They formed a Society of Adventurers and arrived on Saint Kitts with 15 settlers in 1623. They found Caribe Chief Tegremante agreeable to selling some land. Tegremante already had a steady business offering refuge to Frenchmen needing a place to hide. The first years tobacco and vegetable crop was mostly wiped out by a hurricane that September but the colony survived. In 1625 a heavily armed French warship arrived and both the Society of Adventurers colony and the Caribe came to terms with the French presence. They were heavily armed. When Cardinal Richelieu heard of the success, he formed a French company to exploit Saint Kitts and bought 60 slaves in Senegal  for it.

Chief Tegremante decided in 1826 there were too many Europeans and slaves on his islands and began quietly bringing in extra Caribe warriors to raid the French and British settlements. A native woman named Barbe warned the Society of Adventurers what was about to happen. The settlement then invited the Caibe for a large party where the liqour flowed freely. Then overnight they themselves raided Chief Tegremante’s camp when they were not in a position to know what hit them. Most of the high chiefs including Tigremante were killed.

The next day the thousands of Caribe warriors were angry but in disarray. At a place now called Bloody Point there was a large battle. 2000 Caribe and two hundred settlers died. Several more settlers were left insane from injuries sustained. The Caribe had been dipping their arrows in a poison from the machineel tree. It was decided jointly with the French to remove the remaining Caribe to Dominica. Barbe was allowed to stay. This is portrayed today as a genocide among those steeped in sore loserism.

The Society of Adventurers merged into the Royal African Company in 1664. The French company also merged into a larger one in 1665. After that relations between the French and British settlements on Saint Kitts deteriorated. In 1666 at the battle of Sandy Point the French were defeated and the British had the islands to themselves. The new company management was more about profit than adventure and the main cash crop moved from tobacco to more slave labor intensive sugar cane. The planters became rich, and Saint Kitts was the richest colony per capita in the British Empire at the time of the American Revolution. That number of course requires you to not count the many slaves and count the Jewish planters of Spanish heritage as British.

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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Egypt 1953. Big changes coming for farmers, small farms but a big dam and even a new valley

After the end of the Monarchy, Egypt has been governed by the top down but in the socialist style. That as meant land reform and giant projects to turn the deserts green and get agriculture beyond the Nile Valley. 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 was the first issue of stamps after Egypt became a republic. On them we have a modern farmer, a modern soldier, and an ancient profile of Queen Nefertiti. The farmer had the task of feeding locally a fast growing population. A soldier, finally local who would keep out any would be colonials. An ancient Queen, a strong contrast to the recently deposed and a reminder of when Egypt was important in the world. Not bad for a first issue.

Todays stamp is issue A109, a three Millimes stamp issued by the Egyptian Republic in 1953. This was a 19 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents used.

Agriculture in Egypt used to center on raising cotton in the Nile Valley mainly for export. The British had built a much smaller dam at Aswan in 1903. After the republic was declared there was a large scale land reform. Farm size was limited to 190 feddans. A feddan is about the size of acre and comes from the Arabic for the yoke of an oxen. That is the area than an oxen can be expected to till in a period of time. The government was trying to discourage cotton in favor of food grains. It was important so less food would have to be imported and population was rising fast. That population meant a further land reform in 1969 that now limited farms to 50 feddans

The Aswan High Dam was completed in 1970. It increased arable land by about a third. There was still big problems with irrigation. Over use of wells caused seawater intrusion into the aquafers and the government became ever more concerned of water usage. In the mid 1980s the drought in Ethiopia caused water levels in Lake Nasser to fall to scary low levels. Then God/Allah smiled. The water level in the 1990s rose beyond the amount governed by the Nile deal with Sudan. This water was free for Egypt to use as it saw fit.

Starting in 1997, work started on  a new canal running west and then north from Lake Nasser for a length of 200 miles. The idea was that the New Valley project would open new land to live in and be available for agriculture and industry. Construction was slow going but in 2005 a new large pumping station named after President Mubarak started sending water up the part of the canal already dug and as well to a new series of lakes named Toshka after a former village now at the bottom of Lake Nasser.

The change in government in 2011 saw progress on the New Valley stop. The project was labeled a boondoggle and could never work due to the ever present problem of salt intrusion and evaporation. The soil near the canal also suffers from much clay, The current government under President el-Sisi restarted work. He has pledged that half the newly useful land be given to recent college graduates one feddan each if they agree to use it. The plan is funded by something called the Long Live Egypt Fund.

New Valley Canal

Agriculture has changed again in recent years. As with other countries like China with large populations and limited farmland, it is realized that grains are poor uses of scarce land compared to fruits and vegetables. Dates and figs of course but also onions, eggplant, strawberries and watermelon. Around the time of this stamp, 87 percent of Egyptian exports were cotton. Now agricultural exports are down to 11 percent.

Well my drink is empty and I hope dear readers you are enjoying this kick I have been on lately of turning deserts green. I had no idea how many projects there were to do such things that seem so antithetical in this time of climate doom. Not the kind of story I expected to learn from stamp collecting. Come again tomorrow.

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Austria 1976, Remembering Rilke and his thing poems translating Rodin

A recurring theme that keeps coming up in what we learn here through postage stamps is what a productive period there was in the arts in the first decade of the 20th century. Here we have a Bohemian poet who was so taken by how sculptor Auguste Rodin studied a subject before sculpting it he became his secretary and used what he learned to develop a new type of poetry, thing poems. 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 image on the stamp is an accurate one of a dark mysterious bohemian figure. Quite apart from the aristocracy of Vienna in Rilke’s time. Yet this fellow, born in Prague who accomplished most of his best work in Paris and Zurich is being portrayed as Austrian. This is based on the borders of then Austria Hungary of the time. This was from 1976 before the EU was actively began minimizing Euro nations differences. To American eyes, it seems a little odd.

Todays stamp is issue A465, a 3 Schilling stamp issued by Austria on December 26th, 1976. It was a single stamp issue on the 50th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke’s death. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Rene Maria Rilke was born in Prague to wealthy parents. His mother was distraught over loosing Rene’s older sister at ten days of age. She treated and dressed Rene as a girl. When Rene’s parent’s marriage broke up, his father sent him to military school in hopes of toughening him up but Rene dropped out. At 16 he was on is own. He took up with a much older married female psychoanalyst Lou Andreas Salome. She made Rene a frequent travel companion visiting European artistic salons. She helped him prepare for University examinations and encouraged him to change his name to Rainer to be more masculine. After University in Switzerland he made is way to Paris. He married and stayed married to sculptor Clara Westoff but they were separated for most of their marriage.

Rene Andreas Rilke as a feminine child
Rilke mentor, patron and lover Lou Andreas Salome

In Paris Rilke became the secretary of sculptor  Auguste Rodin. He also wrote a biography and an academic presentation on Rodin. Rodin made extremely in depth studies of his subjects before sculpting. This inspired Rilke to change the style of his poems from the subjects of romance or loneliness to long poems that very closely and realistically described things. The subjects of his thing poems were often flowers and written as sonnets and mostly written in French.

As with many other creative types in that period, World War I intruded. He was banned from Paris and his apartment there was raided with his possessions taken and auctioned off due to his Austrian citizenship. In Prague, he was deeply depressed and desperately trying to avoid military service. His beliefs became more left wing and political. In 1916 he was able with rich patronage to get established in a Swiss mansion. He was a big proponent of the Bavarian Soviet Republic but took it hard when it failed. In the early 1920s, there was finally another productive period for his poetry before succumbing to poor health from leukemia that ended his life in 1926.

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Israel 1989, Floating in the Dead Sea, ironically great for the health

Israel has become a top tourist destination. The area is quite historic in three religions. No Muslims don’t travel there but the sites allow others to explore the Muslim sites without threats from being non believers. Israel also offers a hospitable Mediterranean climate and so has been trying to branch out to the beach party crowd. This stamp also hints at the unique experience available at the natural wonder of the Dead Sea. 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 issue from 1989 does a good job  of showing there was more to do in Israel than visit historic sites. Temperate beaches are also on offer. Tourism got going in Israel by offering Christian centered tours of sites from early Christianity. This was a bigger business than the visits of Jews. Visiting beaches can add a new dimension to expand the industry and has been a goal all the way back to 1989.

Todays stamp is issue A434, a 60 Agorot stamp issued by Israel on March 12, 1989. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents whether used or unused.

Tourism is a big and growing business in Israel. It employs over 300, 000 workers and generates about 6 percent of GNP and export revenue. Over 60 percent of visitors are Christian and many from the USA. Recently the country has been welcoming more visitors from poorer parts of Europe like Romania and the Ukraine. Also Chinese tourists are becoming ever more common. There is no mention in the literature of visitors from Muslim countries. Perhaps that will soon change with peace being admitted with the Gulf States that have recently become so important to international air travel.

This stamp promotes visiting the Dead Sea which at first seems a hard sell. The Dead Sea lies 1200 feet below sea level and consistently has very high temperatures and little rainfall. The Dead Sea name comes from the very high salt content of the water preventing any sea life. The salt content of the water is not from being so far below sea level but rather the very high evaporation rate which takes the water and leaves the salt.

Enough of the negative though. The consistently high temperatures and low humidity can offer some relief for sufferers of lung ailments such as asthma. The fairly unique thick atmosphere over the Dead Sea allows helpful UVA sun rays while filtering out burning UVB rays. Thus there is no need for sun screen. There are several beach front all inclusive resorts for those inclined and it is not far from Jerusalem.

Man enjoying the Dead Sea cure while practicing social distancing has required in this time of COVID

There is one thing counteracting the success of tourism in Israel. It is probably in the nature of the Jewish state. With Israelis having  so many ties to other countries around the world; for every dollar Israel earns from tourist, an Israeli spends two dollars visiting another country.

Well my drink is empty and at this time of the year I am more looking forward to temperatures dropping than thinking of a place even hotter. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Qatar 1972, Wonder who Sheik Khalifa will send to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference

Qatar was a new independent country in 1971. So 1972 was spent joining all the UN Agencies and getting to hear what was in it for them. In the case of the ITU, quite a bit. Swiss leadership had been pushed aside in favor of Tunisian Mohamed Ezzedine Mili, just the man to make sure a new Muslim country would get all the goodies. There is always somebody else to hand the bill to. 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.

Qatar had two issues of stamps celebrating telecommunications, one before independence and this one just after. The first issue showed off existing infrastructure for telecommunications in the UK, including the Post Office Tower. This one features UN emblems and a wish list of not yet existing in Qatar tech like a satellite and a tracking station. To bad Qatar did not go further and replace Sheik Khalifa with the smiling generous face of ITU General Secretary Mohamed Ezzedine Mili. The people had a right to know who was playing Santa Claus.

Todays stamp is issue A50, a 1 Dirham stamp issued by the State of Qatar on October 24th, 1972. It was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations showing various UN agencies and what they will be doing for newly independent Qatar. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

The ITU was formed by a group of European counties in 1865 as the International Telegraph Union. It is the second longest still operating International Agency. It’s purpose was to standardize telegraphs being interoperable, the use of Morse Code and to ensure access to telegraphs by all. Over time they added radio and telephones to their purview. For the first 80 years it was a Swiss based and run Agency. In 1947, the Agency agreed to be put under the United Nations, and while still based in Switzerland began to be run by various people decided on in huge Plenipotentiary Meetings held every four years at various resorts.

In the early 70s the ITU was run by Tunisian Mohamed Ezzedine Mili. He excitedly marketed the Plenipotentiary Meeting at Telecom 71. Desks were set up to show off the high tech wares available from top companies. Imagine the excitement of a free trip to a Spanish resort only to be presented with a shopping list to be paid for on someone else dime. Makes you proud to be a third world welfare queen while you spit on the usefulness of the original agency. It really puts into context the myriad 1970s middle eastern telecommunication stamps.

Wouldn’t Mr. Mile have looked handsome in Sheik Khalifa’s place on this Qatar stamp

Times and favored areas change. More recently the ITU was run by Hamadoun Toure’ from Mali. After a gratis education in the Soviet Union and a distinguished career in satellites, he started a new program called Connect Africa. It raised $55 billion dollars to improve Africa’s cell phone infrastructure. Now the Agency is run by a Chinaman named Houlin Zhao. No doubt he will come up with a houlingly expensive wish list for China.

Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General. The UN always finds the best people

Well my drink is empty and I think I will have another. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Tanzania 1986, After hearing the clanging of 10,000 BBs, doomsdayers give Beyond War award to Julius Nyerere

When stamp designers working for Tanzania decided to honor the UN’s International Peace Year in 1985 with a stamp issue, they had a problem. Inexplicably, Tanzanian President for life Nyerere had somehow been denied a reputable award for peace. Doomsday cult Beyond War had given him their award. So why not just jazz that award ceremony up with some UN emblems and call it good. 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 has some well done visual distortions. They do list the reward as Beyond War but then put a squished down and blacked out UN emblem next to it. President for life Nyerere is dressed more like Mao than an African leader but his look is definitely third world rising. The presenter displaying both European pomposity and fake deference that is very 80s UN. How could the less informed philatelist come away not thinking the UN gave this warmonger a peace award.

Todays stamp is issue A69, a 1.5 Shilling stamp issued by Tanzania on December 22, 1986. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the UN declared International Peace Year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents whether used or unused.

The Beyond War movement started in Silicon Valley in California in the early 1980s. It was inspired by a quote from Albert Einstein, “With the unleashed power of the atom, everything has changed, save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” The movement believed that war was obsolete and the people of the world are one, and life on Earth was at a crossroads. Followers would host interest evenings where an audience heard a highly detailed description of a nuclear bomb blast would be like for a major city. They then were asked to close there eyes and listen while 10,000 BBs were loaded into a metal bucket. Each BB represented one of the 10,000 nuclear bombs in the world at the time. At it’s height the movement had 24,000 followers worldwide. They handed out their peace award between 1983 and 1991.

Beyond War Award, designed by Steuben Glass

President Nyerere was perhaps not a great recipient of a peace prize. In 1964 after independence, Tanganyika supported an African insurrection in Zanzibar that lead to the fall of the Arab Sultan and the ethnic cleansing of long tern Arab and East Indian residents, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/. Whites on Zanzibar were left alone so not to attract a British military response. In 1979, Tanzania invaded Uganda with the goal of toppling President Amin. Upon taking the border town of Mutukula, the town was leveled and many civilians were killed. The last sounds they heard were not the sounds of BBs.

After the end of the cold war the Beyond War organization renamed itself Global Community and started taking more interest in the doomsday  prospects of climate change. Membership dropped dramatically. After the USA invasion of Iraq some former members of Beyond War tried to get the band back together. They were by then retired and had traveled up the Oregon trail to Portland and Eugene in Oregon. They opposed the War on Terror and for old times sake they thought that the USA and Russia should further cut their stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Nyerere never got a proper peace prize. After his death, his fans have lobbied for the Catholic Church to declare Nyerere a Saint. So far the Church has not done that.

Well my drink is empty and I am thinking about the early Silicon Valley incarnation of Beyond War. Their early principles included being non political and nonsectarian. Yet their policy goals that their members probably thought were came at scientifically were very political. No wonder the group tried to recast itself about climate change. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Singapore 1947, Getting toward self rule

After Singapore did not stand with the Empire when under Japanese attack, there was little possibility of staying a colony long term post war. The complicated part was transferring to self rule without acquiring a new master in the form of China or Malaysia. The Chinese majority city can thank David Marshall, a Sephardic Jew from Baghdad and Lim Yew Hock a Chinese Muslim convert, for getting them down that path. 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.

Notice that this fairly standard King George VI issue is now labeled Singapore rather than Straits Settlements. Singapore was now realized to be a quite important city distinct from the Malayan majority area around it. It had also proved to be disloyal, so a Monarch stamp issue is appropriate to remind British still there that the home country is looking out for them.

Todays stamp is issue A1, a 25 cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Singapore in 1947. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents used.

Singapore was founded on previously unoccupied land acquired by George Raffles from a Malayan Sultan. Raffles was in the employ of the privately owned British East India Company. The site was intended as a trading post but also housed an Indian penal colony. This was after slavery and when the work habits of Malayans were found wanting, large numbers of Chinese were brought in as contract workers. The Chinese were overwhelmingly male and sometimes called coolies. Many stayed on after their contracts expired. British were never more than 2 percent of Singapore residents. At the time of the Japanese attack in 1942, the British Indian Army deserted leaving only a few British and Australian defenders. The mostly male Chinese population did not join the cities defense. Worrying about the water supply being cut meant the British gave up without much of a fight. Churchill described it as their worse defeat in the war and even Hitler said it was a sad day in the cause of white supremacy. Singapore was only returned to Britain post war.

Singapore celebrates the wars end showing their loyalties

Well if the two percent of Singapore that was British was no longer supreme who would take their place. Neighboring Malaya was in a civil war with local communists and Chinese were looking more toward the Motherland also facing a civil war. The British put a lot of faith in David Marshall, born Mashal. He was a Jewish lawyer  that had immigrated to Singapore from Iraq and had volunteered for the defense of Singapore and was a POW. What they didn’t realize is how much he resented being labeled Asian and how far left he really was. Sensing a potential ally, Chinese Foreign Minister Chou Enlai invited Marshall to China. That didn’t go well because once there he took up the cause of White Russians of Jewish heritage not faring well in Shanghai. Not what the Chinese wanted to talk about. Back in Singapore he was appointed chief minister but then angered the British by demanding instant self rule while also refusing to crack down on the many leftists in his party.

Chief Minister David Marshall

Frustrated the British turned to Lim Yew Hock, a labor organizer who was more willing to crack down on communists and have a more staged process to self rule under the old system. The process worked but Lim Yew Hock became very unpopular in Singapore. So much so that he moved to Malaysia and became a diplomat for them in Australia.

Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock

Here there was a strange incident. He disappeared from Canberra to chase after a 19 year old stripper named Sandra at The Paradise Club in Sydney. He was lost for nine days and returned disoriented, disheveled, and unable to explain what happened. He was sent back to Malaysia and given retirement. His marriage broken down, he then made the strange decision to convert to the Muslim religion and move to Saudi Arabia. Sort of a strange cast of characters with which to get such a good result in Singapore.

Well my drink is empty and I don’t think this was much of a story of white, Jewish, or Chinese supremacy, rather the story of a city state getting lucky. Perhaps despite itself. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Iceland 1925, Denmark builds a storehouse of culture, as part of sending Iceland on it’s way

The-Philatelist often writes up stamps of newly independent countries that take credit for infrastructure left behind by the former colonial power. Something like a power station is one thing but what about something that was the place’s central storehouse of knowledge and culture. Isn’t some sort of thanks in order for the generosity? Apparently not, and this is even true where both colony and colonial power were within Scandinavia. 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 can see from the printing style, how influential Denmark was on Iceland’s stamps. The fact that they were printed in Denmark often meant stamp shortages in Iceland at the time of this stamp. In 1928 a proposal to solve the problem lead to more trouble. A Vienna group of stamp dealers calling themselves the ‘Friends of Iceland” proposed printing a large batch of commemorative stamps. Against the advise of the Postmaster, Iceland agreed to the printing of 813,000 Kronars of stamps, 600,000 of which would go to Iceland for postal use and the other 213,000 would compensate the Austrian Friends of Iceland. Fraud was then perpetuated and Iceland did not not catch that the print order that they signed off on had at some point had a 1 inserted before the 8. A police investigation was initiated but still had made no progress when the war broke out more than a few years later. No jurisdiction in Vienna perhaps even among “Friends of Iceland”. If the Iceland police had renewed their efforts after the Anschluss, the might have had more cooperation. The stamp issue with so many extras seems to have better values than this issue today, so perhaps a crooked Austria beats a niggardly printing Denmark.

Todays stamp is issue A12, a 20 Aurar stamp issued by Iceland on September 12th, 1925. It was a 5 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents used. The value of the stamp unused rises to $45, showing how few went to collectors when new. The 20 Aurar stamp from the Vienna issue is worth $90 used, twice what it was worth unused. That one got to collectors.

In 1906, Denmark started construction in Reykjavik of a new building that could properly house a National Library and national archive. The large stone building in traditional Scandinavian style was the work of architect Johannes Magdahl Nielson. This was his only building commission outside of Denmark. At home he was more known for his many churches. The year the library was finished, Nielson was awarded the Eckersberg Medal. Later in 1925, he was Knighted.

In modern times as Culture House

The building, now known unofficially as the Culture house, held the National Library and also took in the collections of the national university library and a noted collection of traditional Icelandic furniture. The building held the National Library until 1994 and came under the auspices of the National Museum in 2013 to continue the furniture display. The building is on the national registry of historic places but the history as laid out now mainly goes over the work of Icelandic stone masons and leaves out entirely that the whole thing being a gift of Denmark.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait until tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Togo 1947, Deciding who to give it to

Togo had been a successful colony for Germany. German colonists and Afro Brazilian freed slaves returned from Brazil had made the port of Lomé an economically and socially active place. In the interior there were more native tribes who might have wondered what rights they had. So when France was ready to fade, who should they turn it over to? 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 is a timbre taxe stamp. That means it is a postage due stamp. The Philatelist has made fun of the proposition that it was possible to send a letter in Africa with postage due from the receiver. This is a good response to that. In the colonial period it was possible in French colonies like Togo. The system the French left behind did not just shut down completely on Independence day. So a better answer to the question of could you send a postage due letter in Togo was that you could until you couldn’t. The last Togo timbre taxe was issued in 1981.

Todays stamp is issue D5, a 10 Centime stamp issued by the French Administration of Togo in 1947. It was a 10 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents.

Togo had been a German colony before being jointly invaded by France and Great Britain in 1914, see https://the-philatelist.com/2020/04/07/togo-1916-in-the-first-british-shots-of-the-war-germany-loses-togo/ . The colony was divided with the British part electing to join the neighboring Gold Coast. After the war, France was named Trustee of Togo and allowed to administer it from the League of Nations. France was chosen over other proposals from Weimar Germany and even new nation Czechoslovakia.

The Olympio family had been returned as a freed slave from Brazil and prospered in the port of Lomé under the Germans. The family had operated for generations a trading house that dealt in palm oil. It was the richest African family in the area, though the routes to Brazil rather than the local tribes put some distance between local blacks. Sylvanus Olympio was born in 1902 and educated in German Catholic schools set up by the Society of the Devine World. He went on to study at the London School of Economics. Back in Africa, he rose through the ranks of Unilever. By 1938, he was General Manager of the company’s African division and based in Lomé. During the war the Vichy French were nervous of Olypio’s British ties and was put in house arrest in a remote village. This made Olympio more anti French.

After the war Olympio funded and lead a Togo Party of National Unity and the French supported a rival Togo Party of National Progress. Olympio prepared a list of grievances against the French and submitted them to the UN which inherited the old League of Nations Mandate. This gave Olympio’s Party much support from the anti colonial UN. You may be wondering who the local blacks supported in this. Neither party served them  and a new party broke off called the Union of Chiefs and Peoples of the North. That party consistently won half of the seats on the pre independence assembly but still wielded no power.

The National Progress Party won the election for the first local Prime Minister before independence. Olympio’s petitions to the UN than forced the French to have a new election supervised by them that nobody will be surprised that Olympio won.

Now President Sylvanus Olympio a few months before assassination. Wonder if he wore that getup to Unilever board meetings?

In 1960, Togo became independent with Olympio as Prime Minster. Olympio should have perhaps been more careful what he wished for. In 1963, he was assassinated by members of the Togo military. Future President Eyadema, see https://the-philatelist.com/2020/07/07/togo-1983-we-must-make-reservations-early-for-the-feast-of-victory-over-the-forces-of-evil/     , claimed to have personally fired the shot. Olympio’s dead body was dumped in front of the USA Embassy. Did the UN not have a local office?

Well my drink is empty and I am wondering how many places haves been ruined by well meaning outsiders. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.