Author: John C

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The Kathiri State of Seiyun 1954, The state of being a real stamp, your author is as surprised as you are

Throughout the Arabian desert there were small Sultanates that usually had some self rule but were vassals to a more powerful King or in this case British era Aden. The small, landlocked Kathiri State refused to join the Federation of Southern Arabia though it was still under it’s protection from earlier treaties. Therefore the stamps are legitimate, so much so they could even be used in Aden itself. That sounds pretty generous from naughty colonials until you realize that the protection meant preventing Seiyun from retaking ports on the coast that might have made it more viable. 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 nice look to it. A minaret in Tarim, local, makes you feel you are there. Looking at you from the top right corner is our friend Sultan Hussein, who had been Sultan since 1949 and would continue his rule for another 13 years. Notice though the mention of Aden to remind of big brother

Flag of the Kathiri State of Seiyun

Todays stamp is issue A11, a 25 cent, Rupies were gone by then, stamp issued by the Kathiri State of Seiyun on January 15th, 1954. It was originally a 10 stamp issue with many interesting views of a pretty obscure place. In 1964, three more stamps were issued in new denominations showing new views. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The Kathiri tribe first established their Sultanate in 1395 and got a lot bigger around 1460 when they conquered the port of Shiri. There territory was mainly in modern eastern Yemen but a little of western Oman also. The capital city of Seiyun, current population 135,000, is older than that. It is first mentioned around 400 AD as a resting place for travelers. The legend is that there was a well remembered barmaid named Seiyun for whom the place is named.

After a war with the Yafai tribe, the Kathiri state became much smaller and landlocked. The former prosperity of grape cultivation had also been complicated by climate change. Interaction with the coastal ports had seen many Kathiri tribesmen seeking new lives  in far off places like Indonesia and East Timor. East Timor’s current Prime Minister is of Kathiri ancestry.

In the 1880s the Sultan met with the British Resident of Aden and the Sultan of Zanzibar to try to get their support for his taking back a few of the small ports including Shiri. It did not go well and he was formally warned by India that gunboats would be sent to prop up the current government of the ports. The Sultan then waited 10 years but then attacked and took the ports he wanted. He was able to hold them for two years and disputes went on till 1918 until the Resident of Aden imposed a treaty on the tribes of Kathiri and Q’ati.

Map of the just before independence South Yemen showing landlocked Kathiri

The end for the Sutanate came in 1967 when the Socialists, pan Arabists of South Yemen overthrew Sultan Hussein. The area is still part of a united, well except for that pesky civil war, Yemen. Seiyun is no longer even a provincial capital.

The Sultan may be gone but his Palace in Seiyun remains.

Well my drink is empty and I think Seiyun  has already declared last call for alcohol. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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USA 1955, Charles Wilson Peale shows new nations how it is done and how hard it is

Part of starting a new nation is making noble the founding fathers. Both what they learned from the home country and what they resolved to make better. Then this all must be chronicled so that future generations know what they are a part of. Charles Wilson Peale was an exemplar of all that and an example that the many new nations of the post war period would have been wise to study. 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 mentioned that new countries might have been wise to study the example of Charles Wilson Peale. This stamp I am afraid does not offer much of an introduction to him. The printing quality of American stamps of the 1950s is really quite bad. Below is the painting the image on the stamp was taken from. It is easy to see how much was lost in the translation.

“The Artist and his Museum” seen as it was meant.

Todays stamp is issue A511, a three cent stamp issued by the United States on January 15th, 1955. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, to whom Peale founded an early variant of. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

Charles Wilson Peale was born in modest circumstances in Maryland in 1841. He apprenticed and later worked making horse saddles. He was not a success in this but discovered within him a talent for painting, especially of portraits. He received instruction locally from John Hesseling and was able to travel to England pre revolution to study with Benjamín West. Returning to the American colonies he became a member of the Sons of Liberty. He also passed on his knowledge to students including his brother James and many of his children. He had 16 children many of whom he named after famous artists. His son Raphaelle Peale was a noted still life artist. Even slave Moses Williams received training in cutting silhouettes and when given his freedom, stayed on at the Museum selling silhouettes to customers.

Peale was most famous for his oil portraits of American founding fathers, including over 50 portraits of George Washington. The most famous of these, “Washington at Princeton”, sold in 2005 for $21.5 million dollars. Peale also had an interest in the natural world and taxidermy. This lead to Peale founding his Museum. He developed a relationship with a museum in London where he would exchange stuffed birds from North America for birds from Europe. At the time there was a friendly debate between Thomas Jefferson and French naturalist the Comte de Bufron as to whether North America or Europe had greater biodiversity. When Peale’s Museum  displayed the stuffed remains of a mastodon, the display made quite a sensation, with Jefferson maintaining that the beast still existed in the far north.

The business of maintaining the Peale Museum and the connected Academy of Fine Art was difficult as there were not enough visitors and Peale was unable to secure government subsidies. Moses Williams lost his house as his commissions dried up. Soon after Peale’s death in 1827 the collection was sold to P. T. Barnum and broken up. The current Academy of Fine Arts was reestablished later by former students of Peale.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Charles Wilson Peale. I will have to be a short one since I cannot afford one of Peale’s portraits. Perhaps one of Moses Williams silhouettes? Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Great Britain 1973, Remembering Henry Stanley

Figures like Henry Stanley become ever more controversial over time. People think more about the cruelty and endless involvement in places like the Congo and less about the adventure and knowledge advancement that such expeditions brought. I think it is safe to assume that Stanley has been on his last British stamp. So travel with me back to 1973 to look at Henry Stanley the man. 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 totaled nine stamps each with a different explorer and the part of the world they explored. Sir Francis Drake comes out the best in this style of stamp. As a ship born explorer, his map is the whole world.

Todays stamp is issue A236, a 3 Penny stamp issued by Great Britain on April 8th, 1973. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is used or unused.

Henry Stanley was born under the name John Rowlands. His parents were not married and he was raised until age 5  by his maternal grandfather. When he died John ended up at the St. Asaph Union Workhouse, where he was abused including sexually. At age 18 John immigrated to the USA landing in New Orleans. In later life Stanley told the story of being hired and then adopted by well off British grocer Henry Stanley, whose name he took. There is some historical debate if this was just a story made up by Stanley when his identity didn’t check out. His biography then tells how he fought in the American Civil War first for the Confederates, later for the Union and finally with the Union Navy. His recordkeeping shipboard lead to his post war career as a freelance journalist.

It was as a journalist that Stanley first got to Africa, traveling with a British expedition trying to save a British envoy being held prisoner by the Ethiopian Emperor Tewodrus II. His stories were popular and he was commissioned by a New York newspaper to be an African correspondent based out of Zanzibar. It was there that he met Tippu Tip, an Arab slave and ivory trader from Muscat that helped him gain much knowledge of central Africa. This allowed Stanley to go on the expedition that found David Livingston, who hadn’t been heard from in five years after setting off to find the source of the Nile River. This lead to several more expeditions that found the source of both the Nile and Congo rivers and recovered a lost Ottoman Pasha in South Sudan.

Tippu Tip 1889

This al lead to lecture series and book deals in the USA and The UK. From the expeditions Stanley brought back a black boy he named Kalulu after the Swahili word for antelope. He wrote a surprisingly for the time homosexual book about Kalulu whose age he adjusted up and Selim, an interpreter Stanley employed, whose age he adjusted down.  Kalulu died at age 12 when his canoe went over a waterfall. He worked to get one of the falls at Victoria renamed for Kalulu, his one naming that actually stuck.

Stanley and Kalulu from 1872

Later Stanley was commissioned by King Leopold to get a colony going in the Congo. This made him a rival of his old friend Tippu Tip who was doing the same on behalf of Zanzibar. I seemed a race between whites and Arabs over who would dominate central Africa. The whites of course “won” that even if they were less cruel with less slave raiding. Not totally without cruelty. Stanley had to discipline a member of one of his expeditions members who was the heir to the Jameson Whiskey fortune. He had bought an 11 year old girl at the slave market and then gave her over to cannibals. He wanted to make a book of recording how the cannibals would cook and eat her. He died before he could publish his findings.

Stanley returned to England after his last expedition, married and adopted another this time white boy. Stanley was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1898. He died in 1904. His gravestone had his Stanley name and Bula Metari. his name in Africa from the Swahili for breaker of rocks.

Well my drink is empty and I am afraid today I will put the bottle away. My scale on Henry Stanley moves around too much to toast. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Algeria 1936, A flyswatter leads to marrooning black feet in the deserts of the Sahara

The 1830s through to the 1950s saw bloody large commitments of the French Army is a pretty desolate place as indicated by this stamp. Realistic pictures like this stamp before the colonization might have warded the French off. Even all the Barbary pirate stuff wasn’t making the Ottomans rich, yet somehow France believed they knew better. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill tour pipe, take your first sip of your Turkish coffee, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

There is a National Geographic style frankness to French colonial issues that I find refreshing. Printed in Paris but showing the exotic wonders of the world as offered by the French Empire. Young French stamp collectors of the day must have been very excited by such issues.

Todays stamp is issue A6, a one Centime stamp issued by the French colony of Algeria in 1936. The stamp shows travel by camel across the Sahara desert and was part of a 31 stamp issue over many years in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused.

Algeria began the 19th century as the Ottoman Regency of Algiers. A Jewish merchant in Algiers had supplied grain to the French Army  for which he claimed not to have been paid. This then made him unable to pay taxes he owed to Hussein Dey, the last Ottoman provincial ruler. Hussein Dey called in the French Council in order to work things out with the French. The Council did not pay immediately as was expected of him and in frustration Hussein Dey struck the French Council with his fly swatter. Outrage swept France and the French Navy began a blockade of the port of Algiers.

A French depiction of the flyswatter incident

Three years to the day of the fly swatter incident, in 1830 France invaded and conquered Algeria. The fertile plain that immediately faced the Mediterranean attracted a lot of French colonists as well as some Maltese and Italians. Collectively the settlers became known as black feet, their feet being in Africa and their hearts remaining French. Local Arabs were pushed inland away from the best land and now unable to engage in piracy. The interior of the country was often in Arab rebellion. Napoleon III tried to placate the area by offering local Arabs and Jews French citizenship. Jews took him up on it but the Arabs mostly did not. If they did, French law would replace Sharia law and this was blasphemy. France had to maintain a large army deployment in Algeria and some believe this contributed to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.

During World War II, many Algerian Arabs were willing to fight with Free French forces. The black feet colonists were more sympathetic with Vichy France. In France itself, this branded the black feet as right wingers and there was little sympathy in France post war for sending troops to maintain the black feet’s coastal enclaves. Algeria became independent and Arab. French and Jew had to make a quick exit to an unwelcoming France. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/26/egypt-1965-arabs-unite-to-comemorate-the-burning-of-a-soon-to-be-arab-library-in-algiers/  .

Well my drink is empty and there seems to be no more Turkish coffee in Algeria either. Oh Well…. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Nigeria 1936. King George V remembers the Muslim conversion of the Hausa city states

This is fun. Independent Nigerian political power mostly resides with the Christian south. Not as much in the British colonial period. So why not remember a long ago Hausa city state that was converted to Muslim by the many Arab traders. Less likely much remembered as the Hausa were conquered by the Fulani 200 years ago. The minaret on the the stamp survived and survives. Just as much of what the British built will long out last their rule. The hidden point. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your, er never mind, this is a Muslim story, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamp does it’s best to make the 50 foot tall Gobarau Minaret look impressive. Notice the image is very close in because the city walls of the once thriving city state of Katsina are long gone. It does show the large period influence of the resident Arab traders in the conversion of the city to Muslim. Also in the architecture, as period Africans did not have two story buildings.

Todays stamp is issue A8, a six pence stamp issued by the colony of Nigeria on February 1st, 1936. It was a twelve stamp issue in various denominations, most showing industry in the colony. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents used.

The Hausa city state of Katsina lies in the far north of Nigeria near the Niger border. Though there is no period written history, it is believed to have been founded about 1100. Before the Muslims, it was ruled by a leader known as a Sarki. He was thought to be semi devine, but subject to instant death if the Gods believed him misruling. Like Timbuktu, the city had a reputation for great wealth and as an educational center.

The first Sarki that was a Muslim convert, Mohammadu Korau is believed to have supervised the construction of the Mosque and Minaret around 1400 AD. Others claim the complex is three hundred years newer, but remember we are in a period of no written language of the Hausa tribe.

In 1808 the Fulani tribe started a jihad against the Hausa with the goal of establishing a large Caliphate. The war was successful and the large Sokoto Caliphate formed, named after it’s new capital. After the conquering of Katsina, the Mosque on the stamp was replaced and began to be used as a school.

The Sokoto Emir of Katsena and his ministers in 1910

The Sokoto Caliphate affiliated with the British in 1903. Katsina is a city now of 400,000, with most of the residents have Fulani heritage.

Gobarou Minaret today

Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Swaziland 1947, A Royal visit tries to influence Southern African choices

3 months, 10,000 miles, the King and Queen and their glamorous daughters, a battle cruiser, a train whistlestop tour. The future Queen turns 21 and makes a speech pledging her whole life to service of the people of the Empire. Why go to the trouble? Well South Africa had just, unlike others, sacrificed greatly in the War, and maybe Britain was trying to return the favor by trying to prevent a mistake they could see about to 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.

In the late forties the Royal family must have sensed the interest in their coming of age children in the world of celebrity. So here we have Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret displayed prominently. Unusually though, was the substance behind it. King George VI wasn’t that old but sickly and so he knew Elizabeth would be facing her duty sooner rather then later. Hence the speech she gave on this tour where she promised to be with her subjects through all the changes coming. It can’t be said she did not live up to her pledge even if the trip might have worked against British intentions for this part of the Empire.

Todays stamp is issue A3, a 3 Penny stamp issued by Swaziland on February 17th, 1947. It was a three stamp issue celebrating the Royal visit. The design of the stamp was borrowed from a similar stamp from Basutoland. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

South Africa had contributed much of their military to fight for Britain in World War II, especially in the North African theatre. The most successful British fighter ace Sailor Milan with 72 kills was South African. So when South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts invited the Royals, they came. South Africa was grappling on how to deal with the African majority. Mr. Smuts popularity was falling as he was proposing easing off restrictions that kept blacks out of the big cities. This meant tortuous commutes to where the jobs were for blacks. It was hoped that the pomp and circumstance might rub off on Smuts, who was facing a tough election.

As far as the welcome received and getting through what must have been impossible logistics, the Royal visit went off spectacularly well. However it did not have the intended effect on the then white and mostly Boer South African voter. Smuts was seen as too tight with Britain, even to the extent of abandoning his own people. The British Royals would not have to deal with the added crime that would have been the direct result of virtue signaling they were proposing. Smuts failed in his bid to D F Milan who took a much harder line on the question of the Africans. This was not the road Britain had in mind for it’s southern African dominions, protectorates, and colonies. Eventually South Africa and Rhodesia would feel the need to leave the Commonwealth.

All that said, the permanence of 21 year old Elizabeth’s words have lasted and proved more true than anyone could have imagined. You can watch it here https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Princess+Elizabeth+1947+speech&view=detail&mid=D3118D08978E69DF648AD3118D08978E69DF648A&FORM=VIRE Sure there in no more Empire, no more Royal Navy battlecruiser, not even a Royal yacht, But Queen Elizabeth is still working for her subjects, now past 90. (Update RIP Queen Elizabeth, God Save the King).

Well my drink is empty and lets toast recently departed Queen Elizabeth to celebrate so many years of service to the Commonwealth. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Bulgaria 1942, remembering Khan Tervel’s involvement with Byzantium during an unfortunate involvement with Germany

With stamps there is often a reason to remind of something long ago. In 1942 Bulgaria was trying to get away from it’s alliance with Germany that was seeing Sophia bombed and allies fighting fellow Slavs in Russia. A good time to remember 800 AD Bulgar Khan Tervel who did great favors for Byzantium only to have them turn 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.

The stone carving on the stamp dates from 800AD. There are debates whether it is in the Hellenic or Persian style but most believe it depicts Bulgarian Khan Tervel. The carving still exists. There is no doubt the stamp depicting the carving was in the Slavic style.

Todays stamp is issue A219, a 30 Slotinki stamp issued by Bulgaria on October 21 1942. It was a 14 stamp issue in various denominations that depicted glorious events from the past. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

Bulgaria was in a delicate position in World War II. They were forced to sign an alliance with Germany under threat of invasion. This gave them an immediate benefit of land lost years before in the Balkan wars. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/08/05/bulgaria-1913-that-brief-moment-when-the-balkan-wars-looked-good-for-bulgaria/   . However Germany then canceled the non aggression pact with Stalin and invaded fellow Slavic nation Russia. Bulgaria refused to send troops to fight with the Germans complaining of threats from Turkey. They were lucky they didn’t. The Romanian and Hungarian armies paid a terrible price for going along. Bulgaria paid a price as well. Britain and the USA began bombing and the Soviets attacked Bulgarian shipping in the Black Sea. When Romania changed sides in 1944, Bulgaria tried for neutrality and indeed had never declared war on the Soviets. The Soviets still invaded and the Bulgarian army was ordered not to resist. Bulgaria’s child Czar Simeon II was sent into exile and Prime Minister Dobri Bozhilov had a show trial and was executed in 1945. The Bulgarian Supreme Court vacated the Death Sentence, but not till 1996 when it was a little late. The Soviets did not treat the now in power Bulgarian communists much better, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/04/bulgaria-1950-now-that-he-is-dead-we-can-forgive-kolarov-his-passivity/ .

Simeon shortly before he became the last Czar. He is still alive and the last human to hold the title

Tervel was the Khan,(ruler of the horde), of Bulgaria from around 700 AD to 720. It is believed that he was the first Bulgar leader to be Christened  in the Orthadox Christian Church. When Byzantine Emperor Justinian was deposed and in exile, he came to Tervel and got the use of Bulgar horsemen soldiers to attack Constantinople and return to power. Justinian then gave Bulgaria some territory in Thrace and the title of Ceaser to Tervel. Tervel was the only foreigner to receive that Byzantine title. The honeymoon, as with the Germans, did not last and soon Byzantium was attacking Bulgaria to get the given land back. Byzantium was defeated in this effort at the Battle of Anchialus in 708.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the mountainside stone carver. Statues come and go, but mountainside stone carvings just go on and on. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

 

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!ran 1983, after the Islamic Revolution, bringing you up to date on where we get this stuff

The style of Iran changed completely in 1979 with the Islamic revolution. Islamists might claim it was really a reversion to how it had been before Shah Pahlavi and his father were the change. 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 stamps that came shortly after the revolution introduced you to a lot of new people.  The Shah had 37 different Prime Ministers but didn’t bother you with any of them on the stamps. being nothings playing musical chairs, The Islamists had many people to show you. The Shah’s Prime Ministers didn’t all look the same but were. The Islamic Mullahs, with their unchanging attire all look the same. The fellow today Hassan Modares was a cleric, a teacher, and a politician. He had died 56 years before. Yet the stamp makes him look completely up to date.

Todays stamp is issue A599, a 10 Rials stamp issued by the Islamic Republic of Iran on October 23rd, 1923. It was part of a 10 stamp issue in various denominations displaying religious and political figures. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Seyd Hassan Modaress was born around 1870. Nobody is positive where but he turned up at a Madrassa in Isfahan. Isfahan had started as a Jewish city, but Hassan was of course studying the Muslim religion. He transitioned into an instructor from which he obtained the Modaress last name. Among his students was the future Ayatollah Khomeini. Modaress transitioned further into an official in the Justice Department of the Qajar Dynasty of Persian Shahs. His job was to insure that bills passed by the Majlis Assembly conformed to Islamic law.

He was a fairly traditional figure and as such came into conflict with Reza Khan, first when he was Prime Minister under the old Dynasty. Reza Khan intended to end the Kingdom and replace it with a Republic on the road to modernization and westernization. The oil was bringing in many foreigners and religious figures believed the Persian people were becoming subservient to them. Instead Reza Khan himself became Shah and Modaress a political opponent. Modaress was jailed and later died in jail in 1937.

Modaress was a believer in Iran being a Monarchy and early on so was Khomeini. For Khomeini, this changed with the Shah’s white revolution in 1963. This gave females the right to vote, promoted western secular education, and allowed non Islamics to hold political office. Many of the people, not just the religious leaders, found this to be an attack on their piety and ability to live their traditional way of life. Remember the oil money saw a few living a high western style life that must have seemed alien and even corrupt. By the time Khomeini was allowed to return to Iran in 1979, he believed the country needed an Islamic cleric as head of state to ensure that the foreign influences were stamped out.

Well my drink is empty and so I will patiently wait when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Hungary 1959, Getting into the spirit of the International Geophysical Year

The 1950s was a wonderful time of innovation and optimism. It was also a time of cold war between East and West. Some prominent scientists on both sides, wondered if advancements could happen quicker if they were able to work together on basic research with all results shared. 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.

60 countries participated in the I. G. Y., and many issued stamps. In my opinion the Japanese stamp is the most attractive. Since I only write up stamps in my collection, I am left writing up this still solid effort from Hungary showing the Soviet Antarctic Station.

Watch out for those hungry Huskies penguin

Todays stamp is issue A276, a 40 Filler stamp issued by Hungary on March 14th, 1959. It was a seven stamp issue in various denominations and was also available as a imperforate presentation set. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

The International Geophysical Year, I. G. Y., had it’s roots in two earlier, 1882 and 1932, International Polar Years that had focused the world on exploring and studying the earth’s poles. The 1932 year was somewhat discredited because many of it’s projects were abandoned and results lost in the runup to war. It was decided that all nations would be invited and all data shared in multiple locations. Only China refused to participate as they were annoyed that Taiwan was invited to participate as if it was a real country. It was further decided that the the subject of the year would expand from just the poles to include peaceful space exploration.

In the runup to the year, it was announced that the USA would launch 2 manmade satellites as part of it’s contribution. Four days later the Soviets announced that they too would launch a man made satellite. The American Project Vanguard faced several failed launches  and the world was shocked and impressed when the Soviets launched successfully Sputnik 1 as part of Soviet involvement in the I.C.Y. Project Vanguard was abandoned in the USA and a version of the Jupiter missile substituted with a new reentry cone and a scientific payload. The Americans eventually got  two rechristened Explorer satellites in space for the year, but it was not forgotten that two Sputniks were there first. America had some consolation in that one of their satellites discovered the Van Allen radiation belts that surround earth.

The poles were not forgotten during the IGY. Japan set up an intended to be year round manned science station in Antartica called Showa. The first year proved to be sort of a fiasco and the ship assigned to keep the station supplied got stuck in the ice. It was eventually freed by an American ice breaker but was unable to resupply the Showa station. The Japanese researchers were airlifted out by helicopter. The discusting losers left behind 15 Sakhalin Husky sled dogs chained up in the station. When the station was returned to a year later, seven of the dogs had died on their chain, six had disappeared. and two dogs named Taro and Jiro were still alive and in residence. they had escaped their chains and survived eating penguins  becoming national heroes in Japan as examples of perseverance and fortitude. Upon their natural deaths in 1960 and 1970 Taro and Jiro were stuffed and put on display.

Jiro after he was stuffed and put on display.

Overall the IGY was a great success and lead to much later cooperation. In the early 1980s the Steely Dan singer Donald Fagin  had a top 20 solo hit with the song IGY, what a beautiful word. I was familiar with the song but never knew what he was singing about. You can hear the song here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di0_KYtmVKI.

The optimism did not last into this century. In 2008 a new International Polar Year was organized. Why I say it lost the optimism is that it was centered around climate change. What a bunch of gloomy Guses that must have been.

Well my drink is empty, and I think four toasts are in order for the two Sputniks and  Taro and Jiro. Come again soon after I sober up for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Albania 1925, Electricity changes everything

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.

The new Kukes

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.

the Fierza Dam. When built, it was the second tallest in Europe.
The Fierza reservoir. Somewhere under there should still be the bridge

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