Month: July 2021

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Romania 1906, The landowners in Romania want a German King, not a Romanian one

A landowning class can not continue if there is land reform. To prevent that, a Royal from outside is brought in, who has little connection to the peasants, doesn’t even speak their language or attend their church. 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 has an impressive look. A celebration of King Carol I forty years on the throne. So here is the King taking his oath years before, in French. There are others of him leading the army and attending church, not the Romanian Orthodox one. Carol apparently took the trappings of his office very seriously. His Queen once joked he wore his crown to bed. That shows on the stamps. That the people were so beaten down that his German royal house lasted 80 years is the tragedy that this stamp puts a brave face on.

The stamp today is issue A27, a 1 Bani stamp issued by the Kingdom of Romania in 1906. The stamp is part of a 10 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 65 cents in its mint condition.

Romania was a coming together of Wallachia and Moldavia under the Moldavian Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza. There was a token allegiance paid to the Ottoman Empire but the Prince was working for European recognition of the new country. The people were overwhelmingly peasant, Orthodox Christian and spoke Romanian, which is a derivative of French.

Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza was a leftist reformer who sought land reform  and was greatly influenced by the Europe wide insurrections of 1848. The landowning class, the Boyars were successfully fighting him on land reform . There were ethnically of German stock and so tended to side with the Germans on the European issues. The peasants were heavily with the French. The Prince sought more power to get his reforms through but the left was loosing patience with him. A coup occurred in 1866 supported by the right and some on the left  and forced Cuza to abdicate and into exile.

The road less travelled, perhaps it would have made no difference, a Romanian Prince

The right wing of the coup plotters then recruited a German Prince Karl to be a new Prince and he served first as Prince Carol and later as King Carol I in a 48 year reign. He was an able soldier and won some extra land at cost of Bulgaria and succeeded in putting down forcibly the frequent peasant uprisings. He built the elaborate German style Peles Castle. He also prevented any land reform.

He did not get along well with his German Queen and after a Princess died young there was no further issue. The prospect of being King of Romania was not appealing either to Carol’s brother nor his brother’s son who both renounced any claims to the succession. Finally Carol found another German nephew Ferdinand who was willing. King Carol wanted to side with the Germans in World War I against the will of his people but he died in 1914 and since Ferdinand had a British wife he listened more to his people, or at least his wife.

The monarchy was exiled after World War II. After the cold war the current would be Royals initiated a court case to have the Royal properties returned to them personally. Peles Castle is now owned by them though still open as a museum. The current would be royal Princess Margareta grew up in Switzerland and is named after a Danish Royal grandmother. She tries harder than her ancestors in that she was baptized Romanian Orthodox and does speak Romanian. She even married a Romanian after a five year relationship with former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The Romanian government as yet to accede to becoming a constitutional monarchy.

Going over the old road, hoping for a better result, Princess Margaretta

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another and ponder this idea of bringing in a foreign King. He seemed to be a strong and lasting leader, but the good he did was only for a few. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Argentina remembers Jose Hernandez, the Argentine Cervantes

A smaller country doesn’t often produce a literary great, especially one with such an insight into the national character. So a stamp to remember is very important. 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.

Visually todays stamp is not impressive. A poorly produced portrait, with a name and nothing else. A scene from Hernandez’s master work “Martin Fierro” would have been better. Perhaps with a portrait of the author in the corner. Mr. Hernandez has been on several Argentine stamps over the years but always with a similar portrait.

Todays stamp is issue A366, a six Peso stamp issued by the Republic of Argentina in 1967. The stamp comes in several colors and sizes over several years. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. This value is pretty consistent through the many variations of this stamp.

Jose Hernandez was born the son of a butler, growing up on a series of cattle ranches. He became a journalist and politician. At the time there was a divide in Argentine politics on the importance of the power of the countryside verses the importance of Buenos Aires. Large amounts of revenue was being generated by beef exports and Buenos Aires wanted to keep the windfall for itself. Hernandez with his experience in the countryside came down on the Federales side, that favored more revenue participation in the provinces. Hernandez and the Federales also were opposed to allowing immigration fearing Europeanization of Argentina. Both sides of the issue had turns in power and during a turn of the opposing Unitarios, Hernandez was exiled to Brazil.

It was in Brazil that Hernandez wrote his master work in two parts, “Martin Fierro”. It is an epic poem of a gaucho who struggles with the difficulty, desperation, and striving for honor endemic in the life of a gaucho, a cowboy. This type of life was still current at the time of the poems writing but was in it’s last days. The poem was immediately popular and over time became a classic with it’s vivid description of time and place. Hernandez was recognized as capturing a piece of the Argentine national psyche.

As such, the work is often compared to Italy’s “Divine Comedy” and Spain’s “Don Quixote”. Spanish literary critic Miguel de Unamuno made a case for how the work fit into the traditions of great Spanish literature, one of the few Latin American works to do so. Why not, Argentina did have Spanish colonial roots.

Some aspects of the poem do not play as well to modern sensibilities. It adheres to traditional structuring with six line rhyming stanzas. Most modern poets stick to free verse. Many of the poems situations place the Hero, a white of Spanish heritage, in combat with Natives and Blacks that behave brutally. This would just not be allowed today, whatever the reality.

Hernandez was later allowed to return to Argentina. He died in Buenos Aires only a few years after publication of his seminal work.

In the modern way, the Martin Fierro story as been the basis for the more modern. There are Martin Fierro comic books and deeply political Argentine movies. Interestingly there was a Hollywood film loosely based on the story and actually filmed in Argentina called “Way of the Gaucho” from 1952. It was one of the so called runaway productions filmed overseas because the studio, (20th Century Fox), had cash tied up in the country due to post war currency controls.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toast Jose Hernandez. Many journalists attempt to write literature but few succeed. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Curacao and Sint Eustatius 1943, You go your way and I will go mine

Independence can be a tricky thing of a dependency. They are after all dependent 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.

A Queen looks down pleasantly at a view of an exotic island that is a part of the Dutch colony of Curacao. The stamp is however from the war years of World War II. Thus Holland is occupied by the Germans and Queen Wilhelmina is in exile in London. There is no fighting going on but change is in the air.

Todays stamp is issue A30, a one and a half cent stamp issued by the Dutch Colony of Curacao on February 1st, 1943. This stamp features the dependent island of Sint Eustatius. Other stamps in the six stamp issue show other islands that were part of the colony. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

The Islands was first spotted by Christopher Columbus and changed hands many time until coming under the Dutch in the treaties that ended the Napoleonic wars. In World War II the islands of the colony became hosts to many sailors and Queen Wilhelmina promised self rule post war. She toured the USA and Canada during her exile but did not visit the Dutch colonies. Here though is where it gets complicated. The peoples on the islands were majority blacks descended from the old slave trade that Holland was a big part of. They were not Dutch and did not even speak it.

The island of Curacao could see itself as an independent country. Oil had been discovered in nearby Venezuela and the Dutch oil company Shell had set up a large oil facility with a refinery and oil storage. It provided much employment and fit with the old Dutch model of their trading posts being natural transshipment posts with low tariffs. In the late 40s an open air brothel called Campo Alegre or Le Mirage was set up staffed by foreign women to service guests on the island. It was government owned and still operates today. Thinking this tax base gives a economic future and grating under Dutch administration, Curacao voted for independence. This lead to the colony then known as the Netherland Antilles going defunct.

Imagine thinking you could build a country on this.

The oil refinery, currently not operating in Curacao. As with the brothel, outsiders needed to work it.

Several of the smaller islands in the colony voted to stay colonies of Holland. They have small populations and a mother country checking on them is more appealing. They seemed to not trust being a dependent of an independent Curacao. I can understand that and commend Holland for giving them a choice.

Curacao is having it’s own set of problems. A labor dispute at Shell caused a period of rioting. Shell then decided to end the operation on Curacao and turned over the facility to the government for 1 Guilder. It is currently leased out to the Venezuelan national oil company but at a much lower level of employment and that lease ends next year. Curacao is talking to China about it and appealing to Holland for more aid.

P. S. Between writing and publishing there has been a court ruling taking the oil facility from Venezuela and giving it to Conoco, the American oil company. They had sued in countries with Venezuelan oil assets to get compensated for other assets nationalized in Venezuela without payment. Conoco decided it uneconomic to operate and it closed in 2019.

Also La Mirage, which closed for COVID, was declared bankrupt by it’s unpaid janitorial service. 125 sex workers and 85 others were put out of work. The sex workers had been on 3 month visas to Curacao. It is estimated that 25,000 females had worked there since 1949.

Well my drink is empty. With their honey pots closed, will Curacao go hat in hand back to Holland? Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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Niger Coast 1894, trying to control the palm oil trade

Trading posts often get bogged down in nation building. Even after the failure of the British East India company, it was tried again later, this time in Nigeria. 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.

A trading post in an exotic land can produce a stamp a little different than a colony. The users of the stamp  will almost always be employees of the trading company stationed in what to them must have seemed the darkest of Africa. Native attacks, tropical diseases, and even attacks of rival traders were real threats. There must have been a terrible sense of being alone. The mail service must have been a lifeline and of course Queen Victoria was a welcome presence on the stamps. To make these adventurers think their home remembered them.

Todays stamp is issue A20, a one Shilling stamp issued by the Royal Niger Company for use in the Niger Coast Protectorate, currently southern Nigeria, in 1894. It was part of a 6 stamp issue in various denominations. One Shilling in 1894 is worth 5.21 Pounds today. According to the Scott catalog, The stamp is worth $90 today in it’s mint state. For once in my undistinguished collection, this is the most valuable version of the issue, if we exclude overprints.

The trade with the Niger river delta mainly involved palm oil, that was used in the production of soap. The early trading post were not successful economically as there were many rival trading stations that often engaged in price wars with each other. There were British, French, and German trading posts in the area which was still ruled by local Africans.

Sir George Goldie had the idea to merge several of the rival British firms so as to be a monopoly of the trade. The British Gladstone government refused a charter. The failure of the British East India Company was recent and the government did not think a private company could adequately administer the area in question. The rival German and French traders also might bring conflict with those countries. Goldie set out raising money to prove his plans creditable and signed exclusive trading agreements with area tribes. A Royal Charter would be good for the stock he was floating and would make the treaties he was signing enforceable by the British government. A conference in Berlin conferred to Britain the territory that Goldie was operating in and the charter was then granted.

King Jaja and palm oil rival George Goldie

Though the harvesting from the palms was performed by African women regardless of the race of the trading house, one local tribal leader became a rival to Goldie and the Royal charter proved it’s worth. King Jaja of Opobo had been sold into slavery among Africans at age 12. He proved his worth in business and rose in a trading house in Bonny earning his freedom. His tribe named him a chief and he became a head of the biggest local palm oil trading house. His trading house broke away the city state of Opobo from the African territory of Bonny. He managed later shipments of palm oil to Britain without dealing with any British middlemen. the only native to do so. He was on board the ship heading for Liverpool with a shipment when a British warship invited him aboard. He was then arrested for violating the trade treaty signed by Goldie but now enforced by Britain and sent into exile. Though he was not imprisoned, indeed was a guest of Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. He was not allowed to return to Bonny out of fear he would go back into business. As an old man, King Jaja was given permission to return home but died on the journey. His city state did not survive his absence.

The fears of Prime Minister Gladstone proved correct. The Royal Niger Company was forced to cede the area to the new British Crown Colony of Southern Nigeria. The company was paid less than it’s original capital but was able to continue as a trading house in the new colony. In the 1920s, the company was bought out by Unilever the Anglo-Dutch soap maker. The Nigerian city of Opobo still contains a statue to King Jaja put up at public subscription in 1903.

Palm oil cultivation is no longer a huge industry in independent Nigeria. World suppliers are now dominated by Malaysia and Indonesia. Nigeria is now actually a net importer of palm oil. There is talk of outside economic aid bringing it back this time as a tool of  female economic empowerment.

A modern Nigerian female stomps the palm nuts in a hollowed out log releasing the nuts from the husks and eventually the yellow palm oil. Machines can do this now but would edit out the female economic empowerment.

Well my drink is empty. This turned more a story of economics than of local subjugation as most colony stories end up. The relentless effort to get lower prices eventually makes the underlying activity not worth doing. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Luxembourg 1891, Help wanted, we have an opening for a German guy, for the position of Grand Duke

With the Kingdom of the Netherlands breaking down along Germanic and Frank lines the German area of Luxemburg was left shrunken and rudderless. This was righted by a Luxembourger politician and a new line of Germans. 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 new guy sure is old. That was okay. The day to day running of the Duchy was in the hands of the much younger prime minister, who is actually from Luxembourg. The old guy also had proved good in a crisis and had a male heir as nature intended. Long Live the Old Guy. No not viva el old guy. We are German. Do your Belching over the border  in their um … Luxembourg province.

Today’s stamp is issue A7, a 10 Centimes stamp issued by Luxembourg in 1891. It was part of a 10 stamp issue in various denominations displaying Grand Duke Adolphe. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents in its cancelled state.

Luxembourg was left much shrunken in the 19th century. Prussia had taken a part and Belgium had taken the French, or Belch, speaking part. The small Duchy had as its Grand Duke William III. He was also the King of Holland, so that grabbed the bulk of his attention. When he died, he lacked a male heir so his empire passed to his daughter Queen Wilhelmina. The shrinking proved that having the Dutch rule was not working. Luckily there was a provision in the rules of the Duchy that disallowed a female to reign as long as there was a related male to take the job. For this reason the Duchy passed to a 7th cousin once removed. Adolphe was a German who had formally served as Duke of the German Duchy of Nassau in nearby Rhineland. Nassau had been absorbed by Prussia so Adolphe was out of a job.

Adolphe had proved adept in a crisis. In the insurrections of 1848, he quickly returned to Wiesbaden, Nassau from Berlin to find a crowd outside the palace demanding change. He walked alone in full uniform through the crowd in a friendly manner and entered the Palace. From the balcony, he announced that he accepted all their demands and the insurrection turned into a celebration. He did not actually enact the demands but survived.

Adolphe when he Adolpho of Nassau. I am very interested in what you think good citizen. May I offer you a beer and we will talk.

For the country to survive and thrive was the job of Prime and Foreign Minister Paul Eyschen, an actual Luxembourger. He served for over a quarter century and kept the Belgians at bay by allowing the Germans to keep  troops at the country’s large fort while paying lip service to Holland and maintaining neutrality in any conflict between Germany and France. This was obviously a tight rope to balance on. At the same time the economy was changing to a more industrialized model that required much economic and educational reform. Luckily Eyschen had spent much time in Berlin and had studied Bismarck’s reforms in these same areas. He enacted successfully the needed changes.

The balancing act ended when World War I broke out and Germany ignored Luxembourg’s neutrality and conquered it. Eyschen was allowed by the Germans to stay in office but he was heartbroken and took his own life. Adolphe’s granddaughter was by then Duchess and she openly collaborated with what were after all her fellow Germans. She was forced to abdicate after the Germans were defeated in World War I.

Prime Minister Paul Eyschen. Things are bad, and mad, and it is making me sad.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Luxembourg and it’s ability to stay on it’s own course. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018

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Georgia 1920, a new socialist republic remembers an ancient Queen, while Whites, Reds, and Turks pound on the door.

Chaos in Russia allows peoples to escape the empire, only to find all around still desperate for colonies.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 country of Georgia was new. Part of legitimacy is establishing an historic basis for a country. It would normally be unusual to feature a Royal on the stamp issue of a socialist government. Queen Tamar ruled a much larger Georgia successfully 700 years before and it was important to show a basis for a brighter future. The low quality of the stamp printing hint at the desperation of the times.

The stamp today is issue A3, a 3 Ruble stamp issued by the Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1920. It features Queen Tamar, who ruled Georgia from 1178-1213. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 65 cents mint. There are printings with inversions that are considered fraudulent. Also considered fraudulent are versions over stamped Constantinople. They were issued by the Georgian Embassy there after Georgia was conquered by the Soviets in 1921.

When the last Czar abdicated in early 1917 several areas of the Russian Empire broke off. In this, they had the support of Germany and Austria whose defeat of Russia in WWI contributed to the Czars fall. A federation with Azerbaijan and Armenia was first attempted but in 1918 it was decided that Georgia would stand independent. The land area was 70% larger than modern day Georgia but still much smaller than the Georgian Empire ruled by Queen Tamar.

Queen Tamar. Tamar was a Hebrew name, the Georgian Bagrationi Dynasty thought themselves descended from ancient Israel’s King David.

The challenges facing the new Georgia were all around. Local Bolsheviks and ethnic Ossetians caused trouble at home. Pressuring for territory were the Ottomans and Armenians to the south. An army of White Russians who were fighting both the Red Army as well as Georgia. Also the Red Army itself was trying to bring the newly independent nations back into the fold, this time labled as Soviet Republics rather than colonies.

The new Georgian government did much to build a new country. While building an army and attempting to muster foreign recognition and support, many laws were passed. There was land reform and a judiciary. Georgia was also a multiparty political state with much self rule granted minorities. German support ended at the conclusion of WWI but for a short while there was a stabilizing British presence that helped keep out the White Russians. It was still a time of great economic dislocation and hyper inflation. Notice the high denomination, Rubles not Kopecks of todays stamp. Soon the Transcaucus Ruble was replaced by a Geogian currency called a Maneti.

The lefty Second International being hosted in Tbilisi in 1918. They must have not liked what they saw. The first Georgian Prime Minister was assassinated by Bolsheviks in 1930 well into his Paris exile.

For a brief period, the Soviet Union recognized Georgian independence and borders as well. In 1921, the Soviet Army invaded and conquered Georgia. They clamed a pretext of alleged mistreatment of Georgian Bolsheviks. For 70 years, Georgia was a Soviet Socialist Republic. It still faces some of the old issues of western recognition and  managing Russian ambitions and the minority of Ossetians.

Queen Tamar ruled an empire that included much of the Caucus mountains and areas deep into modern Turkey and Ukraine. Her  rule was Orthodox Christian and coincided with a blooming of Georgian culture. She was often portrayed in Russian literature as an exotic temptress of the East. In Georgia itself, the picture was more of the mother of the country. In the 19th century, a 13th century portrait of her was discovered of her and this image was widely distributed among Georgians longing to be free of Russia. Tamar is a Hebrew name  as the then Royal House believed itself descended from ancient Israeli King David.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toast Queen Tamar. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Rhodesia and Nyasaland 1959, Trying a more liberal path to maintaining minority rule

Trying to maintain a prosperous colonial life when the home country wants out and your race is less than 10% of the population is difficult. The apartheid system in South Africa was one but a more liberal method was also tried for about 10 years to the north. 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 attractive and very representative of the last years of British colony status. It also displays the seeds of the failure of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Between the Queen and the grave of Cecil Rhodes, it was just all about what the whites wanted. Under the distant but benign auspices of Britain with Cecil Rhodes as the father of the country. That aspiration was not what the 96% of the population that was black was interested in, namely majority rule.

Todays stamp is issue A20, a three penny stamp issued by the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1959. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations over a four year period. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. The stamp to look out for in this issue is the 1 pound stamp showing the coat of arms of the territory. It is worth $47 mint.

The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland comprises the territory of modern day Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi. These were territories that were claimed for Britain by adventurer, diamond miner, and proponent of empire Cecil Rhodes in the 19th century. It was his intention that British colonists build a self ruled country that was still a subject of the British empire. However, the European settlers never were more than 10 percent of the population and lived at a level 10 times their African neighbors.

In 1953, in preparation for the end of colonial status a federation of the colony of Southern Rhodesia and the British Protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland was established. A federation was chosen as to limit the power of economically and militarily dominant Southern Rhodesia. It was thought that this unit would work economically and it did so with rapidly rising incomes for Europeans and indeed Africans. Institutions were opened up to allow more African participation. However Britain saw the federation as a vehicle to transition to majority rule and independence. The leader locally Roy Welensky saw things differently. He did not feel that blacks were ready for rule and that the Europeans could not stay post black rule.

The flag of the Federation. The rising sun is for Nyasaland,(Malawi), the lion for Rhodesia(Zimbabwe), and the wavy zebra lines are for Northern Rhodesia (Zambia)

Britain began separate contacts with independence proponents in Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia. Welensky considered unilaterally declaring independence from Britain but could not bring himself to do it. The Congo to the north had gone independent and within a month had descended into chaos. Thousands of whites fled south but Welensky was not allowed to help them escape by Britain. They favored a UN solution and Daj Hammerjold, the UN Secretary General flew to Northern Rhodesia to start negotiations. When his plane crashed, The Communist and African world blamed Welensky although there is no evidence that he had any responsibility.

Meanwhile in Southern Rhodesia, many whites thought Welensky too accommodating to England and a new party formed with a more radical racialist agenda. Welensky was mocked for being a Jew and a Socialist and the new party came to power. In 1963 the Federation was disbanded. In 1964, now black ruled Northern Rhodesia became independent Zambia and Nyasaland became black ruled independent Malawi. Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence that was not recognized by Britain or the UN and fell into civil war. The war dragged on for 15 years until Rhodesia recognized Britain’s right to install a majority black government and grant independence as Zimbabwe. All of the countries economically underperformed post independence and succumbed to one party, president for life corruption. Upon independence in 1980, Welensky relocated to Britain for his final years.

Prime Minister Roy, ne Raphael, Welensky. He didn’t believe whites could continue under black rule, so after the federation ended he moved first to Salisbury,(Harare) and then London which to date as kept it’s name.

To date Cecil Rhodes grave as yet to be desecrated in Zimbabwe. It is a lucrative tourist draw in the poor country and foreigners are charged four times the local admissions price, despite being in a UN supported national park. There is the usual talk of him being an interloper disturbing the spirits of real Zimbabwe heroes whose names nobody can remember.

Cecil Rhodes grave in more modern times. The rock formations make visits more dramatic at sunrise and sunset

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if the federation had been granted more time to integrate blacks in the institutions if the outcome would have been better. The three countries together would have been a much bigger power, but I really can’t see a modern country in Africa named for Cecil Rhodes. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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USA 1913, Panama Pacific Exposition, Celebrating permanent construction by building things designed to crumble

An immense construction project is completed and so America celebrates in a city that had lately needed some construction itself. 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 Panama Canal was a massive project. It involved some wild political maneuverings to get control of the land. Some engineering challenges that must have seemed insurmountable. A massive requirement for labor in a hot, buggy tropical place at a time when it was no longer possible to have slaves do it. Just a massive challenge. A challenge that was by no means complete in 1913 when this stamp came out. The project was being handled so confidently that an international exhibition was scheduled to celebrate the successful completion. Imagine the egg on the face if the Panama project bogged down the way modern projects of any scale always seem to. The stamp was a success though because everything came off. Could even China pull that off now? I am confident the west could not. To the collector all these years later it might have been better for the stamp value had it been a failure.

The stamp today is issue A145, a 2 cent stamp issued by the United States in 1913. The four stamp issue was part of the build up to the Panama Pacific International Exposition scheduled for San Francisco in 1915. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1 used. A mint version of the 10 cent stamp of this issue is worth $700.

The stamp displays the Pedro Miguel locks. This was one of the more simple locks on the Pacific ocean side of the canal. This made sense both for fact that this lock was done early enough to be shown on the stamp and also since a Pacific lock is more in keeping with the Pacific theme of the Exposition. It must be remembered at the time power and population was mainly located in the East and the power shift to the west on a complete different but soon not so far separated ocean. I can see why this would generate so much excitement about the project. After this stamp was issued in 1913 an order went out by telegraph from the White House that set off an explosion of a dyke that first connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Pedro Miguel Locks in more modern times

Getting the Exposition to San Francisco was a timely move. Panama was a long way away and they were not going to be able to have a world class exposition. The place was just too poor and isolated. It had indeed required a great deal of work on sanitation in Panama so to lesson the dangers of yellow fever and malaria to the thousands of Americans recruited to work on the project. Americans of the period had a special skill in this as they had figured out the connection  of flys to the diseases after a program to reduce the diseases in then newly conquered Havana, Cuba. It still remains that about 5600 workers on the project died of disease and accidents. This does not include workers on an earlier failed French effort in the area.

San Francisco, on the other hand had been devastated by an earthquake in 1906. Nine years later was a perfect time for the city to announce that they were back and better than ever. Much Moorish style architecture was constructed for the fair. Interesting it was purposely designed to be short lived structures. The architect was of the opinion that every great city needs a few ruins. In the end most of it was demolished after the Exposition in 1915. The Palace of Fine Arts was allowed to remain. First as a ruin and later rebuilt as a permanent fixture of San Francisco to this day.

Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast those hearty souls who traveled to the jungles of Panama to build a great canal that still serves today. Quite an American achievement to remember on July 4th. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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New Brunswick 1860, letting the Canadians take over before the Irish do.

New Brunswick was formed when it was decided to be too far way from Halifax, Nova Scotia to be run effectively. So how then does Canada then get control from even farther afield. 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 from the 1860s. Queen Victoria is on her rightful place on the stamp. At the time there was still almost 40 years left in her then longest ever reign. As such a full face portrait of a younger Victoria goes unrecognized by me. In fact I was even wondering if the stamp was from a different New Brunswick. In fact, it is just a very old stamp and the bright color disguises that.

The stamp today is issue A5, a five cent stamp issued by the British Colony of New Brunswick in 1860. There are three color variations of this stamp; yellow green, blue green, and olive green. I think my copy is olive green, but be sure to look at the picture and tell me what you think in the comment section. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $175 mint. If it was never hinged, the value would double again. Mine was hinged and located long term in an old album, that did a great job in preserving the stamps condition. This is the most valuable stamp I have written about so far at The-Philatelist.com. To be honest, before my research, I had no idea the value or even that I possessed it.

During the American revolutionary war in the 1780s, it was decided that the still British colony of Nova Scotia was too large to be run effectively from Halifax. Therefore Nova Scotia’s territory on the western side of the bay of Fundy was broken away to form New Brunswick. Brunswick was the former name of the British royal house when it was still German. Brunswick was therefore in honour of King George III. A capital was chosen in the small inland city rechristened Fredericton after George III’s son. It was hoped that an inland city would be easier to defend than the larger coastal St. John.

After the revolutionary war a decent number of British loyalists immigrated to the new colony. This increased the ties to Britain and the colony also had close ties to New England. New Brunswick mainly sat out the War of 1812.

With the Irish potato famine of the 1840s came a large number of Irish refugees. So many as to change the demographics of the whole colony. Ireland was seeking independence from Great Britain at the time. See also this fun Irish Republic stamp of alternate history, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/03/15/ireland-1967-100-years-later-irish-stampmakers-fantasize-about-alternate-history/ There were a series of Fenian insurrections that sought to take control of some outpost in New Brunswick and hold it hostage in exchange for Irish independence. This was a huge miscalculation. It greatly overvalued the importance of New Brunswick in Britain’s eyes. It also lead New Brunswick to join in a new confederation with Canada, being one of the original 4 provinces in 1867. This ended the separate stamp issuance of New Brunswick.

American Fenian leader Fighting Tom Sweeney, tasked to establish an Irish Republic in exile in Canada. Notice his American Civil War era Yankee/Union uniform. 35 percent of the Union Army was of recent Irish heritage, giving Canada reason to worry.
Local militia in St. Andrews stands ready. The raid came at Campello Island

The old issues returned for New Brunswick. Rule from Ottawa was not conducive to growth in New Brunswick. There became more distance between the former natural trading partners in New England. New Brunswick entered a period of economic decline.

Well my drink is empty and my next one will be from the top shelf as this stamp proved so valuable. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.