Month: July 2022

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Nigeria 1965, independence is hard, to coup or not coup, that is the question

Independence was supposed to be a panacea. A new country is free of it’s old restraints and can now rise upwards. That was the hope and peoples hopes had been raised. When things then don’t turn out so well people adjacent to power will think they can do better. To coup or not to coup? 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 is a well drawn picture of a parrot. Whats not to like. Well Nigeria was going into it’s phase of coups and even a civil war. Early independent Nigeria had kept the colonial tradition of showing things actually happening there and people for whom it would be interesting to learn more about. Instead here we have a topical stamp with animals that was only of interest to worldwide topical stamp collectors. In other words, selling out.

Todays stamp is issue A49, a nine penny stamp issued by the Republic of Nigeria in 1965. It was a 14 stamp issue in various denominations that showed animals of Nigeria. There are overprints of this issue with FGN during the civil war that were not issued by the government but sold to collectors. Since not issued they are considered fake but some worked when sent through the mail. The stamps were also reprinted by a later government around 1970. So this stamp, being apolitical and available had some staying power in a rough time. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents used. The 1970 version loses 10 cents of that.

Nigeria was ruled as a federation with some autonomy to its regions during British colonial times. When independence came in 1960, it was one country that even grew some by adding Muslim regions of Cameroon. Nigeria had a large population and oil resources that had been discovered by the British but nor fully developed since Britain had a deal with Persia to supply it’s oil needs on generous terms. Thus there was a lot of optimism for national success. There was also a sense of Pan Africaism where the former colonies of the European powers would gradually come together and develop into a hopefully peaceful, prosperous world power.

The instrument of independence was handed to Jaja Wachuku, an Irish trained Christian Chief of the Ngwa clan of the Igbo tribe. He didn’t seek power himself but performed various jobs for the early independent governments. Political parties were on tribal grounds but early on the more conservative and liberal parties were able to work together. Wachuka was able by lobbying Britain and the USA to use their influence to save Nelson Mandela from a death sentence regarding armed uprising in South Africa. He also helped get Liberia into the UN and Togo excluded from the Organization of African Unity because it was the first African country to suffer a military coup. Later as aviation minister, Wachuku resigned when he was unable to remove an important party figure who was stealing from Nigerian Airways. Hope begins to crack.

“Real” Nigerian tribal Prince Jaja Wachuku in post independence Speaker of Parliament garb.

Within the armed forces of many African nations there were those whose hope began to wane. The early leaders of independence were often crooked, not achieving African union, and still with their hand out to the old colonials. It was hoped that a series of military coups a Free Africa Movement could get things back on track by using military discipline to purge the corrupt and then Africa could come together. In Nigeria, young Muslim officers from Northern Nigeria lead a coup, but instead of a coming together, the Christian Biafrans rebelled and civil war ensued.

The massive oil wealth of Nigeria has mainly been squandered. Wachuka himself was jailed by Biafra for criticizing their use of child soldiers. He was later freed and took up a Senate seat where now he was only representing his tribe. Pan Africanism is over. Today one of the military rulers from Nigeria’s many coups has just been elected to a second term on an anti-corruption platform. As in many other African countries, ex military leaders are elected as people remember fondly their earlier attempts to get things back on track in earlier times. Perhaps the best from a field of bad choices.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast former Nigerian colonial Governor Fredrick Lugard. We have talked about his work in British East Africa here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/07/imperial-british-east-africa-company-1890-another-company-fails-to-administer-a-colony/ and his work in Hong Kong here https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/26/hong-kong1891-the-british-build-the-premier-university-in-asia-for-the-chinese-but-climb-the-hill-to-avoid-their-filth/  . He believed it was better to let the British fade into the background and let the tribes handle themselves administrative matters. It seemed to work best of what has been tried there. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Tasmania 1899, Choosing a Royal Society over bushrangers and convicts

The American west of the 19th century was known for outlaws, adventurers, and troubles with Indians. The Tasmania colony had that too, with the added complication that many settlers were ex convicts. Like the American west, Tasmania eventually formalized as part of the British Empire and then further into Australia. 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 issue of stamps displays the natural wonders of Tasmania, in this case Mt. Wellington. When you think of the timing of the stamps still in the 19th century, the depictions are quite good and well printed. Considering how rough some of Tasmania’s early issues are, and that they were not just printed in London as with so many colonies, the progress of society in demonstrated. It also equates to the art of the American west, where the natural beauty was captured by artists and then used to attract settlement.

Todays stamp is issue A11, a one penny stamp issued by the British Crown Colony of Tasmania in 1899. It was an 8 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $3.00 used.

It is believed that the island of Tasmania broke of from the mainland of Australia thousands of years ago. The first inhabitants were Aborigines. The island was first spotted by Dutch Explorer Abel Tasmin in 1642. He named it for his sponsor the Dutch Governor of the East Indies. When the British came around the beginning of the 19th century, they Anglicized his mouthful of a name to van Diemen Land before switching to Tasmania in the 1840s. At the time of the first British settlement, there were about 3000 Aborigines on the island.

The first settlements were really convict settlements with convicts coming from the British Isles and especially Ireland. The convicts usually served short sentences and then given land to farm. Between gangs of escaped convicts, the hardscrabble nature of any new settlement and gangs of angry and hungry Aborigines, one can imagine Tasmania as a difficult place to live. Yet among all the trouble there is civilization. The first church, the first library, the first post office, and even the First Royal Society outside of Britain. It promoted the study of science and nature, and maintained the areas first botanical gardens and listed Queen Victoria as one of it’s patrons. There was also the discovery of gold to stir excitement.

The new settlements faced challenges. The area was hardly crowded by people but the Aborigine were annoyed by the intrusion and began raiding settlements and isolated farms. Their rocks, spears, and anger were of course more annoying than truly dangerous, and most were killed out of hand. It was decided to round up the last few hundred and send them to a small island called Flinders Island. They were expected to raise sheep but did not fare well and mainly lived off charity. In !847, the last few dozen made an appeal to Queen Victoria and were allowed to move back to Tasmania. The last pure blood Aborigine in Tasmania died in the early 20th century.

The bigger problem were the escaped convicts that divided into two groups, The squatocracy and the Bushrangers. Some escaped convicts started sheep farming on not their land and were called the squatocracy. This was annoying but possession being nine tenths of the law they eventually blended in. The others were gangs of outlaw thieves called bushrangers. The law eventually got to most of them especially later with the better communication between settlements thanks to the telegraph. These groups were more of Irish than British heritage and their different ways lead in some ways to the development of an Australian character as distinct from the British.

British settled colonies always had much self rule and over time it was decided to consolidate the Oceania colonies as a more independent Dominion as was done in Canada and less successfully attempted in South Africa. This came to pass and Australia came into being in 1901.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the convict. The ones that served their sentence and than took up the challenge of starting a new life. At the height of the arrival of convicts, Tasmania was taking in 10 percent of it’s population a year as fresh arrivals. Combined with restless natives, the whole enterprise could have ended very badly. It didn’t. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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New Caledonia 1948, we would like to get rid of you, but we need your money.

These strange little islands. The natives can’t quite work out how to be independent, if it means the end of the subsidy. 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 printers did a good job with this one. From the style, I would have guesses that the stamp was 20 years newer than it was. It shows the Kagu bird, an almost flightless bird that is the symbol of New Caledonia and only exists in the wild there.

Todays stamp is issue A23 a 40 Centimes stamp of New Caledonia issued in 1948. It was part of a 19 stamp issue that were the first stamps issued after New Caledonia ceased being a colony and became an overseas department of France. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents used.

The first inhabitants of New Caledonia were the Lapita people who went extinct around 500 AD. Next came the Kanack, a Micronesian people. The first European to spot the island group was Captain Cook, who thought it resembled Scotland and named it New Caledonia after the Roman name of the Scottish territory beyond their frontier. Contact with Europeans was scattered and often unfriendly. An American whaling ship that landed in 1849 saw their crew captured and eaten. The French gradually took a bigger influence banning slavery and cannibalism, and sent many missionaries. The Kagu bird was a sensation with the French and many were taken for zoos and efforts taken to stop the natives from eating the nearly flightless bird.

The fist economic activity was the sandalwood trade with China but the supply on the island was quickly worked through. In 1864 nickel was discovered and mining started in 1875 and local smelting in 1879. On one hand, the Kanack people claim they were often tricked into contract labor on other islands in a process called blackbirding. On the other hand, they also complain about being excluded from working in the mines or smelters. Of course both could be true at least anecdotally and it must have been annoying to see such lucrative activity going on and the funds from it staying with the French and their colonial authorities that only benefited them in terms of education, healthcare, and the dole.

The Kanacks repeatedly rebelled and their warriors then killed leaving great numbers of orphans for the colonial authorities to look after. One activity they were allowed to be part of was guarding the great number of prisoners that France sent to penal colonies on the island. Unlike Australia, few of the French prisoners stayed in New Caledonia after their prison time ended.

After the war, France granted New Caledonia the status of an overseas department and bestowed French citizenship on all residents of the islands, no mater their ethnicity. Nickel is still 95 percent of the exports of the island but it still relies on over a billion Euros a year in direct subsidies from France. The remaining Kanacks continue to lead an independence movement but they are now less than 40 percent of the population. In 2018, there was a vote on independence and 56% voted to stay French. France has acted happy about that, just as they acted sad after losing a similar vote in the former colony of Djibouti in 1979. The Kagu bird is down to fewer than 1000 in the wild but has been granted endangered status and there is an active breeding program at the local zoo.

Well my drink is empty and so I will flip a nickel to see if I should have another…. I lost, I wonder if whatever small amount of nickel is still in the coin came from New Caledonia. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Azerbaijan 1919, there is oil, and Turks, and fake stamps in them there hills

Once a flag rises it can never fall was a slogan of Azerbaijan during it’s one year of independence in 1919. Perhaps it should have been never be sure you won’t see this flag again. In the mean time, lets print some fake stamps. 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.

Yes todays stamp is fake. The few real stamps from the early Azerbaijan were imperforate stamps printed on an unusual yellow paper. This stamp mimics those in how the country name is presented and currency but is later. The modern real Azerbaijan stamps don’t say republique and have a different currency. Fake stamps still plaque the country but there is something fake about the real stamps. If you see the Muslim country stamp featuring John Lennon, that is real. A stamp with the Spice Girls, that is fake. Makes you wonder if the whole country is fake.

This is a fake stamp so it is not in the catalog. So therefore the stamp is priceless.

The city of Baku was taken from Persia in the early 19th century. Oil was discovered and the town became a boomtown of Czarist Russia. The area contained Muslim Turks, Persians and Christian Armenians and Russians. With the chaos that overcame Russia in 1917 the Caucus area quickly attempted to break away. The local unit of the Czarist army became the army of the area but there was much infighting between Muslims and Armenians. The Muslims had an Ottoman Turk Army in support and the Armenians allied with the Soviets. Baku fell to the Ottomans and there was an ethnic cleansing. In theory Azerbaijan became an independent Republic under local Azer writer and journalist Mammad Ammin Rasulzadeh, who I will call MAR from here on out. MAR had been an early communist but had also trafficked in Muslim separatism. A rebel with many causes. The Czar had sent him to exile in Persia where he was part of the new Iran movement against the Shah. The Shah then sent him on to Turkey where he agitated against the Ottomans. A 1913 Czar amnesty let MAR return to Baku where he was supported by Zeynalabdin Tagiyez. ZT was a contactor that stuck oil and sold out becoming one of the richest men in Russia. An independent Azerbaijan relied on an occupation Ottoman army that was withdrawn at the end of 1918 as the Ottomans were on the losing side of World War One. After a respectable period, The Red Army marched in and made Azerbaijan a Soviet Republic.

MAR as President of Azerbaijan

The Soviets showed some grace to the Azers after the reconquest. MAR had known a young Joseph Stalin when both were anti Czarist agitators and gave him a job in public relations in first Moscow and then Leningrad. MAR escaped to Finland and then Poland where he married. Another war sent him on to Romania then Turkey from where he often spoke to Azerbaijan over Voice of America. He died in 1955. ZT in view of his previous philanthropy was allowed to live out his days in his summer cottage as his other properties were seized. ZT’s second wife Sona was not so lucky. Despite being of noble birth and upbringing, in 1924 upon ZT’s death, Sona was evicted from the summer cottage and spent her remaining days  a street person in Baku. Sona died in 1938.

ZT with grandchildren a year before his death

Azerbaijan again got independence in 1992. Oil is not has plentiful as it once was probably explaining why the area no longer receives the attention of the Russian, Turkish, or Iranian army. Baku is a big city today but the Armenians and Jews that used to be a big part of life there are gone and even Russians are down below 5 percent of the population.

Well my drink is empty and my stamp fake so come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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China 1961, Remembering Sun Yat-sen for trying to bring peace, order, and good government over from Hong Kong

The Communist and for that matter the Taiwan governments of China look to the memory of Sun Yat-sen  as the father of the revolution that ended the Qing Monarchy. For that he will be remembered but it is reasonable to wonder if his successors lived up to Sun’s hopes and where his hopes came from. 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.

Remembering a dead leader is a safe thing to do since he is no longer a threat. The People’s Republic has done a great job in picturing Sun Yat-sen as one of them. Indeed just looking at the stamp, I thought it was Chou En-lai. Sun was often photographed with a moustache but understandably not by the People’s Republic.

Todays stamp is issue A156, a 10 Fen stamp issued by the People’s Republic of China on October 10th, 1961. It was a two stamp issue marking the 50th anniversary of the 1911 Chinese Revolution that overthrew the Monarchy. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth $5 used. It would be worth $75 unused. Taiwan had a stamp honoring the same revolution anniversary showing the KMT flag over both Chinas. It is worth much less.

Sun Yat-sen  was born in southern China in 1866. Interestingly there is American paperwork that he was really born in Hawaii. Sun claims that this was faked in order to get him in the USA during a period when the USA was restricting immigration. In any case, he was educated in Anglican schools in Hawaii and Hong Kong due to the generosity of his well off older brother in Hawaii. He became a Doctor of Medicine at what became the British founded University of Hong Kong, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/26/hong-kong1891-the-british-build-the-premier-university-in-asia-for-the-chinese-but-climb-the-hill-to-avoid-their-filth/  . He also was Baptized a Christian. The relative peace and prosperity of Hong Kong turned him against the old ways of China’s then Monarchy. He formed a Tong in Hong Kong to work against the Monarchy after a list of suggestions was rejected by the Chinese Ambassador in Hong Kong. He traveled around extensively among expatriate Chinese communities in South East Asia, Europe, and the USA seeking support and taking note of the success of such communities relative to the situation in China. This was also noted on racial terms as the success of the Han people, and he regarded the Qing Dynasty as of Mongolian heritage.

In America, Sun founded the Revive China Society. In China his organization was called the KMT, though Sun spent little time in China. There were multiple uprisings that failed but in 1911 success was achieved. This was accomplished by working with Yuan Shikai who commanded the North China Army. This seemed a good fit as Sun’s support was mainly in the South. The Republic did not fare well. Sun yielded the Presidency to Yuan who then splintered the government by declaring himself the new Emperor. Sun was back to exile and China entered it’s warlord period.

Sun then did what got him on this stamp. He had the KMT sign treaties with the Chinese Communist Party and an aid agreement with the Soviet Union. The treaty was signed with Adolph Joffe, a Crimean Jew and Trotskyite. That complicated things when the Soviets went Stalinist but by then that would be Sun’s successors problem. In 1924, in one of his last big speeches, Sun stated that the British traditions of peace, order, and good government that Sun had witnessed in Hong Kong had inspired him to be a revolutionary. Being a revolutionary is fun with all the travel and excitement but Sun’s brief period in power showed actually bringing Hong Kong’s success to China was not going to be quick or easy. Sun died of liver cancer in 1925.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the former British Administration of Hong Kong for showing the Chinese people how things could be. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Norfolk Island, people come (in chains), people go

Norfolk is a small island dependent on Australia with a declining and aging population. Australia wonders if it is worth keeping it occupied. It has been that way from the beginning. 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.

One way for a small island to generate some revenue is to contract out to print stamps for the worldwide stamp collector. The island petitioned repeatedly for the right to print stamps and Australia granted it right before World War II but the stamps themselves had to wait till after the war. It helps if the island is a part of the British Commonwealth, which Norfolk is by extension by way of Australia. The fact that many of the current residents of Norfolk are descended from immigrants from Pitcairn Island guaranteed there would be stamps, as they are big business on Pitcairn. However in 2016 as part of the reorganization of Norfolk’s administration, the separate Norfolk postal system was shut down and anything newer is printed by and for Australia.

Todays stamp is issue A22, a 5 Australian cent stamp issued  by The Australian self governing dependency of Norfolk Island on October 27th, 1968. It was a single stamp issue depicting a mother of pearl carving of the Nativity in celebration of Christmas that year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents whether mint or used.

Though a Polynesian settlement had at one time existed, Norfolk was unoccupied when spotted by Captain Cook in 1774. He named it after Mary Howard, the Duchess of Norfolk. She had asked Captain Cook to name an island for her but by the time he did unknown to him, she had died the year before.  New Zealand style flax was growing there wildly and that attracted the first penal colony from New South Wales to better cultivate it. The flax became less valuable and it was decided that the penal colony be abandoned in 1814.

In 1824, Tasmania and Britain had ideas for a second penal colony specifically to house the worst criminals that had been sentenced to death but as was common then seen that sentence commuted to life in prison. Thus an island 900 miles offshore was ideal. In the 1850s the importation of convicts to Tasmania had ended and it was soon again decided to abandon the facility on Norfolk.

The facilities left by the penal colony proved attractive and 189 residents of Pitcairn Island landed in 1856. The were mainly descendants of the Tahitian wives of the HMS Bounty mutineers. The colony resembled Pitcairn, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/29/pitcairn-islands-1967-an-island-with-more-stamps-than-people-this-one-overprinted-in-gold/ , but was less religious. A native dialect even developed that was a combination of 18th century English and Tahitian called norfuk. The island was administered by New South Wales both before and after the creation of Australia. An airstrip was built on the island during World War II to take advantage of it being half way between Australia and New Zealand.

Australia granted much self rule after the war but things did not go well. As Australian citizens, the young adults mostly leave seeking work and study opportunities and tourism is the only real industry. An appeal was made to Australia in 2010 for additional subsidies. The Australians responded by shuttering the local institutions and taking more direct control. The dole became Australia level generous but for the first time, Norfolk residents were expected to pay Australian income tax. This was quite a blow on the island and now there is talk of appealing this to the United Nations as a nation being held against it’s will by another. Meanwhile every year the population drops and there are now barely 1000 residents. I doubt the UN will take up their case as the Norfolk islanders are white. Interestingly the island has so few last names that the phone book included nicknames like Diddles and Rubber duck.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another in remembrance of the former Norfolk postal service. Maybe I am just still thirsty. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Germany 1991, A newly united Germany remembers the Junkers F 13, an innovative product of a previously united Germany

The Junkers F 13 was an innovative product of a great man with a united country behind him. The industry he worked in now requires a consortium of companies and countries to ever more rarely bring a product to market. In the optimism of 1991, Germany can be forgiven to look back fondly at what was accomplished and imagining it could happen again. 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.

If there is a failure in the aesthetics of this stamp, it is not capturing how radical this airplane would have looked in 1919. It was a world of open cockpit biplanes. The stamp does however show you the characteristic corrugated alluminum alloy skin that made the advancement possible. So as with so many stamps, the more you look the more you see.

Todays stamp is issue A711, a 30 pfennig stamp issued by Germany on April 9th 1991. It was a 4 stamp issue in various denominations remembering German pre war civilian airplanes and airships. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents whether mint or used.

Hugo Junkers founded his company in 1895 in Dessau, Germany initially manufacturing boilers and radiators. Hugo had some radical ideas for getting into the manufacture of airplanes. He had the idea that aluminum could be made strong enough that the skin of an airplane could be made integral to it’s structure. This would reduce weight and allow for better aerodynamics. To make this work, Junkers developed an age hardened alloy of aluminum that they called Duralumin and further strengthened the metal by corrugating it. The resulting F 13 airliner of 1919 was thus a revelation facing the post World War I need for civilian airliners.

Hugo Junkers had to work hard to market his airplane. One thing he did was start his own airline that in turn bought over 60 of the airplane. His airline was eventually in 1926 merged with an airline subsidiary of the Lloyd’s shipping line to form Lufthansa which in turn took another 72 F13s. Junkers offered low down payments and lease deals that got F13s flying all over the world. The planes had a variety of different engines mostly from Daimler Benz, BMW, and in house Junkers designs, but the airframe was perhaps more advanced than the engines available. Over 300 F13s were built by 1932 and the technology developed was still very much in evidence in the later larger and more numerous tri motor Junkers airliners.

Hugo Junkers in 1920.

As the politics in Germany changed it became quite bad personally for Hugo Junkers. He was requested by the Nazi government to participate in the rearming of Germany. Hugo said no thank you. He was then put under house arrest and told to give up his stock in the company he founded and all of his patents. In exchange, Hugo would not be tried for high treason. Hugo was an older man by then not up to the stress coming his way and he died at home still under arrest. The stolen company then went on to build many notable warplanes such as the Stuka dive bomber. In the 1960s the remnants of the Junkers operation were merged into Messerschmitt.

In 2016, a new build replica of the Junkers F-13 was built as a personal tribute to Hugo Junkers. Though it had a radio and a transponder, it was otherwise original including a rebuilt 1930s vintage Pratt and Whitney radial engine. The technicians and engineers on the project had so much fun, that they agreed to take further orders and at least 4 new builds have been completed. Not bad for a now over 100 year old airplane.

One of the new build F13 replicas. The builds happen in Switzerland, thus the Swiss cross.

Well my drink is empty but I will be ready the next time Germany wants to toast Hugo Junkers. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Ireland 1967, 100 years later Irish stampmakers fantasize about alternate history

A newish stamp with a picture of an old stamp is not at all unusual. Ireland was using British stamps in 1867 but that doesn’t mean the imagination can’t conjure up what a newly independent stamp issue of 1867 would have looked like. If the Fenian rebellion succeeded. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and st back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Since this stamp is an Irish fantasy lets examine how they did. Not so bad. Most new countries start with a coat of arms, even one where the independence was achieved from violent chaos. One can note a pretty giant difference between this would be issue and the later real issues of the Irish Free State. They aren’t all about the Catholic church. The Fenians were rough men, whose struggle was routed in class not in intricacies of interpreting scripture. Their independent Ireland would have been different than what came later. Kudos to the stamp designer, S. Allen Taylor, for picking up on that. By 1967, Irish stamp issues were becoming way more secular. On some of the real early stamps, Ireland could be mistaken for a caliphate.

Todays stamp is issue A62, a 5 penny stamp issued by Irish Republic on October 23rd, 1967. The stamp recognized the 100th anniversary of the failed Fenian Irish rebellion of 1867. It was a two stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

The class situation was serious in 19th century Ireland. The landowning class was largely British and the available land was often used for cattle raising, so the beef could be exported to feed the insatiable English desire for corned beef, that was newly cheap and available to the masses of industrial workers. This left the Irish short of food and money. Thus there were frequent rebellions against British rule. There were also many Irish leaving for the USA, Canada, and factory work in England. The situation eventually corrected with corn beef resourced from Uruguay. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/07/uruguay-1889-we-will-grow-by-immigration-merino-wool-and-corned-beef/

Several leaders of a 1848 uprising were in Paris and in contact with Irish in the USA. After the American Civil War there were many Irish born veterans that had been paid to fight for the North. Taking inspiration from the Irish Fianna of the middle ages. They hoped their armed arrival in Ireland and Canada would lead to an uprising that would end British rule. Fianna were sons of Ireland in the middle ages that were landless and had to scratch out a living as armed bands. There were several Fenian attacks in Ireland, England and Canada that were mainly hoping to seize weapons. The attacks failed and so the leaders were not able to lead an uprising of the Irish people.

That does not mean the Irish people did not remember and appreciate the effort. After the rebellion was put down there was a massive outpouring of wishes than the Fenians not be hung as traitors but instead given amnesty. Some were and some weren’t. The old Fianna mottos were. We have purity in our hearts, we have strength in our limbs and our actions match are speech. The modern Fenians added that they were deeming better to manfully die in the struggle for freedom than continue an existence of utter serfdom. A movement needs some martyrs and these were better than most.  In England, they were seen differently of course, see the cartoon below.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another of Irish Whiskey to toast stamp designer S. Allen Taylor. Stamp collectors like to remember an old stamp, but it goes the extra mile to imagine what an old stamp would have looked like if things had gone differently. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.