The ancient or the modern. It is easy to both idealize the ancient and get bogged down with the modern. It was understandable that a modern elite might view backwards toward Greece as a roadmap toward self improvement. 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 of The Philatelist.
An athlete celebrating his victory wearing a toga. Not how the Olympics are seen today. A fitting way to show the games as they were the last ones organized by the Frenchman Pierre, Barron de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics. Coubertin believed that emulating the ancients was a way to uplift modern elites to be better. The 1928 Olympic stamps showed modern athletes and showed additional modernity by having a surcharge to help pay for the elite’s games. I don’t think the Barron would have approved.
Todays stamp is issue A27, a 50 Centimes stamp issued by France on April 1st, 1924. It was part of a four stamp issue for the Olympics in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $5.75 used. A imperforate version of this stamp is worth $1,000.
Pierre de Coubertin was a French nobleman who was dismayed by the French loss in the Franco-Prussian War. In the same period the British Empire was at it’s height. He attributed the relative success of Britain to the elite public school system that many of it’s leaders passed through. The English public schools had played each other in athletics modeled after how they imagined the ancient Greek Olympic games. Coubertin thought the lack of athletics in the equivalent French schools left the aristocracy worthless and weak. He conceived a revived Olympics as a way to turn the system around. The events chosen were demonstrations of manly strength and soldierly skills. Intrinsic in the vision were amateur athletes and gentlemanly sportsmanship that tended to keep out potential participants from the working classes.
Coubertin’s vision of the modern Olympics was naturally watered down after his retirement. One of the most famous stories from the 1924 Olympics was told by the movie “Chariots of Fire” from 1981. The movie told the story of a Jewish English runner who competed and won despite his wealthy but less than Noble background. He further offended by hiring a coach as part of his training, that some felt violated the spirit of the amateur athlete. The story is told as a hero overcoming anti-Semitism and was that, but also demonstrates that the times were changing.
The 1924 Olympics were played at the Stade Olympique de Columbas first built in 1907. The stadiums renovations have seen it shrink from 50,000 to 15,000 seats. It is still slated to host the field hockey event when Paris hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics. The 1924 Olympics only had revenue of 50 % of the costs of the games, despite large crowds. The much more commercial 1928 games, after Coubertin’s retirement, almost broke even. Something gained, something lost.
Well my drink is empty and I pour another to toast the participants of all the modern Olympic games. The Barron believed that participating was far more important than who won. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.