Author: John C

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Uzbekistan 1993, With no more silk road trade, the Tashkent Turks tire of the Boyars and the exiles and revert to Kokand

The silk road trade made Tashkent rich. It also made it a target of Turkish Khans seeking tribute. In desperation, the traders allowed themselves to be conquered by Russian Boyar adventurers hoping for good governance. Instead the silk trade was allowed to dry up and the city was flooded with exiles the Soviets didn’t trust and wanted out of the way. Maybe if they united with the rural Uzbeks and gave the Turks another try. 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 question was how and how much to subdivide the Turk people of Central Asia. Tashkent went to the extreme and tried to be a city state to protect it’s wealth. The early Soviet years saw the entire area organized as semi autonomous Turkestan, the other extreme of possibilities. The Soviet break up saw a middle road, with independent Uzbekistan reverting to a new Khanate of Kokand. That is what is reflected in the new coat of arms that is more like Kokand than more recent Soviet days.

Todays stamp is issue A8, a 15 Ruble stamp issued by independant Uzbekistan on June 10th, 1993. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents cancelled to order. It is strange to see a non postal cancellation on what appears to be a bulk issue.

The Silk Road was the key to developing Tashkent. It wasn’t just Chinese silk, but also paper and gunpowder that were traded. The Turk population had to be able to interact with Chinese, Indians, Russians, and even Germans and British. The wealth and interaction changed the city and it attempted to govern itself as a city state, still under a local Turk Khan. The neighboring and formerly ruling Khanate of Kokand whose borders closely resemble modern Uzbekistan was able to reconquer Tashkent. To due so they occupied it with 30,000 defenders for the walled city.

Into this came Russian Boyar General Mikhail Chenyayev. Boyars were a multinational class of aristocrats who contract with the Czar to do  certain tasks. In Chenyayev’s case he was to bring the Russian flag to central Asia. He only had with him 1000 men. Knowing how well defended it was, the Czar had instructed him to leave Tashkent alone. Instead his small force scaled the wall in the middle of the night and killed the Kokand leader and paralized the defenses. Promising the city would be tax free and not militarily occupied, Tashkent was conquered.

As the Czar gave way to the Soviets Tashkent changed in a way that disappointed the local Turks. Cold war barriers got in the way of the old trade. In the meantime Moscow picked Tashkent for industrialization and as a place to go for eastern European exiles to whom they did not really trust. The city grew to be the fourth largest city in the Soviet Union, but the Turks were now a minority in their own city. The end of the Soviet Union saw a new Kokand form as Uzbekistan and there was a quick migration out of the exiles and Soviets. The city has not shrunk as the population was replaced by rural Uzbeks. The migration out can be spotted on modern AT&T commercials. The spokeslady, Milana Vaayntrub, was born in Tashkent in 1987, the daughter of Jewish exiles. The change saw the family emigrate to the USA when Milana was a toddler. The question is, the Soviets didn’t trust her family, nor did the Uzbeks, can AT&T?

Milana Vayntrub as Lily the AT&T lady. When she is not selling you a phone, she is advocating for Syrian refugee settlement in Europe. Interesting Tashkent doesn’t occur as a likely destination.

In recent years, China has been interested in reinvigorating silk road trade with a Chinese financed Silk Belt and Road initiative. This will not be of any good to Uzbek Tashkent. The Chinese have decided instead to route the new belt of roads and rail through Kazakhstan.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story that can be learned by stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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Ras Al Khaima/ Khaimah 1969, Finbar Kenny brings postage stamps to a high tent on a pirate coast

Translated Ras Al Khaima means top of the tent, and indeed the Emirate contains the highest peak in the United Arab Emirates. In the old days it probably had some great smugglers dens. Now it hosts the worlds longest zip line. This stamp collector would rather talk about the old days. 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 docking of the lunar and command module of that years American Apolo 11 mission to the moon. A note about how spelling changes. They currently list three acceptable spellings for the Emirate in English, none of which is the one this stamp from 1969. The Emirate now seems decisive in wanting an h at the end of Khaima. Interestingly, in the first year of the Emirate’s stamps in 1964, the cancelation to order done on the stamp spelled the Emirate differently than on the actual stamp. The cancellation was prescient on putting the h at the end of Khaima, but then switched the Al to El which again is not one of the three allowed English spellings.

This dune stamp is considered fake so it is not in the catalog. Between 1964 and 1972 1036 stamps and 70 souvenir sheets were issued by Ras Al Khaima. Mid way along the currency switched from  Indian Rupees to Riyals so there are even some overprints of early issues changing the currency. This issue of 6 stamps and one souvenir sheet came out on August 15th, 1969.

The area of Ras Al Khaima has been occupied by humans continuously for 7000 years. It is associated historically with the trading post of Julfar. The area has been rules by the House of Al-Qasimi since 1721. Another line of the Royal house rules the Emirate of Sharjah. During this early period the British involved with the private British East India Company labeled the area of the coastline a pirate coast. There is some contention that this is just the British putting labels on trading competitors, however it is known that the Al-Qasimis were tied to the Somalis. Their allies in old times were the Persians and their rivals were the Omanis in Muscat and their British allies.

At first there was much inconclusive fighting with Muscat. In 1820 to they said put a stop to the piracy, the East India Company attacked by land and sea the fort at Ras Al Khaima. When they charged the fort they found it almost deserted. Unable to locate Emir Al-Qasimi, they traveled to Sharjah and had that Al-Qasimi sign a capitulation that agreed to an end to piracy and slavery. Ras Al  Khaima again seperated from Sharjah in 1869.

1820 British and Muscat siege of Ras Al Khaima

In 1963, the British stopped being the protector and stamp issuer for the Trucial States as they called them. That allowed American fake stamp guru Finbar Kenny come in to fill the stamp breach, signing a deal with Sheik Saqr Al-Qasimi. However the time period was very bad for Ras Al Khaima. Two islands that the Emirate claimed were occupied militarily by Shah era Iran. It seems the Al-Qasimi ties with the Persians had frayed. This became very important to stamp collectors because Ras al Khaima delayed joining the United Arab Emirates until the whole area agreed to to take up the cause of returning the islands. As a result of the delay, Ras Al Khaima produced the last fake dune stamps. Emir Saqr ruled from 1948 -2010.

Emir/Sheik Saqr Al- Qasimi

In 2003 Saqr removed crown prince Khalid in favor of son Saud. Khalid was forced into exile in old rival Muscat, Oman. Upon Saqr’s death on 2010, Khalid posted a video claiming the Emirship for himself, but the Emirate council recognized instead the selection of Saud. Khalid than funded a western PR campaign suggesting that his father and brother were in cahoots with the Islamic Republic of Iran in their nuclear weapons program. Sometimes the Philatelist has to update his scorecard to track the leans. Dunes do shift.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Germany 2003, remembering the Porsche 356B 40 years later

I am generally more impressed with stamp issues that promise a better future than remember a great past. With an achievement like the Porsche 356, why not take the time to remember, especially when the remembrance supports a good cause. 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.

With a new stamp from an old car comes the question of how to photograph it. Period photos from advertising? No you are remembering a car, not trying to sell it. A modern photo of a classic car? No, an old car in great condition is probably more about the owner than the car itself. Germany decided to use a series of car drawings of the type a car identification book for children might have, even with some quick stats. This is a great idea as there were more kids dreaming about Porsches than adults driving them.

Todays stamp is issue SP434, a 55 +25 semi postal stamp issued by Germany on October 9th, 2003. This was an 8 stamp issue that remembered important cars from Germany’s past. All cars were post war and a few were even East German. The 25 cent surcharge benefited something called the Federal Working Party on Independent Welfare. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.90 whether it is mint or used.

The Porsche 356 was a post war development of the pre war Volkswagen Beetle. The car had a smaller, lighter body and had engines that were uprated over their state of tune in Beetles. The car used the independent swing axle suspension of the Beetle but over time upgraded it to cope with more power. Initial thoughts of aluminum bodywork were deleted to keep expenses down. The car was still quite expensive costing a little more than an American Corvette with 3 times the power and 40 percent more weight. The British Austin Healy 3000 split the difference with less power, weight  and expense than the Corvette, but more weight and power than the Porsche.

What all three of these cars did well was demonstrate the 3 countries different approaches to going fast. To Germany, it was important to keep light so only as much power as could be gotten out of the light Beetle engine. In this period of the 356 in the early 60s, that power was as much as 3 times what the Beetle had. The Corvette was bigger with the engine out of big, powerful American cars. The American car was far faster and more stable, but the light Porsche could catch up in the turns where its agility, rear engine traction and independent, if dangerous suspension helping. The Corvette in this period sold better with about 25 percent more volume despite a fewer percentage exported than the 356. The Austin Healy sold less still despite it’s lower price but did achieve many exports. One thing the three cars had in common was souped up sedan engines rather than specially designed engines for sports cars. It kept prices down.

The 356 was made from 1949- 1965. The B model shown on the stamp had larger window and changes in the floorplan to add room. The C model came along in 1963 adding disc brakes. Over time the car gained a few hundred pounds as more equipment was added. The 356 was replaced in 1965 with the Porsche 911 that attacked the problem of higher weight by adding a six cylinder overhead camshaft engine still in the back. Weight was up 30% over the early 356 but power more than doubled. Prices also went up but for a few years a 912 version sold with the 356 engine at only a slightly higher price.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the German attitude toward speed. The idea now seems to be that all cars must now be built to a world standard so it matters less where a car comes from. I preferred it when the cars better reflected the attitudes of where they were from. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Tanganyika 1961, turning an Arabic trading post into a traditionally African city

Tanganyika got its independence from Britain in 1961. The British tended to be good stewards of trading posts on the India trade routes. That was ending though with African leadership and unimagined population growth. 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 harbor of Dar es Salaam as seen from the then European neighborhood of Oyster Bay. At the time, newly independent Tanganyika was in a postal union with Uganda and Kenya. For independence, they could not resist having an issue to celebrate. I am glad they did as it showed the assets of the place making the case that things could work out. I recently did a South African stamp that tried to do the same thing, except in their case with non colonial white rule. Seehttps://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/21/south-africa-1966-a-tiny-minority-can-go-it-alone-because-they-have-diamonds-but-do-they/  . It will offend both nations to say so, but the stamp issues are remarkably similar, right down to the diamond issue. It was also similar in that both sets of early hope did not quite pan out.

Todays stamp is issue A7, a 2 British East African Shilling stamp issued by newly independent Tanganyika on December 9th, 1961. It was a 12 stamp issue in various denominations that celebrated the achievement of independence. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

Dar es Salaam was a coastal city founded by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1866. It means in Arabic, Home of Peace. It was set up as a trading post. When the Germans conquered the area they also based their activities out of Dar es Salaam. They also built a railroad that eased trade with the interior of the country. The area passed to Britain after World War I but continued as a multiethnic trading post. British rule saw a flood of Indians brought in as contract laborers but then often staying on as merchants.

Julius Nyerere was the local African independence leader that became the first Prime Minister, then with a new not British constitution one party President. The multi ethnic nature of Dar es Salaam was not what he had in mind. He proposed moving to a new capital that was not tainted by colonialism and therefore all black. However he was never able to string together enough foreign aid or local productivity to get a proper capital built. The colonial whites were quick to depart Dar es Salaam but Arabs and Indians were also hounded to leave, without their wealth of course. He also supported Africans in Zanzibar to overthrow their Arab sultan and join Tanganyika now renamed Tanzania, the z referring to Zanzibar. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/  Many not African traders were forced into exile but this time whites were left alone so not to attract British intervention.

Nyerere tried to encourage Africans not to move to Dar es Salaam with its colonial taint but rather stay in their villages. He was not successful in this. In 1960, Dar es Salaam had fewer than 200,000 thousand people less than half were ethnically African. Today the city is near 5 million and over 99 percent African. I will leave it to you to compare the economic status of the old trading posts that retained their multi ethnic status after colonial times like Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai to those that did not like Dar es Salaam, Aden, Tangier, and Mombasa.

The current Tanzanian President still from Nyerere’s old party still believes Tanzania needs to grow it’s population. He has closed down family planning western aid as racist and encouraged Tanzanian fathers to have larger families and not be too lazy to support them.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast those that had to uproot themselves suddenly when they were no longer welcome. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Netherlands 1967, a technical university goes brutal

Delft University of Technology has over the previous 177 years,become one the premier technical universities in the world. As such, it is much larger than how it started. In the 1960s that change was reflected in a new assembly hall that replaced a small local chapel for university events. With more students, the University thought big and brutal. 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.

I suspect the stamp designer was not a fan of brutalist architecture. Well it is an acquired taste. One that I am myself acquiring after doing this Polish stamp, seehttps://the-philatelist.com/2019/03/20/poland-1976-would-it-be-too-brutal-to-try-this-again/ and this Soviet stamp, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/01/02/soviet-union-1983-a-superpower-builds-big/.In those cases it was cold war era communist behind the buildings, but in this case the building came to be in the Netherlands. The impulses were the same as the school was more for the masses than before. Notice the floating spaceship aspect of the building built in 1966, the Russian fad of making their brutalist building appear to be floating was 10 years later. Innovation, as you would expect from a premier university in the field using it’s own graduates.

Todays stamp is issue A107, a 20 cent stamp issued by the Netherlands on January 5th, 1967. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the 125th anniversary of Delft University of Technology by showing the then new assembly hall. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

The University was founded as a Royal Academy in 1842. The original intent was to train colonial administrators for the then vast Dutch colonial empire. Originally the colonies were owned by the Dutch East India Company but the company went bankrupt and was nationalized in 1799. The Napoleonic Wars then played havoc with the empire but after that  the need was seen for more professional management. Over time, the Netherlands home country was rapidly industrializing  and the school transitioned to providing engineering training on an ever more vast scale. At the time of the Royal Academy there were 400 students, now there are over 19,000.

The assembly hall is called the Aula. It was designed by the architectural firm of van den Broek and Bakema, who were both graduates of the University. The firm mainly did large apartment buildings around Rotterdam in the Brutalist style but really went to town with the Aula. Their work was of some note internationally and they were invited to participate in the Interbau development in late 50s West Berlin. See that period Berlin architecture on a stamp here https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/17/berlin-1966-a-new-divided-and-more-corporate-berlin/

The building still stands though the great masses of visible prestressed concrete tends to be discolored if not recently pressurewashed. That is okay, brutalism only improves with a little wear, enhancing the period feel. Delft Technical University received the honor of another stamp on the 150th anniversary in 1992, but that issue did not feature the architecture of the campus. Perhaps the many newer buildings did not measure up.

Well my drink is empty, and thankfully my University days are far behind me. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

 

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France 2003, Paris remembers fondly the peasant Cassoulet of Languedoc, to give a direction for white flight

This is a stamp, printed in Paris, that displays their view of the regions. Interesting that for the Languedoc region of southwest France, they picked a peasant dish to goes so far into tradition, that it contains a little of the dish that came before. This as Languedoc was taking in ordinary workers who could no longer exist in Paris do to the stratification. 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 issue is meant to celebrate the regions of France. That it was put together by Paris sophisticates is obvious by the subjects chosen. Thus the region of Languedoc is not represented by the Airbus factory, but rather an old style peasant dish containing lots of beans. Says something I think of those moving from Paris to there. Good bye and good eats, and don’t forget your yellow vest.

Todays stamp is issue A1642, a 50 Euro Cents stamp issued by France on May 24th, 2003. It was a 10 stamp issue showing aspects of the various regions of France and was available as well as a souvenir sheet. According to the Scott catalog, any individual stamp from the sheet is worth $1.30 used. The souvenir sheet as a whole is worth $16.

The Languedoc region of France is one of the fastest growing regions as real estate is more affordable and all of the industry as yet to depart. The region came into France later than areas further north so shows some vestiges of Spanish and Italian influences. By French standards, the area still has a low population density.

The Cassoulet dish originated among peasants and was a casserole containing white beans, sausage and pork skins and often duck or goose. Interestingly when the dish is eaten the brown stains at the bottom of the pot are deglazed and stored as a base for the next time. In this way there is an unbroken continuity from a dish from many years before. Sounds a lot like whiskey makers transferring the sour mash dregs of the last batch into the next one for continuity and tradition. This talk has now made me both hungry and thirsty though I am no fan of beans, sausage or eating foul. Well part of the tradition of peasant cooking in the big pot is throwing in whatever is on hand.

Of course tradition can always be dumbed down and homogenized. French big box supermarkets sell premade cassoulets in cans and jars. No doubt whatever finds its way into those giant casserole dishes/industrial vats is just as good. At least it gives something to throw at the next yellow vest rally.

Well my drink is empty, and my wife has in mind Thai food for lunch. No French peasant food around here and I can’t convince my wife to crack open her Jacque Pepin cookbook. You can trust that I will be thinking of Cassoulet while I eat my drunken noodles. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Nicaragua 1976, Somoza will bleed the peasants dry and then automate their function

This series of stamps shows American progress over 200 years in celebration of the Bicentennial that year. In it though you can spot the hereditary Somoza regime’s plan to pacify the country. The plan was pretty fanciful, but lucky for the USA at the time Nicaragua was only exporting their rich people. The much more numerous poor would have to wait a few more generations. 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 multiple harvesters are not an accurate picture of agriculture in Nicaragua even over 40 years later. Then President Somoza’s son might argue it might had the Somozas not been forced to flee in 1979, who knows how much  extra progress might have occurred. The wealthy landowner class would surely have been interested in automating the peasant function.

Todays stamp is issue A308, a 3 Centavo stamp issued by Nicaragua on May 25, 1976. It was a 16 stamp issue in various denominations the showed before and after views of American progress after 200 years in various fields. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

Anastasio Somoza was the third member of his family to serve as President. It was a corrupt regime of the landowner class and as was common, a big percentage of the families lived overseas. Somoza’s mother was French and his wife Hope, though a cousin, was born and raised in the USA. Somoza took power in 1967 after his older brother had bowed out. Central America was starting to be the recipient of massive food aid from the USA that was reducing hunger and what soon followed was a great increase in population, mainly among the poor. These masses of peasants were not satisfied with the regime which seemed to be routing the American aid from them to the leaders pockets. Meantime Hope, now Madame Somoza, was appearing in worldwide best dressed lists.

Madame Hope Somoza with an American Cardinal. she was less popular with local priests and their annoying liberation theology

One moneymaking scheme of the Somoza’s was especially offensive to the poor. He set up a company Plasimaferesis. Every day thousands of peasants lined up for 35 Cordobas in exchange for their blood. This was immediately exported. When this practice continued after a large earthquake in 1972 it was very damaging to the regime. Again there was an outpouring of aid that seemingly wasn’t getting through to the peasants. When Carter became President of the USA in 1977, he cut off aid to people like Somoza due to their stench. !977 was a rough year for Somoza has he also had a heart attack which saw his son as caretaker while he sought treatment in the civilized world. With the only military aid coming in from Isreal it was time to strike and the local leftists took up the cause of the peasants. It was the Somoza’s time to leave. The USA would not take President Somoza and he ended up in Paraguay with his mistress. Hope separated from him and moved to London. In 1986, the leftists came for Somoza in Paraguay as they had for his father in 1956. Operation Reptile, lead by a Argentine leftist code named Ramon assassinated Somoza by blowing up his Mercedes outside his estate. It took two RPG shots, the car was well armored. Former? Madame Hope Samoza found a rich Salvadoran to marry the next year.

The leftists of course were not any better for the peasants as they were not going to attract American aid and the East was only generous with out of date arms. Now Central America has learned to send their peasants to the USA directly to claim their aid. These peasants are lined up also outside American blood plasma centers to sell their blood every morning. Ironic isn’t it.

Well my drink is empty and I think I may reread my old piece on William Walker. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/27/costa-rica-remembers-the-the-drummer-boy-that-saved-central-america-from-an-american-manifest-destiny/   . Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Belgium 1955, should this textile alegory be updated to reflect 30 Euro a month workers in Bangladesh?

The industrial revolution began in Britain and spread throughout Europe. Textile were a big part, first clothes and later carpets. A key skill in big European cities is hosting conventions. Thus the big exhibition in textiles was this year in Barcelona, not Dacca or Abbes Ababa where the employment has gone. 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 1950s were a great time for industry. Unions were seeing to it that workers were getting ahead and societies wealth was rising fast enough that costs could be passed on to the consumer and thus the industrialist were also prospering. In 1951, it was Paris’s turn to get the ball rolling on large post war international textile exhibition and four years later it was the turn of Brussels. The majesty of this stamp shows how serious the country took the exhibition. The facilities of the Free University of Brussels were used and 12 academic papers on field advancements from around the West were presented.

Todays stamp is issue A117, a 2 Franc stamp issued by Belgium on May 11th, 1955. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the International Textile Exhibition to be held in June that year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

In the USA, 95 percent of textile mills closed in the 1980s and 1990s. Belgium has faired a little better. The country still employs 42,000 people in the industry, this number drops 1-2000 a year. Update, now down to 17,000. This is a little less than one percent of the countries workforce. In the 1970s, developed nations noticed the movement of production to the third world. A multi fiber arrangement was worked out between them that temporarily put quotas on the amount of third world imports. Europe however made a special allowance for very poor countries to help them. Under this Bangladesh was allowed to export to Europe with no tariff or quota. Given that a Bangladeshi textile worker makes 30 Euros a month, no amount of industrial efficiency can match that. In the late 1980s the multi fiber arrangement broke down and the export rules were put under the jurisdiction of the World Trade Organization. China is the primary beneficiary of that and today is the worlds largest textile exporter. Somehow China has managed this while paying their workers a whopping 175 Euros a month.

China and Bangladesh should keep an eye out behind them. Recently Calvin Klein and H&M have moved some factories to Ethiopia. There a textile worker makes just 26 Euros a month. It has not been an easy go in Ethiopia. There has been much labor strife and turnover as it is not possible to support a family on 26 Euros a month, even in Ethiopia. Ethiopia was the last country on earth to officially ban slavery in 1942. Or did they?

Luckily for Europe, nobody is interested in having conventions in Dacca or Abbes Ababa. This year the Exposition was held in Barcelona and in 2023 there will be another one in Milan. There is no doubt that Europe knows how to put on a show, but it is too bad the act of making the textiles we use has been taken away.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering what the Brussels exposition was like. Were they still musing about technological and design advancements, or was there already a sense of doom over what was about to happen? Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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El Salvador 1970, sitting out the Football War on a British Yacht

El Salvador in the 70s-80s was a warlike place. How does a patriotic young Salvadoran do his bit without getting himself killed in all the foolishness. Hm….. check your mailbox. 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 that honor a countries military service also have the unsaid second job of military recruiting. This stamp is perhaps the most effective example of that I have ever seen. This ship makes no pretense whatever of being a warship. It is a patrol craft whose most important job is to show the flag. It’s summertime and the living is easy. Beats fighting your neighbor over footballs and land reform or gearing up for an endless left-right civil war. Join the Navy!

Todays stamp is issue A210, a 50 Centavo airmail stamp issued by El Salvador on May 7th, 1970. It was part of a 5 stamp issue in various denominations that honored the armed services. There is an overprinted version of this stamp from 1971 that celebrates the 20th anniversary of the El Salvadoran Navy.

El Salvador and Honduras were and still are desperately poor countries as can be seen by the recent mass migration north out of both countries. What more graphic indictment could there be of a failed state. In 1970 Salvador had a much higher population while Honduras had a much greater land mass. The 1960s saw a migration with Salvadorans squatting on Honduran land becoming over 20 percent of Honduras’s population. In 1962, Honduras passed a land reform plan  that intended to evict the Salvadorans and return the land to the large banana growers. This greatly angered El Salvador.

Into this anger came football (soccer). In a three game qualifier, Honduras faced  El Salvador. Honduras won the first match in Tegucigalpa. There was much violence in the stands and it shocked the country how many locals were not for the home team. There was then a second match in San Salvador won by El Salvador and again marker by anti Honduran violence. El Salvador broke diplomatic relations with Honduras after Salvadoran peasants began to be forcibly evicted from Honduras by citizens without the government lifting a finger to stop it, land reform being the law of the land. El Salvador won the third match in Mexico City and attacked Honduras. The armies fought on the ground but the interesting fighting was in the air where ancient American F4 Corsairs piston fighters handed out freely and stupidly by America to both air forces fought each other. America through the Pan American Union, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/01/08/el-savador-1940-celebrating-the-pan-american-union-a-league-of-nations-that-actually-worked/ .quickly put a halt to the war after 100 hours and finally started an arms embargo. This was the last war where piston engine fighters fought each other. Both countries amazingly enough found some money in their pockets and bought out of date French jets from Israel, Oragons for Salvador and Super Mysteres for Honduras. Advantage Honduras.

Honduran Air Force F4 Corsair fighter showing Fernando Soto’s 3 Salvadoran kills. Notice also the old US Navy color. USA didn’t think to include paint in their aid

The patrol boat on the stamp was given second hand by the British. In the 80s they were replaced by American made patrol boats that previously served as service craft for offshore oil platforms. That sounds a little less yacht like=fail. The Navy also uses an ex USA coast guard cutter given in 2002. It was built in 1942! The Navy  has 870 personnel and has ordered bigger, new build!, Chilean patrol boats. We will see if they can actually pay for them at delivery time.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the sailors of both El Salvador and Honduras. Just remember if you see a boat in the drug trade, sail the other way, that way the living will always be easy. Wait, you already knew that. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019,

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Croatia 1941, Crossing out Peter II is something we all can agree on

Peter II, already on the stamps as a child King after his fathers assassination, was not really in charge. His Uncle Paul was regent and making some iffy decisions. So when real trouble came, the kid King flies away and gets crossed out. 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 situation had changed so an overstamp of the prewar Yugoslav stamp was called for. The big black circle over the guys face is downright rude. A few weeks before the German invasion, a coup supported by the young King was seen as against special arrangements made with Croats. So apparently the Croats were especially anxious to cross him out. The German puppet Serb government just wrote Serbia over the same stamp, so the extra hostility was not from the Serbs or even the Germans.

Todays stamp is issue A16, a one Dinar stamp issued by Croatia on May 16th, 1941, only a few weeks after the German invasion. It was a two stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents whether mint or used.

Peter II became King in 1934 upon the assassination of his father. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/08/it-is-dangerous-to-rule-the-kingdom-of-serbs-croats-and-slovenes/   . He was 11 years old. His uncle Paul became regent and claimed to be trying to continue the policies of Peter’s father until he reached his majority in 1941. Instead he gave a great deal of autonomy to a greater Croatia that included much of Bosnia. This angered the Serbs. They were further angered in early 1941 when the regent signed an alliance with Germany. There was a British supported coup. Pro coup army forces approached the royal compound that was guarded by troops loyal to the regent. At this point, 17 year old King Peter slipped out of the Palace by climbing down a drainage pipe and greeted warmly the coup forces. Quickly there was a coronation and Peter was ruling. Regent Paul went into exile and house arrest in Kenya.

10 days later, the Germans invaded. The Yugoslav plan if attacked was not to resist but instead withdraw intact to the south. So instead of defending against the Germans, the Yugoslav army invaded Italian occupied Albania hoping to link up with Greece. Peter flew to Greece. This plan did not succeed and despite the Yugoslavs and the Greeks far outnumbering the Germans, the campaign was over in a few weeks and Greek and Yugoslav royals were off to London where Peter married a Greek Princess. Almost none of his army got out with him and the active resistance to the Germans were mostly Communists and/or Serb nationalist, who owed nothing to the King.

Post war Peter lived in first the USA and then France. Tito had frozen his bank accounts so Peter had to live of the generosity of Serbs abroad. He drank a lot and became famous for writing bad checks. He probably thought they were just Royal mementoes not to be cashed. He dreamed of leading an army of expats back to Yugoslavia and liking up with Serb nationalists he imagined were still fighting Tito in the mountains. He died after a failed liver transplant in 1970 and became the first European Royal buried in the USA.

Oddly in the 1980s there was revival of Royal nostalgia in Yugoslavia. The American soap opera Dynasty featuring glamorous young Catherine Oxenberg was shown on TV there. She is the granddaughter of Prince Paul, Peter II’s old regent who caused so much trouble 45 years before.  Time had healed and neither Serb nor Croat, communist nor capitalist, wanted to ex her out.

Catherine Oxenberg as Amanda Carrington on Dynasty.

Well my drink is empty and if I am lucky a Yugoslav Royal will write the check for another round. I will understand not to cash it. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.