Month: April 2021

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The Turk boy, Asena the wolf, and the master race of blacksmiths begotten

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. 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. We have a fun mythic tale to spin, as usual used by a new leader of a new country to bring people forward.

Visually this stamp is a mess. The paper is cheap and the printing is sub par. It is worth taking  time to study. In it you can see a master blacksmith and a wolf. The wolf is sitting by protectively, as well she might. The wolf is the blacksmith’s mother!

The stamp today is issue A66 a one Ghurush stamp issued by Turkey in 1926. It is part of a 14 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. It we are looking specifically for treasure, the stamp in this set to look out for is the mint 200 Ghurush stamp featuring the then Turkish president Kamal, worth $90. He is on a lot of stamps though, so this Philatelist will stick to the cheap stamp depicting the fun legend.

The Turkish President we know today as Ataturk, was born simply as Mustafa in present day Greece to Muslim Turkish parents. At the time people did not generally have last names. Kamal was added by a school teacher faced with 4 Mustafas in the class. Kamal means exact one as he was good at math. Ataturk was added as President when he was having everyone register a last name from an approved list of newly made up traditional Turkish last names. Ataturk was reserved for just Kamal and translates into big Turk guy. He served with distinction in the World War I Ottoman Turk army and was trained and educated by them in France, Germany, and Austria. He found himself able to maneuver into the Presidency of a new smaller Turkey now encamped in Ankara to avoid the old power centers in Istanbul.

Kamal set out to modernize a new Turkish nation. There were issues with this. There were a lot of ruins around Asia Minor but none of them were Turkish. The people were illiterate and the powerful were corrupt and defeated. Into this a lot of work went into developing a unique Turkish culture. Stories were woven of Turkish explorers mapping the world. Proof of this was offered in the name of the Amazon river in South America. Amazon River in ancient Turk translates into what a long river. Proving Turks first mapped it. The Arab alphabet was abandoned for the Latin one before universal education was put in place for the next generation. Religious garb was discouraged along with the fez which was too associated with the old system. Industrialization was also started, in my opinion leading to the myth on this stamp.

The story told on this stamp is the following. A boy is injured in a raid on his village and he becomes separated. A female wolf named Asena finds him and nurses him back to health. He then impregnates her leading to 10 super strong boys who became master blacksmiths and passed on their strength and talent to the Turkish race. An inspiring Turk story. An inspiring Ataturk story?

Asena with master Turk race baby
An early proposal for then new Turkey coat of arms that included Asena

President Ataturk did much to modernize Turkey and ease it away from Asia and toward Europe. The pendulum is now swinging back but those opposed to that are still known as Kamalist, 90 years later. What a big Turk guy indeed.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another and raise it to President Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Finnish Post Office 1938, Functional Architecture shows what a big function the post was then

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. 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. We have an interesting story to tell of a giant building, later expanded and ask what should be done with it now.

The stamp today is from 1930s Finland. It was a time of functionalist architecture. The independence of Finland was fairly new, so the capital needed a large office building to administer the countries postal system. The design was local but one cannot help but notice how strikingly similar the stamp and building are too many from 1930-1960 throughout Europe and the world.

Today’s stamp is issue A44, a 9 Markha stamp issued by Finland in 1939 to celebrate the recent opening of the new main post office building in Helsinki. It was part of a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents in it’s used condition.

Finland achieved its independence in 1917. The territory had passed several times between Russia and Sweden but was sparsely populated and still contained an indigenous group of people, the Sami, who are somewhat analogous to Eskimos. The national leader, Mannerheim, was busy learning the Finnish language and Lutheran Finland attempted prohibition of alcohol, something the Russian Czars had never allowed in the Grand Duchy period. There were also problems with borders and getting everyone on the same page culturally. Typical stuff for a new country.

What there was also was a lot of institution building and bigger government. This was true whether the country was socialist or capitalist. So new universities, and government offices and more city living. To deal with these trends, a new style of architecture grew up called functionalism. The American Architect Louis Sullivan famously said form follows function. The large workforces being built to administer the growing institutions needed large buildings to house the workers within. The buildings would not be quasi cathedrals to God or King but rather be purposely designed for the function. Decoration was to a minimum but the massive structures needed to be strong and steel reinforced concrete was specified.

In the case of the Finland main post office a competition was started in 1934 and the building was completed in 1938. The architects were Finns and did the job while they were still in there 20s. Their training was local as well but it is clear that despite the attempts by the government to develop a distinctive local style, the result was somewhat generic. The post office function was well looked after and when additional space was needed a new floor was added seamlessly in the 1950s. The building is still in use today.

With the decline in postal volumes, the building is today somewhat underutilized. This is true of so many of these edifices from the functional architecture period. There is a tendency by governments just to let things like this go on even if times have changed.

The complex in more modern times

I have a modest proposal for this building and the many like it around the world. Rather than knocking them down or just letting them gradually fall into disuse, repurpose them as housing. Young people flock to big cities and many have put off marriage and child rearing. What they need are centrally located affordable places to live. Local housing stock tends to be taken by older established people and conversely by those on the public dole. With government ownership this building  could be rented out slightly above cost but without subsidy and provide convenient, safe affordable housing for the young people that are so necessary for the vibrancy of a city. The postal museum inside could continue as a nod to the buildings past. Just a suggestion.

Well my drink is empty. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018

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China 1939. Foreign friends yes, foreign domination no

Today we feature a rather strange stamp from China  celebrating USA ties at a time when the central struggle was to come out from under foreign domination. 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.

Today’s stamp is big colorful and dramatic. As such, it is aimed at stamp collectors more than postal customers. Indeed it was even printed in the USA. Americans might be surprised to see the American dollar sign on it. The Chinese juan was sometimes called the Chinese dollar then. The stamp was not denominated in United States dollars. Another interesting thing to notice is that the island of Formosa is not included in the map of China. Instead it is shaded as foreign territory. That would change a decade later. Notice also the claim on Mongolia. Claim unfulfilled.

The stamp today is issue A58, a 1 Chinese dollar stamp issued by China on July 4th, 1939. It was part of a four stamp issue celebrating the 150th anniversary of the United States Constitution. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $2.25 in it’s cancelled condition. I should note that the only western writing on the stamp is included in the cancellation.

The first half of the twentieth century was a time when China struggled to unite and throw off many years or foreign denomination. Many western nations had been granted concessions in China under duress from the weak Chinese Emperor. The last Emperor had abdicated and a new Chinese government under Sun Yat-sen  was formed but all was not smooth sailing. The German concession in China was awarded to Japan as part of the Versailles treaty. China indeed refused to sign the treaty as it was their aim to end the foreign concessions. Sun Yat-sen’s rule was complicated by rival warlords and a tenuous alliance of his political party  with the Chinese Communist Party.

When Sun Yat-sen died in 1925, he was replaced by Chiang Kai-shek. He even married the sister of Sun’s widow to add to his premotor of power. The alliance with the communist party ended and there was an attempt to start a cult or personality. The foreign concessions continued, including an American one that was backed by US Marines and a naval Yangtze river patrol.

This seems a strange background for a USA-China friendship stamp. Japan had invaded China and though they were not able to conquer it they were able to take much territory and inflict much damage. There was a Japanese 3 all strategy in China. Kill all, Burn all, and Loot all, though this is not how the Japanese would have described their actions. They imagined East Asia a co prosperity sphere under them with China especially needing more prosperity.  Given the invasion, it is understandable that China would hold it’s nose and ask for foreign military assistance to fight the Japanese. Military help was received from the USA, the Soviet Union and surprisingly, Germany.

The defeat of Japan in 1945 lead to a splintering of China with the communist party in power in Peking and Chiang Kai-shek  having to move to the island of Formosa and declare a second Chinese government in Taipei. By this point, his continued existence as a Chinese leader was due to American support. A far cry from the ideals of Sun Yat-sen.

Well my drink is empty. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Transjordan, an Emir wants an empire, and has an Arab Legion to get it for him

Staking an empire is hard even when you are moderate and have powerful friends. 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 today is from Transjordan. The area is now called Jordan and the same royal house rules it. The Emir on the stamp was serving at the pleasure of the British mandate and although there is no evidence of this on the stamp, everyone was aware of it. At least he had the power to be his own man on the postage stamps. Eventually he would be his own man but resentment over who his friends were would lead to his assassination.

The issue today is A3, a 1 mil stamp issued by the Emirate of Transjordan in 1934. It featured Emir Abdullah ibn Hussein. It was part of a 16 stamp issue in various colors and denominations with the same portrait of the Emir. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2.00 in mint condition. The stamp to look out for in this issue is the grey 1 Palestinian Pound stamp that is worth $120 used.

King Abdullah I, his eventual title, was the son of the Grand Sherif of Mecca. He was a direct decendant of the Prophet Muhammed. His early days were the last years of the Ottoman Empire. His early mannouverings reflected the intrigue of the time. He was educated in Istanbul and his first two wives were of Turkish nobility. On the other hand a great deal of his dealings were with the British in Egypt and his third wife, married later, was of that heritage. World War I saw an Arab uprising against the Ottomans and King Abdullah along with his brother the eventual King of Iraq lead Arab armies against the Ottoman Turks. This was done with British support and coordination most famously by T. E. Lawrence, (Lawrence of Arabia).

The hoped for independence after World War I was not forthcoming instead the area was divided into a British mandate and a French one to the north in Lebanon and Syria. King Abdullah hoped for a great empire that would stretch through modern day Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. Instead for the time being he had to be content with the title of Emir in just Transjordan, that did not yet include the west bank of the Jordan River or the city of Jerusalem.

The complicating factors here were the British mandate and the growing numbers of Jews arriving in Palestine to build a new Jewish state. King Abdullah was the only Arab leader in regular contact with the Jews including a regular dialog with Golda Meir, the later Israeli Prime Minister. At various times he supported a Jewish state in Palestine or a least a Jewish run canton that pledged allegiance to his empire. He was opposed to local Palestine Arabs who pledged themselves not to King Abdullah but the Mufti of Jerusalem.

What King Abdullah did possess was the British lead Arab Legion. It was by far the most effective military force at the command of the Arabs at the time of the 1948 war. The deployments during that war were limited as the goal of Abdullah was not to wipe out the Jewish state but rather to bring the Palestine Arabs under his control. To affect this he banned the terms Transjordan and Palestine in favor of Jordan and offered citizenship to Arabs with Palestine mandate papers. He took control of the west bank of the Jordan.

General Sir John Glubb, or if you like Glubb Pasha, head of the Arab Legion. He was disliked by many in the Arab and Western worlds. He was accused of being the real ruler by Arabs and in the west he was thought to have been so seduced by the romance of strangeness and so long gone that he ended up prostituted to another race.

With his British ties and Jewish contacts there was some distrust of King Abdullah from some of his subjects post independence. There were rumors in 1951 that Lebanon and Jordan were conspiring to make peace and recognize the Israeli state. Within a 48 hour period the Lebanese Prime Minister and King Abdullah I were assassinated at the hands of Palestinians. This ended any peace talks. Abdullah was succeeded by his son  King Talal I whose rule was short. He was forced to abdicate after less than a year after his schizophrenia became known. He spent the rest of his life in a sanitarium in Amman.

Well my drink is empty. What a different middle east we might have today except for the assassinations in 1951. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Haiti, reviewing French ruins now that the Americans have left

When todays stamp was new, Haiti had a new government and perhaps reviewing assets while determining where to go from here. 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 could easily be mistaken for an issue of a British colony transitioning toward independence. Except that the de facto colonial power was the USA. The architecture, all of which are relics of colonists are displayed in the issue. The style of printing was also very much in the American style. The big difference is that the architecture was left over from the much earlier French. Although you would not know it from the stamps, the scenes on the stamps were already in ruins.

The issue today is A53, a 5 centimes stamp issued by Haiti in 1933. The stamp displays an aqueduct built by the French to assist with sugar cane production near Port-au-Price. It was part of a 9 stamp issue showing various architectural sites around Haiti. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Haiti had gained independence from France during the turmoil of the French Revolution. During the colonial period a large number of slaves had been imported in Haiti to work the sugar cane plantations. An uprising among the slaves had been met with a French decree for their freedom. This being a period of increased interest in human rights arising from the French revolution. The French proved unable to hold on to the colony as many of their troops were freedom fighting Polish troops who en masss switched sides to the mostly black revolutionairies. The French were removed from Haiti and a new constitution was passed that decreed that white people could not own land but that all mixed race people were decreed black. This was an attempt to end a class system that broke down on race. Interestingly the Poles were exempted from this and many stayed after the war.

Things did not go smoothly. Sugar caine exports came to a halt because of the inability to maintain commercial level cultivation without slavery. There was small scale cultivation for local rum. The French did not recognize the new government until payment was extracted for French losses and displacement. This left Haiti in debt. Some recovery occurred over time as Germans came in. They avoided the anti white people laws by marrying in to promenant mulatto families. Around World War I, the Americans occupied Haiti to collect debts and end German influence.

The American occupation saw some advances. A non political civil guard was trained by the American Marines that was different from the previous regional and political attempts at armies. It consisted of black soldiers and mulato officers. This was also soon reflected in the Haitian government left by the departing Americans in the 1930s. The alignment of these Haitian rulers with neighboring Dominican Republic strongmen was useful to the United States. It is understandable that this tended to discredit them with the people and Haiti continued to wither.

Then President Stenio Vincent. He was fiercely anti American but elected in a USA arraigned election. A legal genius apparently, he graduated law school at age 18.

The aqueduct on the stamp is now but a ruin. It was further damaged in the earthquake of 2011 and the area was used as a displaced persons camp.

The remnant of the aqueduct in 2012. The freshly paved road lead to a UN military compound

Well my drink is empty. In retrospect, the 30s stamps should have perhaps celebrated local institution building rather than relics from a long ago troubled era. That presumes that something like that was happening. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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The Soviets learn a great deal while on an ice drift to Greenland

A uniquely Soviet method of exploring the Artic was from drifting ice stations. The first, North Pole 1, was celebrated by todays stamp. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your hot chocolate, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Visually the poor quality of the printing lets down this stamp. That is a shame because the true story that the stamp tells has the power to be quite inspiring. In three different ways. The obvious knowledge breakthrough has to inspire the nerd in all of us. The shear bravery of venturing out into the dangerous desolation of a floating ice drift. Also the brave patriotic act of sending out icebreaker ships into dangerous waters to find and bring back the scientists and all the knowledge they have gained. To be fair to the Soviet Postal  authority, it would be difficult to convey so much on a four stamp issue.

The stamp today is issue A251, a 30 kopek stamp issued by the Soviet Union on June 21st, 1938. It features scientist Ivan Papanin and his men about to board the icebreaker ship that was to take them home after nine months on the ice station. The stamp is part of a four stamp issue celebrating the accomplishment of the successful mission. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $3.75 used. A mint imperforate version is worth $3,250.

Ivan Papanin was an explorer and scientist  who had previously lead an expedition to Franz Josef Land, an archipelago of islands north of the Soviet Union in the Artic ocean. There had been a previous theory by the Norwegian explorer Nansen of purposely letting a ship get frozen into a drifting ice block to allow it to reach artic extremes. This had been done successfully around 1910. Papanin and his Soviet team developed the idea further in the 1930s. A fully functioning science station was built on a section of drifting ice. The people and materials had been flown up by airplanes that successfully landed on the drift ice. The ice float was about 4 square kilometers and only 3 meters thick. The station contained five men. It was christened North Pole-1. It stayed in operation for nine months during which the ice station had drifted over 1700 miles.

Franz Josef Land north of Russia. It has that name because it was discovered by an Austria Hungary expedition to find the North Pole in 1872. Norway had perhaps already been there

In the days before helicopters, it was very difficult to keep up with such a station and guess as to where it might be. Two ice breakers were up to this dangerous mission. They found the ice station near Greenland and were able to evacuate the team. All of those involved were named Heroes of the Soviet Union. The expedition proved there was no large or small land mass at the North Pole.

The drifting ice station idea has continued to be used by the Soviets and still by the Russian. Some have been built on breakaway chunks of glaciers that are much less tenuous than drift ice. A few of the expeditions have lasted several years. The most recent, North Pole- 40 was in 2016.

North Pole-40 in 2016. Helicopters make it easier but not easy

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast the brave men on North Pole-1 and the other brave men who got them there and saw to their return. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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Zanzibar, when the Arabs needed the British

A trading post city, with a Sultan and a trading elite, but a mass of unrepresented locals, finds itself in a vacuum when the British withdraw. 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 today looks very middle eastern from the first half of the twentieth century. A royal sultan who is under heavy British influence, for good and bad. The issue here is that the people of the island were over 70 percent African. With the British fading, this was a situation that could not sustain. Today Zanzibar has been subsumed by the African country closest to it.

The stamp is issue A16, a 10 cent stamp issued by the Sultanate of Zanzibar in 1936. Versions of this stamp were issued for 50 years during the rule of Sultan Khalifa bin Harub which ran from 1910-1960. On the 1950s versions of the stamp, the portrait of the Sultan reflected that his beard had gone grey. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

No human beings are native to the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar. Arab and Persian traders were the first to arrive. They were followed by Portuguese and Indians. The island became a favored place for the trade of Africans slaves in the Arab slave trade and the trade in ivory from African elephants. Spices were cultivated on large plantations owned by Arabs that were manned by slaves. It was estimated that 30 % of the slaves yearly did not survive the work and required constant new arrivals. The local Arab rulers were subjects of the Sultan of Oman. He also controlled trade routes on the African mainland. The British became concerned with the slave trade and over time forced the local sultans to curtail the trade and finally the practice of slavery locally. After that finally happened in 1897 the time of British influence begun.

The bulk of this time saw the rule of Sultan Khalifa bin Harub. Much was done in this period to improve sanitation with improvements in sewage control and the burying of bodies. This reduced the famous bad smell the place contained and made it more suitable as a base for British on safari excursions to the African mainland.

What it did not do was allow for political representation of the by now black majority on the island. The British did not see the Africans as ready to rule the island. In the elections that lead up to total independence, the vote was allowed to be gerrymandered to allow Arabs to keep control. Independence was achieved in 1963, still under Sultan Harub’s grandson.

This situation was very short lived. A Ugandan named John Okello led a group of Africans that overthrew the Sultan. He then got on the local radio and encouraged his followers to rape, kill, and loot all the Arabs and Indians. Several thousand were indeed killed and many more went into exile. Britain then drew up plans to invade and reinstall the Sultan. The blacks in Zanzibar quickly pushed aside Okello and cooperated with Britain and the USA on the evacuation of westerners. They also distanced themselves from communists that were part of the Okello movement. The new leaders quickly drew up plans for political merger with the new African nation of Tanzania. This was acceptable to Britain and the USA. It was seen as keeping Zanzibar from the communists. Zanzibar still has some degree of local autonomy but non Africans are excluded from political leadership and civil service. Okello died mysteriously in Uganda in 1971 where he was seen as a rival to Idi Amin.

Okello’s men capture an Arab during the invasion

Well my drink is empty. The big cities of the world have become multiethnic and therefore less a part of the nations they occupy. This creates issues on how they are to be governed. The study of the old trading posts like Zanzibar tell us more what not to do than what works. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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A never issued stamp from an occupied Ethiopia by way of Switzerland

How should we think about a never issued, though officially sanctioned stamp. Well, by discussing the situation that brought it about. 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 visuals of this stamp are disappointing to me. A nurse helping out on a stamp is perhaps a good way to draw sympathy for the plight of the Ethiopian people. The style of the stamp is very reminiscent of French or Portuguese stamps from their then African colonies. This is just wrong. What made Ethiopia so special and the then circumstances so tragic is that Ethiopia was the one area of Africa never to have been conquered by the Europeans. This was only to suffer an invasion by a second string Africa player Italy at the end of the colonial period. This was not the time to issue stamps that matched the style of African colonies. The printing was done in Switzerland however and in this philatelists opinion, too much of the design work was seceded to them.

The stamp today was never issued. although Scott has given it issue A39. Versions were issued in 1945, about 10 years after printing with a red V for victory. There are also versions with surcharges and mistakes in overprints. A unissued stamp like mine without overprints is worth $1.25 according to the Scott catalog.

Haile Selassie assumed the title of Emperor of the Ethiopian empire in 1930. There was an interesting period before that where there was an Empress, his mother, and an himself an Emperor with a regency. His mother tried to stage a coup and have him removed but the palace guard was loyal to Haile Selassie and he was able to become sole ruler. It was an expansionist empire that succeeding in taking over the Arab African Sultanate of Jimma  after the death of their Sultan. This was accomplished militarily and his army also put down several uprisings in the early years. There were also Ethiopian designs on the Italian area of Eritrea, which would have gave Ethiopia an outlet to the sea.

In 1935 Ethiopia was invaded by Italy. Allegedly the purpose was to avenge an Italian defeat in an earlier war and to end the practice of slavery in Ethiopia. Fighting went on for about 8 months but Ethiopia eventually was conquered and Haile Selassie went into exile, first in Jerusalem, and later in England.

Haile Selassie made an impassioned plea for his nation at the League of Nations where Ethiopia was a member and therefore entitled to mutual defense if attacked. Large European nations were in no way willing to go to war with powerful Italy, ignored Ethiopia’s plea, and recognized Italian sovereignty. Italy did indeed end the widespread slavery in Ethiopia and started a project of modernization including road building and 30 thousand colonists.

Once World War II broke out, Italy’s time in Ethiopia was numbered. A British and South African force invaded in 1941 and quickly defeated the Italians. Haile Selassie was again recognized as Emperor of Ethiopia and ruled until ousted in a coup in 1974. Eritrea was given to Ethiopia after the war. Interestingly though Haile Selassie was removed by coup, his son took his throne 3 times. Kind of. First in the early 60s there was an attempted coup while his father was traveling abroad. He signed accepting the throne under duress but returned power to his father when he returned. The military coup that replaced Haile Selassie announced that his son would be recognized as Emperor upon his return. His son chose not to return and the monarchy was abolished 6 months later. When the later communist regime appeared weak in 1989 the son self proclaimed himself emperor from London. His proclamation was not recognized in Ethiopia and he did not return. Haile Selassie died in confinement in his palace in 1975 and his son died in 1997.

Haile Selassie is thought of as the Messiah of God by the Rastafarians mainly in Jamaica. The Emperor was always a member of the Ethiopian arm of the Coptic Egyptian Orthodox church. He did not condemn the Rastafarians allowing them a village in Ethiopia but dispatched Ethiopian bishops to the West Indies to try to bring then into line with church teachings.

Well my drink is empty and again I am confronted with a fake stamp. That does not mean it did not tell a good story. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.