This looked like an interesting old bridge. I picked this stamp to write up to see if it was Roman or Ottoman in origin. It was Ottoman. Don’t look for it today as it is underwater, I wouldn’t have guessed that. 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 1920s was a politically unstable time for Albania. The Ottomans were gone. Serbians, Greeks, and Italians had ambitions and blood feuds among the locals were rampant. So why not do an issue of stamps showing things that look as if they had been around forever and probably be there forever to promote stability. Fine and dandy until another group of forgotten, failed politicians decide to recast the very name of the country to show the new sheriff in town. The resulting overprint on my copy of this stamp ruins the effect.
Todays stamp is issue A18, a 25 Quintar stamp issued by Albania in 1923. The overprint was added in 1925 after republic was declared. It was a seven stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.10, forty cents more thanks to the overprint. So I guess, viva Albanian republic. The catalog warns however that counterfeits exist. Imagine some sad sack stamp dealer in Vienna trying to fake the overstamp for the extra penny or two back then. Not the hobby’s finest hour.
The bridge shown is the old Nemjeme bridge built in the 17th century over the Drin River in what was at the time of the stamp called Vezirit, later called Kukes. Whatever you call it it was a small market town founded by the Romans, on the road near the border with what is now Kosovo. The most famous moment for the bridge came in 1912 when the Serbian army crossed it only to be forced back when faced with strong resistance
I have done before stamps of the apparent building spree that happened under the Albanian communist regime from 1945-1990. I didn’t think this stamp would be one of those but you never know where a stamp story will lead. In the 1970s, a new town of Kukes was constructed 3 kilometers from where the old town stood.
This was done in preparation for a new large dam being constructed on the Drin river with the help of the Chinese. Over 14,000 workers were assigned to the project. The resulting Fierza Hydroelectric plant opened in 1978 and the resulting resevior left old Kukes submerged.
Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story to be learned from stamp collecting