Month: April 2026

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The Gold Coast 1954, listening out for the talking drum

There is an old African tradition among the Yoruba People of communicating between villages though the use of hourglass shaped drums that can be adjusted to mimic the sounds of human speech. There was nothing like this anywhere in the world. The Gold Coast got around to displaying it on their last stamp issue before independence. 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.

There is an earlier version of this stamp with King George VI and a later version with an overprint recognizing independence in 1957. Queen Elizabeth is still with us but when Charles or William replace wouldn’t it be great if the Commonwealth did a new version with the new King. Talk about continuity and talking drums are interesting in any time period.

Todays stamp is issue A15, a 2 Pence stamp issued by the Crown Colony of the Gold Coast in 1954. It was a twelve stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. Check out the hand cancelation by pen on mine. The George VI version has the same value but the independence overprint adds 15 cents to the value.

Drumming holds a special significance to the Yoruba people. Those of them that still adhere to their legacy religion believe that the first Yoruba drummer was named Ayangalu. It is believed that upon his mortal death, he was deified and became an Orisha. An Orisha is a spirit sent down from higher deities to communicate with mortals, in Ayangalu’s case all future drummers.

The talking drum is hourglass shaped with drums on both ends and many cords down each side. The cords can adjust the pitch between beats. In this way a very skilled drummer can lyrically mimic human speech. The drums became tools of communication as in the right circumstances the sound can carry as far as five miles.

In the poetic verbal tradition of the griots, African verbal historians and poets, the communication is not simple and short like say Morris code, but rather long and stretched out. Go home might be drummed as go where your feet want to take you. This longer phrase is then repeated several times in the hope that it will be properly interpreted by the listener. You can hear an example here, https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=talking+drums+ghana&docid=608034306542275132&mid=1C2F896B5CBDEE7CF2611C2F896B5CBDEE7CF261&view=detail&FORM=VIRE   .

The use of the talking drum as of course declined and fewer and fewer have the skill to play it. The talking drum has showed up in western music including Fleetwood Mac and The Grateful Dead including attempts by their drummers to play live at shows. One wonders if they pray for the blessings of Ayangalu before the attempt. The talking drum also appeared on the soundtrack to the recent movie “Black Panther”. The score for that movie was written by Ludwig Goransson.

Well my drink is empty and I will listen for the drumbeats to decide if I get another. Hearing nothing, away goes the bottle. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Mongolia 1990, We few Mongols should not make each others noses bleed

What do you do when a country’s leadership no longer has their heart in it. Perhaps the correct path is to quietly resign and spend the rest of your life tending your garden. That is what was happened in Mongolia. 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 topical farm out stamp shows a Siberian musk deer. The genus name is used on the stamp to down play the Siberian. They do exist in Mongolia but the species is on the decline as it is heavily poached both for meat and for it’s musk glands. The world population is down to an estimated 230,000, about 40,000 in Mongolia.

Todays stamp is issue A419a, a 60 Mung stamp issued by the still barely People’s Republic of Mongolia on September 26th, 1990. It was a four stamp issue displaying different views of the Siberian musk deer. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents cancelled to order.

I while back I did a stamp on the Sukibator, the axe hero of Mongolia, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/01/11/mongolia-1932-remembering-sukhe-bator-the-axe-hero-of-mongolia/   . You don’t have the wildness af axe heroes unless the pro Soviet communists in charge are passionate about what they are doing.  That passion continued under the long rule of Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal who sided decisively with the Soviets at the time of the split with China in 1960. A big Stalin guy who even had a Russian wife. His time had perhaps past when he was in Moscow lobbying the Soviets to take a harder line in the cold war. Instead the Soviets decided to keep Y. T. in Moscow and pass Mongolian leadership to technocrat Jambyn Batmonkh.

General Secretary Jambyn Batmonkh

Batmonkh would tell you he accomplished much in his six years regarding power grids and coal mines and railways. He would be correct but he could also read the writing on the wall. The Soviets had pulled their troops out of Mongolia voluntarily and the anti communist protests that swept the world in 1989 hit Mongolia at the end of the year. Batmonck instructed that no force be used against the protestors. The demands of the protestors were however ignored and they began a large hunger strike.

The Politburo became concerned at Batmonkh’s inaction and wrote a decree for him to sign to crack down hard on the protestors. They called him in after hours to sign it and he flatly refused. Batmonkh stated that we few Mongols should not make each others noses bleed and he resigned on the spot and encouraged the Politburo to do the same. The technocrat had finally inspired and the Politburo indeed did resign. An election to chose a new government happened a few months later.

Batmonkh was done with politics and spent the rest of his life tending his garden. Him and the former first lady could often be spotted at the farmers market selling their produce. If asked, and only if asked, he would tell you that he thought he did a better job that those that came later. He definitely could have done worse.

Well my drink is empty and I will be happy to pour another to toast Jambyn Batmonkh. After all it is not just Mongols who desire their noses not to bleed. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Occupied Poland 1940, Germany needs living space but Poland doesn’t require a Queen

The borders of Poland were not set in stone. Therefore the Polish people were mixing with many others. German conquest meant that only one of those peoples, the Germans were to be provided for. Yet a Nazi henchman and wife with delusions of Royalty actually thwarted the German plan as it would have lessened their authority. 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 shows the courthouse in Krakow that no longer stands. Showing the architecture of the occupied area leaves out anything in Warsaw. Cities like Krakow and Lublin were considered more traditionally German while Warsaw was to be completely redeveloped as a German city after population replacement. Crazy stuff.

Todays stamp is issue OS1, a 50 Groszy stamp issued by the German General Government of occupied Poland in 1940. It was a 17 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

When Germany conquered the western two thirds of Poland in 1939, it was intended that the occupation government would be short lived. Polish peasants were to be made employees of their conquerors while Poles of more achievement were to be forcefully suggested to go east. Some of this happened. A farm on my mothers German side of the family was assigned Polish peasants to work the farm after the German ones were off serving the country. I asked my mother how that could work out well. She said they were peasants in Poland and then they were peasants in Germany, why should they care? Well….. it was a different world then. The highlight of the German plan for Poland was a leveling of Warsaw and a redevelopment as a much smaller model German city with a small Polish quarter in the other side of the river. It was called the Papst Plan.

Papst Plan for a smaller German Warsaw

Probably luckily for Poland the General Government was put under a Nazi henchman named Hans Frank who had been with Hitler since the Beerhall Putsch. He was not interested in reducing his power by letting the territory be reorganized into new German goas. So this part of the plan went very slowly. The territory of the General Government was instead expanded when Russian occupied areas of Poland and the Polish areas of the Ukraine were transferred to it.

Hans Frank and his wife Brigitte instead were acting as the new Royals of Poland. Brigitte was opening referring to herself as Queen of the Poles. This became an embarrassment to Germany as remember there was not to be a Poland. In 1942, Frank sought to divorce his wife but she refused as she would rather according to her be his widow.

Brigitte and Hans Frank

She got her wish after Frank was executed post war at Nuremburg with his crimes made specific against the Jews. In his last days, Frank put out a story that Hitler was being blackmailed by people who knew that Hitler had a Jewish grandfather that his grandmother had worked as a maid for. The story did not check out.

I mentioned that the General Government never got around to leveling Warsaw. This them happened during the Warsaw uprising just before the Red Army arrived in 1944 as various groups tried to establish themselves to next rule Poland. The Polish friends of the Red Army rebuilt Warsaw post war, not of course using the Pabst Plan.

Well my drink is empty and I will not be toasting the Pabst Plan. Germans might however point out that they themselves were much more efficiently cleansed from east of the Oder post war by Poles. Perhaps they should have considered beforehand that turnaround is fair play. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.