Month: January 2023

Categories
Uncategorized

Czechoslovakia 1975, Remembering when an innovative arms maker learned to cope with peace

A long time ago people knew how to make things. So after World War I ended, arms maker Frantisek Janecek had to fill his hand grenade and bazooka factory. How about motorcycles, young men that should be in the army pass their time on them. 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.

On this stamp issue remembering Czech motorcycles, two of the stamps honored Jawa motorcycles. Given the era, (1975) they chose two models that had a  worker bent. This stamp showed the Jawa 175 from 1935, a new smaller and cheaper bike that tripled production. Then they showed a Jawa 250 from 1945, when the country was able to get back to motorcycles, this time without outside help or even it’s founder.

Todays stamp is issue A172 a 60 Haleru stamp issued by Czechoslovakia on September 25,1975. It was a six stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint of used.

Frantisek Janecek was born in Bohemia in 1878. After engineering training in Berlin, he was employed by industrialist Emil Kolben first in Prague and later as a plant manager in the Netherlands. When bicycling to work, Dutch style, he was hit by a car and was rendered first aid by his future wife, a passenger in the car. Army Service for Austria Hungary on the Italian front during World War I turned his attention to arms. Soon he was running his own factory making his designs for hand grenades, bazookas, and a devise that allowed cannons a longer time between servicing.

The changes of the 1920s saw the factory well below capacity. There was also opportunity. The motorcycle arm of German maker Wanderer was in receivership and Janecek was able to acquire a license to manufacture their design. He called the new operation Jawa from the first two letters of Janecek and Wanderer. He recruited a British motorcycle racer and later arms designer George Patchett. The line was successful and widely exported especially after the cheaper Jawa 175 from the stamp was introduced. It had a 5.4 horsepower two stroke engine and a top speed of 50 miles per hour.

Frantisek Janecek
Jawa 750, every motorcycle manufacturer dreams of cars. Here is a sport special Jawa whipped up for a Czech rally in 1935.

The Nazi takeover saw George Patchett depart and Janecek turn his attention back to arms manufacturing. Janecek died in 1942. He left behind a design for a new motorcycle the Jawa 250, which went into production post war. This era saw Jawa’s greatest success, and they boasted being sold everywhere from California to New Zealand. Jawa became the first motorcycle maker to offer an automatic clutch. This device was quickly copied by Honda and Jawa quickly started a successful lawsuit to assure license fees from the giant Honda.

It seems that every stamp industry story ends the same way. In the 1990s Jawa motorcycle production slowed to a trickle and the firm became a tiny subsidiary of a larger Czech conglomerate. In 2018, Mahindra in India introduced a line of motorcycle that resemble the Jawa motorcycles made in India from the 1950s-1990s. Remember Mahinda also continues to make Jeeps that resemble the 1940s Willys Jeep.

Well my drink is empty but I get to have more when I toast Mr. Janesek and Mr. Patchett. Motorcycles and bazookas seem an unlikely combination that they both shared. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Categories
Uncategorized

Taiwan 1964, Your POWs are now here and they hate Communists

Taiwan was in a weird state in the early 1950s. The KMT which had formerly ruled China now just had the island of Formosa. Perhaps it was necessary to kid themselves that the defeat was just a setback in a longer struggle. Maybe if Taiwan could recruit some of the PLA soldiers captured in the Korean War. That would prove that everything isn’t so peachy on the mainland. 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 has a strange visual. The prisoner who has broken the chains that bind him appears to be drowning. Perhaps if a helping hand from Taiwan was coming out of the dark sky to save him it would make more sense. The 10th Taiwan World Freedom Day commemorates the day that a ship carrying 14,000 PLA prisoners of the Korean War landed in Taiwan. They had elected to go there instead of returning to mainland China. This event was played as a victory and was the start of a long lasting worldwide anti communist organization, the Asian People’s Anti Communist League. This bunch is now known as the World League of Freedom. I am sure they gave the CIA their banking information.

Todays stamp is issue A205, a $3.20 Taiwan Dollar stamp issued on January 23rd, 1964. The two stamp issue in different denominations marks the 10th celebration of the World Freedom Day holiday. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $2.75 unused.

After the Korean War ended in 1953, Chinese soldiers who had “volunteered” to fight on the North Korean side but taken prisoner by the United Nations forces were given a choice as to whether they would prefer to repatriate to China or go to Taiwan. This seems a bizarre choice to offer as they were prisoners and therefore it was impossible to know their real intentions. It was of course also bizarre to believe the Chinese Army marching into North Korea was volunteering instead of acting under orders from Peking. In any case, 23,000 of the POWs were sent to Taiwan. Many apparently had served previously in the KMT Army during the late 1940s Chinese Civil War. It was not unusual in that for soldiers or whole units to change sides.

1954 was a time when the USA was formalizing relations with Asian countries as a buffer against the advance of Communists. The most prominent part of this was the South East Asia Treaty Organization, SEATO. This was modeled on NATO and lasted from 1954-1977. Taiwan formed the Asian People’s Anti Communist League in South Korea with the Philippines also a member. It’s goal was to provide support to anti communist activists around Asia and eventually world wide. You hear of course about the Socialist Internationale with all it’s anarchists but not so much about the other side. The organization’s Secretariat went through many homes passing through South Korea, Manilla before a 10 year stay in Saigon in then South Vietnam. The fall of Saigon in 1975 temporarily ended the organization but it was reconstituted in Taipei in 1977. In 1991, the name changed to World League of Freedom to recognize the fall of Communism at least in the Soviet sphere.

Taiwan President Ma at 2011 World Freedom Day greeting foreign guests

Over the years the group has attracted some iffy people. Among them were former SS officer and adventerur Otto Skorzeny, Japanese mobster Yoshio Kodama, and former American General John Singlaub. American Senator and later Presidential candidate John McCain was briefly involved but later resigned and asked that his name be removed from their lists. Taiwan politician Chou Kujen is the current leader.

Well my dink is empty and without a handout from the Asian People’s Anti Communist League I will have to stop drinking. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

New Zealand 1996, Remembering Broken Barrier, and understanding why there are barriers

In a now independent far off outpost of Empire, there is a tendency of elevating the mediocrity. The important thing to show was that it was local. What I don’t understand is the point of remembering such excursions years later. Unless the point is to not try this 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.

The interesting thing about this stamp aesthetically is something that this stamp does not include. As printed there was a tab with a scratch and win label. It was part of a contest. The contest of course is long over but if the stamp still has the unscratched tab attached, the value of this stamp rises 30 cents. Underwhelming right after over 20 years of controlling your curiosity.

Todays stamp is issue A415, an 80 cent stamp issued by New Zealand on August 7th, 1996. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations remembering examples of local film making. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.10 whether used or unused.

Broken Barrier was a film made in New Zealand in 1952. It is the story of a young white male reporter who falls for a young Maori girl while writing a story about rural Maori life. The couple have trouble with her family and then later after she moves to the city with his family. The couple listens to their families, break off their relationship and resolve instead to marry their own kind. That way they can be a part of building their respective communities instead of tearing them apart. I kid of course, the plot is exactly what you would expect.

Even the poster looks dreary. There did seem room in the movie budget for hair gel.

The barrier broken was that it was the only film produced in New Zealand between 1940 and 1964. With so little going on in filmmaking there really were some barriers. This was director John O’Shea’s first credit. It was also the first acting credit for male lead Terence Bayler though he had a later career in the UK that included “Dr. Who” “Monte Python, The Life of Brian”, and “Harry Potter”. He died in 2016. The Maori female lead Kay Ngarimu, is still alive but this was her only acting credit. The film was not released widely outside New Zealand.

Even basic filmmaking proved impossible for this no experience crew working with a tiny budget. Mr. Bayler remembers making 6 Pounds a week on the set. There is no dialog between characters, instead relying on voice overs. This was not a creative decision of Mr. O’Shea, but a reality forced by the shoestring filming style. It is no wonder there was not another film in New Zealand for another 12 years.

Well my drink is empty and I am afraid this does not seem a good movie for a rainy day. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

Categories
Uncategorized

Free People’s State of Wurttemberg 1920, Not as lefty as it sounds

It was to me an interesting transition in Germany after World War I. Not that there were not lefties during the Empire period, in fact some right wingers blame them for defeat. All of the sudden after the war, the left was in power and basic styles changed completely. This was true in Russia as well but held on there. Not so much in Germany, and only a brief window in then conservative Wurttemberg. 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.

Wurttemberg gave up it’s separate postal authority in 1902 as part of the gradual integration with Germany going on since 1870. That does not mean this stamp is fake. The Wurttemberg Empire and then the Free Peoples State kept issuing official stamps for their own government’s use until 1923. Most are just overprints of bulk postage stamps. Around 1920 however there are a few more real commemorative issues. They are much more common unused than used implying that their function was raising revenue. However in the early days of the Republic things were somewhat up in the air so perhaps there was a possibility of going it alone being readied.

Todays stamp is issue O9, a 20 Pfennig official stamp issued by the Free People’s State of Wurttemberg on March 25th, 1920. It was part of a 10 stamp issue in various denominations featuring views of Wurttemberg cities. In this case Tubingen. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents unused. A used version would be worth double.

Wurttemberg joined the German Empire in 1871 after siding with Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War. The state was allowed to keep it’s King and it’s separate postal service but began the process of better integrating with Germany, Only a serious stamp collector like your author would put as equal keeping a Royal House with keeping a post office. The area was rapidly industrializing and Stuttgart was becoming an ever more important city. King Wilhelm avoided controversy by keeping to the ceremonial and spending a great deal of his time in his landlocked realm yachting on Lake Constance. He lacked a male heir and so when his first wife died in childbirth he remarried but new Queen Consort Charlotte was barren.

At the end of World War I in 1918 there was a coup that put the left wing in power and forced King Wilhelm to abdicate. Unlike other German state royals, Wilhelm and Charlotte were not forced into exile but allowed to stay on in their former hunting lodge Schloss Bebenhausen.  Charlotte lived an increasingly reclusive life there. When she died virtually unnoticed in 1946 she was the last German Queen.

Charlotte, the last German Queen

The “Free People’s State” sure sounds like a euphemism for communists and that was the intention of the coup plotters at the end of the war. However the state lived up to it’s name by allowing elections that had the government go politically more to the right in gradual increments. In 1933 with the Nazi takeover of the central government, the Free State was no more. Wurttemberg and the state of Hohenzollern were merged into what the Nazis called a Gou. Ceremony was by then all that was left of the separateness. After World War II, it was decided to merge the Nazi state that was in the French occupation sector with the American sector area of Baden.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the lefties in Wurttemberg for living up to their self proclaimed title of Free People’s State. Neither Stalin nor the Internationale would have been pleased. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Japan 1994, remembering Mr. Miyagi for trying to preserve the Koto by modernizing it

Michio Miyagi was a blind musician who played the Koto, a Japanese instrument derived from a Chinese Zither. By playing traditional pieces and modifying the instrument to better play western pieces, Miyagi was able to keep interest in an old instrument during a period of rapid westernizing. 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.

Stamps don’t usually produce sound, except for a few farm out publicity stunt stamps. Therefore it is difficult to convey a musical artist’s talent. On this stamp a different tact is taken. Miyagi is shown to be blind and the complexity of the many strings and moveable bridges of the koto shows the challenges he experienced expressing himself through music.

Todays stamp is issue A1645, an 80 Yen stamp issued by Japan on November 4th, 1994. It was a four stamp issue over several years displaying Japanese cultural icons, in this case koto musician and teacher Michio Miyagi. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

Traditional Japanese instruments were in decline during the early 20th century as Japan opened up to western culture. Mr. Miyagi was an unlikely person to bring it back. He had a serious eye infection as a child that left him sightless. Already his mother had left the family and he was taken in by his grandmother. He had music lessons on the koto and was certified as a teacher before he was even 10. His family moved to Jinsen, Chosen in the then Japanese colony in modern Korea. Miyagi supported the family by offering lessons. To prepare students for playing the koto, Mr. Miyagi had them apply car wax in a wax on then wax off style. Just Kidding.  At 13, he composed his first piece and this made him known in the music community as a child prodigy. He married and then set out for Tokyo to reach a wider audience.

At first there were many challenges. An old Koto master that had offered career support had been assassinated just prior to Miyagi’s arrival. Also in short order his wife died. Things must have seemed dark.

Miyagi the next year was able to remarry a new wife from a rich family. She was able to put him on a concert tour where he was able to feature a section of his compositions. They were often heavily influenced by western music and he was able to attract a younger audience. He began experimenting with new versions of the koto instrument. An 18 string bass koto and an 80 string version were constructed to better add the sound of the koto to western music. In 1925, Miyagi was able to get a foothold on Japanese radio from the first broadcasts. In 1932, French violinist Renee Clemet toured Japan and he convinced her to play her violin on his signature song “Hari no Umi”. The recording was a world wide hit and soon his works were released worldwide. In 1956 Miyagi fell off a subway train to his death at age 62.

The koto instrument has indeed survived. It even can be heard on some progressive western rock tracts. Notably the British bands Asia on “Heat of the moment” and Genesis on “Mama” The American pop/soul duo A Taste of Honey used a Koto extensively on their 1981 hit “Sukiyaki”. The koto was played by band member Hazel Payne and the song was a reworking of an old Japanese song. You can hear it here,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUBmtfH6pvY  .

Well my drink is empty and I am left to await next year, err Thursday when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. All the best for 2020. First published i n2019.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Mozambique Company 1940, a colony company warns Portugal about non renewal

The results achieved by the Mozambique Company were poor. Yet they held on and paid Portugal the token rent. The contract was nearly up and Portugal thought it could do better with the colony. Interesting time for a stamp with a little old history as to what Portugal might be in for. 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.

It is strange to think how important stamp issues were to colony companies. It was a currency that could be printed and sold outside the colony that went directly to the bottom line without requiring precious capital. For some of the companies, stamps were 20 percent of revenue. As with this stamp, it could also be about what the company wanted to talk about. In this case. contract renewal.

Todays stamp is issue A56, a 70 Centavo stamp issued by the British owned and Portugal registered Mozambique Company for use in their concession in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique on October 10th, 1940. It was a 6 stamp issue celebrating the Portuguese Royal Restoration back in 1640 under King John IV. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used.

The Portuguese colonies in Africa were under utilized and unprofitable. The idea was hatched that less promising areas could be rented out to profit seeking companies that could get the colonies going with additional investment while turning the cash flow positive for Portugal. The companies involved in Mozambique were majority British owned which put them in neighboring British Rhodesia’s sphere. This was advantageous for Rhodesia as it otherwise lacked an outlet to the sea.

The companies tried to make a go of it but getting things going half way around the world required more investment than the company could provide. They were trying to impose taxes on locals with no concept of money and then tried to force labor out of them to pay it. Back door slavery all this but sensibly ignored by the locals as after all their backsides were no longer facing the whip. Meanwhile the colonists and company people had much more than the same locals and required much expensive security to protect it. See also https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/28/mozambique-company-1937-taking-credit-where-none-was-due/  .

At renewal time around 1940, Portugal looked at the sorry state the company areas were in and thought they could do better themselves. Portugal had a right of center government that tend to look at such adventures more positively. The Mozambique Company wanted to live though and so it needed renewal. What a great time to remind Portugal of the time in the 1600s when Portugal had a great Empire but the distraction lead to Portugal at home ruled by Spain for 30 years.  Could a calamity like that happen again. Well yes it could, the renewed efforts in colonies were not profitable and in the 1974 Carnation Revolution, a new left wing government dropped the colonies immediately.

King John IV on the stamp was made the new King of just Portugal in 1640. With Spanish rule gradually taking power from Portugal resentments built. With most of the Spanish Army off fighting the 30 Years War, it was time for a noble lead rebellion. The so called 40 conspirators killed the Spanish Secretary of State and imprisoned the Spanish Vicerene of Portugal, Margaret of Savoy. John of Braganza was proclaimed King by a line through his grandmother. Of course there was then 18 more years of war with Spain.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Mozambique people. How strangely they must have looked on at these strange debates that involved them but did not include them at all. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Congo 1965, pretending independence and the army hadn’t failed

This stamp imagines a daring paratrooper assault carried out the Congo Army. Well the army had a paratroop division, so that could happen. 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 world was filled with stories of foreigners fighting in the Congo. Belgium, the UN, mercenaries with various backing, and even Che Guevara. Yet here we have the Congo Army fighting for itself pulling off a dangerous airborne assault. The opposite of reality.

Todays stamp is issue A113, a 9 Franc stamp issued by the Democratic Republic of the Congo on July 5, 1965. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of independence. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents. This stamp set also exists imperforate, raising the value to $17.50.

Belgium had administered the colony with local Askari soldiers operating with mostly Belgian officers. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/10/belgian-congo-1942-can-colonials-rely-on-askari-soldiers-when-the-home-country-is-occupied/   . The function was civil defence with the additional tasks of forcing labor contracts. To do this last function, they carried chicotes, a whip made from the hide of a hippopotamus. Not a promising basis for a professional army. Only in the final years of colonial status were a few locals taken for more advanced military training. The intention was that Belgian officers would be seconded to the Congo Army until further notice. 5  days after independence the troops themselves announced that was not acceptable and mutineed. The troops rioted in the major cities specifically targeting whites. Soon copper rich Katanga declared itself independent and Belgian paratroopers landed to support that and protect it’s nationals. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/13/katanga-1961-mining-out-the-chaos/    .

The United Nations intervened on the side of the Congo army. The government was trying to get control of the looting army. They appointed locals as generals that had previously served as corporals and sergeants in the previous Askari force, The tide was against the Congo. The Prime Minister was arrested and turned over to “independent” Katanga where he was beaten, shot by a firing squad, and his corpse dissolved in acid. Dag Hamirgold, the UN secretary, was killed in a plane crash trying to get negotiations going.

All this quickly proved tiresome. Che Guevara found the local freedom fighters unhelpful and untrustworthy and moved on. Congo then agreed to take Katanga leader Moise Tshombe as Prime Minister to get Katanga back and restore Belgian support. A few months after this stamp, Congo General and former Askari corporal Mobutu declared himself President and Tshombe was off into exile.

Tshombe while Prime Minister of Katanga

I mentioned lack of training and effective leadership plagued the early days of the Congo Army. This line of thinking lead to lots of dubious aid to Congo. At the time of this stamp, Begians were training the Army. The British were training Army engineers. Italy was training the combat arm of the air force. The USA was training the Air Force’s transport command. Most relevant to this stamp, Israelis were training the Army’s Parachute Division. The parachute division was most important to the central government as most army units listened only if at all to local provincial leadership.

Discarded C47, jump off only while still on ground. Lesson of the day!

Tshombe tried to come back to Congo in 1968 despite having been tried and sentenced to death for treason. His executive jet was hijacked by French spy Francis Bodenan of SDECE. He ended up in Algeria where he died of “heart failure”. Europe was now supporting Mabuto. Meanwhile the Army is desperately in need of more foreign aid so it can become a force for good and achieve…… So it goes.

Well my drink is empty. Wait, up in the sky, is that the Congo Parachute Division. Oh no…  Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

India 1958, independant India will be great, building on the success of people like J N Tata

This stamp shows the biggest steel mill in the British Empire and the man that imagined it but did not live to see it. It belonged to independent India now and was sure to be a building block of a great future. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your family beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Here is a stamp that cries out for better printing. Perhaps the concern was a huge steel mill on a river will just come across as a gross polluter. Hence the strange orange tint at twilight. I think a better job could have been done. I do like that they included Mr. Tata, it helps to show the person as part of the inspiration that is trying to be imparted.

Todays stamp is issue A124, a 15 Naye Paise stamp issued by India on March 1st, 1958. It was a single stamp issue celebrating 50 years of the steel industry in India by showing the largest steel mill in the British Empire in Jamshedpur. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

J.M. Tata was born into a Zoroastrian Parsee family in Navsari, India. The Parsees were Persians no longer welcome there because they weren’t Islamic. His father owned an import/export firm in Bombay and Tata attended the British founded Elphinstone College. After graduation Tata was sent to China to examine the prospects of getting involved in the opium trade. Lucky for the Tata family name, they don’t issue stamps to remember the exploits of those who soil themselves in the drug trade, Tata discovered a greater opportunity dealing in cotton. By leaving Bombay for cheaper rural land still served by the British trains, the first of many cotton mills was established. As with today, low wage rates and plentiful labour were fully utilized and soon Tata was exporting all over the world. Tata was an early part of the Swadeshi Movement, that believed that Indian goods should be supported and foreign goods boycotted. It may seem a strange stance for an exporter to take, but perhaps a useful reminder of how predatory it all was.

This Swadeshi attitude lead to the founding of the iron and steel division of Tata. This would have seemed so high tech at the dawn of the 20th century. It took a long while to get going and was under son Dorabji that steel output got underway in 1912 in Jamshedpur. This was another smaller city well served by British built infrastructure and offering low wages. Once it got going it really went, the largest steel mill in the British Empire by 1939 that at it’s height employed 40,000 people.

Tata is still one of the largest conglomerates in India and has taken to buying trophy assets including Jaguar/Land Rover and steel mills in Great Britain. No doubt they are having much fun replacing the British that built things with Indians willing to work for less, now even at home. In that predatory lust, they seem to be loosing their way. I mentioned Jamshedpur steel mill peaked at 40,000 employees. Now Tata Steel employs less than 33,000 people in it’s worldwide operations. In the 70s, there was a push to nationalize the steel mill. If that had succeeded employment if not productivity could have been protected.

Tata Steel headquarters in Bombay built in 1958. The executives still prefer Bombay to cheap labour towns

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast British citizens being laid off at Tata’s spoils. No good deed goes unpunished after British India did so much for Parsee refugee Tata. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

Categories
Uncategorized

Ghana 1991, remembering Cape Coast Castle at the time of it’s American/Smithsonian restoration

Ghana as a colony was the Gold Coast. This castle was built by the Dutch under fake Swedish auspices to trade in gold. That of course will not get the moderns blood pumping as much as the slave trade and the concomitant colonial grievance porn is big business. So of course that is what is emphasized with the modern outsider accomplished restoration of Cape Coast Castle. 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.

Ghana showed some signs of progress in the 1990s. They were throwing off the failed socialism and getting the gold mining industry producing again with outside help but then still local control. Soon enough, the change in South Africa would make the later selling out to the De Beers/Anglo American/Oppenheimer organization not seem as hideous as it was. Still the 90s was a time of renewed hope and this stamp is a strong reflector of that. This stamp is not a farm out for collectors but printed locally for actual bulk postage use. The way a real country operates. Impressive for sub Saharan Africa.

Todays stamp is issue A243, a 100 Cede stamp issued by Ghana on December 12th, 1991. It was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations showing national landmarks. This not being a farm out stamp issue like most of Ghana’s offerings seems to flummox the Scott catalog, which does not declare  a value for them. This is also true on later surcharges on the issue to reflect currency depreciation. Scott admits this issue requires further examination.

Cape Coast Castle was built by Dutchman Hendrick Carloff as Carolusbrg Castle, named for Swedish King Charles X. This requires a little explanation. Carloff had risen from a ship’s cabin boy to a high executive in the for profit Dutch East India Company. The company was notoriously mismanaged and went through several bankrupsies. The company however possessed a monopoly on Dutch trade. Several executives had the idea to build a rival company, the Swedish Africa Company with Carloff suddenly claiming birth in Finland, then a Swedish Dutchy. The Swedish King played along and even Knighted Carloff under the name Carloffer. Carloff set up the castle on the Gold Coast as a rival to the Dutch. The trade was mostly gold but also timber and such curiosities as elephants teeth. There was a relationship developed with the King of the Fetu people. It was them who came to trade at the castle and offer their wares. Yes this included slaves that the Fetu captured from rivals.

Unfortunately, the Fetu had also signed a deal with the British and under the terms of the deal they had the right to seize Carloff’s “Swedish” ships. Carloff stormed off, discovered Danish heritage, and founded the Danish Africa Company. The British then paid off the Swedes and the Dutch and took over now Cape Coast Castle and Dungeon. The elaborate underground dungeon was built to safely store gold and yes slaves. Deals with the Fetu did not mean there was not trouble with other tribes. In 1824, Governor Sir Charles MacCarthy lead an expedition against the Ashanti tribe that ended in defeat. MacCarthy killed himself to avoid capture but they got his corpse. The skull was taken back to the Ashanti capital Kumasi where leaders used it as a drinking cup. I suppose we should be impressed by the Ashanti water sealing technology if not their hygiene. It became the duty of the next British Governor to finally stamp out the slave trade.

The Cape Coast Castle and Dungeon was restored by the British Department of Public Works in the 1920s for use as an administrative center. Post independence for now Ghana, the castle deteriorated. USA/UN aid came in to restore the castle in the 1990s under the auspices of the Smithsonian with the view of creating an interactive display from the point of view of the slave passing through the castle on the way to the New World in bondage. No doubt a powerful display. A more realistic and happened much longer true interactive display would be of Fetu tribesman coming to the Castle to sell gold dust their women had panned for and then drinking and whoring their way through the profits. I would pay to see that. I know, it doesn’t fit the approved narrative required by big business grievance porn.

Well my drink is empty. The Fetu sure seem shifty and the Ashanti scary so I think I will pass on travel to Ghana. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.