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Norway 1992, how common can a Royal go before his house is itself common

Norway is a fairly new country that voted to create a new Royal line from heirs to the Danish Throne. That didn’t work so well for Greece but why not throw the dice. Royal duties  are so tiresome and doors open up for them into the jet set lifestyle. Soon how Royal are they really and how much are they costing the country. 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 nice thing about a late middle age Prince taking over for his elderly father was that continuity seems assured. On this stamp, you have to look several times to notice King Herald V is not a stamp from 20 years before featuring his father. The first Norwegian King Herald had been the Herald the Fairhair, well that was a long time ago. Looks can be deceiving, Herald had married a commoner and the generations would get ever more common. So I hope Norway is ready for jet set Royals.

Todays stamp is issue A349, a 3.5 Krona stamp issued by Norway in 1992. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations, the lower ones featuring now Queen Consort Sonja. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

King Herald was born shortly before the German invasion of 1940 so spend part of his youth in exile in the UK, the USA, and Canada. He avoided neutral Sweden which hosted other Norway Royals because there were politicians there that would have turned Harald over to the Quisling government where he could be declared a boy King.  He developed a love for sailing and represented Norway at the Olympics of 1964, 1968, and 1972. His team won no medals but the Prince carried the flag during opening ceremonies.

During the 1960s, Harald dated a commoner and dressmaker Sonja Heraldson. Herald’s father King Olav thought the potential marriage not suitable. At the time Herald’s sisters were not at all in the line of succession and so one of the sisters had been allowed to marry a divorced commoner. Harald announced that if he was not allowed to marry Sonja, he would not marry anyone else and that would be the end of the Royal line in Norway. After considering and rejecting the idea of declaring the Duke of Schleswig- Holstein as heir apparent he gave in on the marriage. Sonja was given a title and took others. She was named a Rear Admiral in the Norwegian Navy, though she never served. She claims she took a class. At Norway Rear Admiral School? Those concerned with the defense of Norway will be heartened to know Queen Consort Sonja has also been named a Brigadier General in the Army. Yes she took the class. The sailing the Royal family love so has been recast as a Royal Duty of visiting. Sonja has taken a part in charities especially those welcoming refugees. She has also opened the Royal stables to the public so they get to see the Royal Horses.

The job of a Royal first off is to provide heirs and here Herald came through, a girl and a boy. The daughter is now in the line of succession. No one is now marrying Royal. The current Crown Prince even managed to find a commoner that was a single mother. Well at least she was pretty and a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein, so there were all those invitations to sex slave island. Princess Martha who claims to have ESP, married an anarchist writer who went by the made up name of Ari Behn. His artistic friends were part of the “new wine” school. Yes he was a fan of the grape. Even Behn’s relatives called him Prince Fool von and zu Fake. In his last days before his suicide due to mental illness and alcoholism, he was being followed around for a reality tv show called “Ari and the Half Kingdom”

Norway is a very rich country, North Sea oil, so can weather lousy Royals if it choses to. Unless of course they are invaded and have to rely on their Brigadier Generals and Rear Admirals.

Well my drink is empty and so I will put away the bottle. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Serbia 1916, With Bosnia occupying Serbia in the service of Germans, it may be time to stamp the Black Hand

Starting in 1878, Bosnia was occupied by Serb rival Austria. Naturally that was annoying and made a larger pan Serbia over all Serbs less possible. Why not form a Black Hand within the Serb government to make sure those wimps don’t make some back room deal with the Austrians and all their offered economic subsidies. Maybe we can even exact a little revenge on the Austrians with a little Balkan style justice. What could go wrong? 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 asked above what could go wrong. Well check out this stamp. Austrian Hapsburg Emperor Franz Joseph presiding over the military occupation government of majority Muslim Bosnia. Now that government was occupying Serbia which is spelled the German way. The Hapsburg Monarchy imagined that with some degree of local autonomy, the people of various ethnicities would be happy to be their loyal subjects. It worked for the most part with Hungary and many a new Balkan nation recruited a German Royal house to rule them. It seems implausible that it could have worked, but this stamp got your letter mailed in Belgrade for two years.

Todays stamp is issue A24, a 60 Heller stamp issued by the Austrian occupation government of Serbia in 1916. The Serbian overstamp of the Austrian military occupation of Bosnia stamp existed in 21 denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents unused. It is worth more used, I can see why Austria obviously printed extras for the stamp trade, there is a lot going on with this stamp for the stamp collector to ferret out.

The occupation of Bosnia by the Austrians put more of them on more sides of Slavic Serbia. Serbia was a landlocked country and most of it’s imports and exports passed through Austria with Austrians taking a big cut. Serbian alarm at this can be seen in the coup of 1903 that brought to power the less pro Austrian of the two Serbian Royal houses, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/06/21/serbia-unlike-so-many-places-had-its-own-royal-line-or-more-problimatically-two/  . The new regime then tried to get tough on the Austrians by increasing customs duties on goods from Austria. Austria then closed the borders to all trade for landlocked Serbia. They then sent out feelers to the Serb government offering trade concessions in return for better relations and acceptance of the status quo.

Many Serbs harbored the dream of Serbs controlling more of nearby lands with a relationship with big power Russia. A yugoSlavia if you will with Serbs dominating. Members of the government and Army were very worried Serb Prime Minister Nikola Pasic would wimp out and accept an Austrian deal. They formed a secret society called the Black Hand that would dispense rough justice to wimps and sell outs. Their leader was a Serbian Army Major code named Apis. Since their views coalesced, Black Hand was in alliance with Muslim Albanians who also resented Austria. Black Hand was very worried, with some justification that the upcoming visit of the Hapsburg heir to the area and so there was arraigned a successful assassination of him in Sarajevo that lead to the starting of World War I.

Code name Apis (on right) hatches another scheme with two fellow Black Hands. Or perhaps they are just considering the latest offer from The Hairclub for Men

In the early days of the war with Austria, Apis was promoted to Coronel, although allegedly not for his planning of the assassination. By 1916, however Serbia had been conquered with the remnants of the Army marching into Albania. The Serb government in exile reconvened on the Greek island of Corfu. With complete victory it seemed the way back was to purge themselves of the Black Hand in order that they might be allowed to return to Belgrade by the Austrians. Code Name Apis was tried for his part in the assassination and executed. The government was later allowed back to Belgrade and given power to rule a wider Yugoslavia not by Austria but rather by the victorious Allied side.

In 1953, Tito’s later version of Yugoslavia had their high court withdraw the conviction of Apis. They didn’t quite say that the assassination in Sarajevo was a good thing, but they said that there was inadequate evidence to convict. This was allowed to happen, Austria was now the land locked ethnic rumpstate and was no longer mounting much of a defense of the Hapsburgs.

Well my drink is empty and I will not again today reach for the bottle, I don’t want to be accused of having a black hand. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Sarawak, 1955, Picking favorites among the tribes

Sarawak is a region of north Borneo that was awarded to a British adventurer by the Sultan of Brunei. That lead to the region passing to the British government and then on to modern Malaysia. One can imagine the fun of people far from home interacting with the local tribes, picking favorites, and trying to avoid nightmares. When you imagine such a thing the modern people of Sarawak would like to remind you of the moral distinction between headhunters and cannibals. The maneaters in Sarawak are the alligators. 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.

For this near the end of colonial times stamp issue, the colony decided to feature the culture of two of the smaller tribes in the area. In this case we have the ceremonial carving of the smaller Kenyah tribe that exist both in Sarawak as well as over the border in Indonesia.  It is understandable why the colony featured the Kenyah tribe. They are a peaceful, untatooed people who were early converts to Protestant Christianity and active in agriculture. Modern Malaysia has not stopped featuring the Kenyah people. Miss World Malaysia 2020, Francisca James, is from the Kenyah tribe in Sarawak.

Miss World Malaysia 2020 Francisca James, from the Kenyah tribe of Sarawak

Todays stamp is issue A24, a 10 cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Sarawak in 1955. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The area of Sarawak was awarded to British adventurer Sir James Brooke as a reward for assisting the then Sultan of Brunei. The rule of a different race was awkward but mostly peaceful and the economic future of the area was secured by the discovery of oil. The Brooke’s were dislodged by a Japanese occupation during World War II and the British government took over directly post war as better able to handle post war reconstruction.

The interaction of ruling or just resident whites made for some trouble in their depiction of some inland tribes as head hunters. It was true that some among the Iban tribe were headhunters. Naturally this is pretty exciting stuff back in the home country. In her last years back in Britain, Silvia, the last Brooke era Queen wrote a popular autobiography “Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters”. Like most primitive tribes, practices like head hunting became less common over time.

You might have expected such controversies to pass into history as the area became under Malaysian rule. Instead it has intensified as there is a new popular video game called Borneo, Jungle Nightmare. In it your character can fight pirates and Brooke style white rajahs. You also face jungle attacks by iban tribe head hunters that can go beyond head hunting into the consumption of human flesh. The towns are displayed as more modern. The critics would have preferred the game to be less place and people specific. The makers of the game state that it is just a game and is made more intriguing by including real places and realistic characters. They also point to documented cases of cannibalism in the area during post colonial insurrections.

Multiplayer online game ” Borneo, Jungle Nightmare”

Well my drink is empty. It will be up to the many gamers of the modern Sarawak to decide if they want to start the game and live out a local nightmare. I expect they will line up to do so. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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Australia 1968, William Dampier, Bridging the Explorer as Pirate to Explorer as Naturalist, while purveying Tex Mex

With William Dampier we have the real life counterpart to  Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. He gets a stamp for charting the east coast of Australia when it was still New Holland. He should be remembered by children in the sense of what a wide word of possibilities are open to them in life. Instead his type are taught in the sense of bad people spreading evil wherever they go. An arguement for another day, anyway whats the deal with Tex Mex? Read on… 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 visually is let down a little by it’s nature of being a small stamp meant for bulk postage. We do get a portrait of him and his then ship HMS Roebuck. Dampier at his most boring. A serving Royal Navy Captain whose mission it was to draw maps. This man was a pirate. This man taught his fellow Britons how to make guacamole. Perhaps thus stamp is most let down by being Australian as Australia’s only brush with Dampier is what is shown on this stamp. Dampier calls out for a new set of big colourfull stamps from his native UK showing his many inspiring sides. And one of Dampier at his end, convicted and penniless, to teach the kiddies and kiddies at heart that crime doesn’t pay.

Todays stamp is issue A145, a 50 cent stamp issued by Australia starting in 1968. It was part of a 26 stamp issue released for bulk postage after the decimalization and Americanization of the Australian currency. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. As a high denomination bulk stamp, if my copy were mint, the value would skyrocket to $15.

William Dampier was born in 1651 in England. Two merchant shipping expeditions one to Java and another to Newfoundland inspired him to join the Royal Navy. Soon however a sickness ended his service. He tried his hand at plantation management in Jamaica and logging on the mosquito coast but soon he was back to sea as a sometime pirate and sometime privateer. Unusually for a pirate, back in England after his adventures his good memory ample notes allowed him to write books about his exploits that contained both daring do and thorough academic level cataloging of what he had seen as the only man on earth to have circumnavigated the planet three times. Among what he brought back to England were guacamole, avocadoes, mango chutney and the cooking technique of barbeque.

A Dampier map of the then Mosquito Coast, now Central America, from one of his adventure books.

Dampier also brought back with him a slave boy from what is now the Philippines named Joly. Joly had become despondent over the death of his mother and Dampier was chronically broke so even though they had been close, Joly was auctioned off. He was acquired by an inn that put Joly on display as captured Prince Giola of Mindanao. Joly soon died of small pox.

An etching of slave boy Joly after he was repackaged as Prince Giolo of the savages of the east.

The Admiralty had seen Dampier’s books and commissioned him as a ship Captain of HMS Roebuck and told to sail to Australia, then still New Holland, and make charts of and an exploration of the east coast. This did not go well. Dampier discovered a species of giant clams near New Guinea and anchored the ship to do a thorough investigation of them and how best to eat them. At anchor in rough seas, HMS Roebuck’s condition deteriorated. Dampier decided to abandon the job at hand and try to make it back to England. He got as far as Accession Island but the the amount of water the ship was taking on  was too much and Dampier was shipwrecked there until him and the crew were able to catch a ride on a merchant ship in the India trade.

Back in England Dampier was arrested. Not for losing his ship, not for cruelty to indigenous people he had come across, not for all the stomach issues his new spicy foods had caused at home. He was convicted of cruelty. Early in the journey he had a conflict with a young but connected and of a higher class Lieutenant. He solved his problem by dropping him off in Brazil where the young officer was arrested. He still beat Dampier back to England and filed charges against Dampier.

Dampier was back to being a pirate when he attempted a fourth circumnavigation of the Earth. By this time he was old with failing health and the mission was abandoned. He died deeply in debt back in England.

Well my drink is empty. This stamp opened up a story more complex than I could have imagined. What a stamp is for! Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Hungary 1977, when Czech CSA airlines flew far and wide and so did the Ilyushin Il-62

A Czech CSA Il-62 airliner flying over Africa. Exciting isn’t it. If you go back 46 years it seems more so. The Il-62 replaced ex Cubana Bristol Britannia turboprops on CSA’s long haul services. Now I have a fondness for the Britannia as my father was a mechanic on them in 1950s England and later Canada, but the Il-62 flew 20% more passengers 40% longer distances at a speed 40% faster. Changing how we travel, not just bogged down in the economics of getting there cheaper as the modern planes offer. 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 is a little bit of a strange stamp issue. Various model airliners, in their national airline livery are flying over maps where you then might have spotted them. Local airline Malev flying a Soviet Tu-154 over central Europe is only one from Hungary and the lowest denomination. Well it was the time when so many of Hungary stamp issues were prepared outside the country for the world stamp market.

Todays stamp is issue C379, a 2 Forint airmail stamp issued by Hungary on October 26th, 1977. It was an eight stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. This stamp also exists as an imperforate, that would raise the value to $4.35.

Work began on the Ilyushin Il-62 in 1960. It is a close contemporary of the British VC-10 airliner but is larger and more economical. The two airliners share the otherwise unique trait of four engines mounted on the tail two on each side. This improves the aerodynamics of the wings and makes the cabin quieter. It can also cause trouble if one engine is overheating both engines on that side of the airplane have to be shut down adding much instability. The engines in the back also make the plane tail heavy so when parked a jack folds out of the back to prevent the plane from tipping backwards off it’s tricycle undercarriage. The Il-62 was a great success with production of 292 over 30 years. The last plane was built in 1997 to serve VIP duties for Sudan. One does not think enough about Sudanese VIPs. Others are still in service with the Russian Air Force, Rado airlines in Belarus and Air Koryo in North Korea. At the height of it’s career, it even served Air France and KLM on their services to the eastern bloc. Interestingly given the Hungarian stamp, the Il-62 was never bought by Hungary although at one point in the 1960s they were listed as having them on order. Apparently Tupelov offered Hungary a better deal on their airliners and Hungary cancelled the Ilyushin order. Communism or is it capitalism in action.

The Il-62 in the classic CSA “Ok Jet” cold war livery. Don’t overpromise!

CSA Czech Airlines began operations in 1923 with a flight between Prague and Bratislava. Then an internal flight. After a gap during the German occupation, the airline came back after the war but with shorter flights. In 1950, the airline faced the first mass hijacking when 3 DC-3s were hijacked at the same time to the American airbase at Erdin near Munich. 2/3rds of the passengers were not in on the “freedom” flight and returned home treated as heroes. CSA got back into long haul routes with a flight to Havana using Bristol Britannias leased from Cubana in 1962. CSA ordered VC10s to replace them but then canceled them in favor of the Il-62. They became the first foreign Il-62 user in 1969. They eventually operated 21 of them and kept them in service until 1997.

CSA has faced many struggles since the end of the cold war. Most of the long haul services are gone and the airline has lost 75% of it’s employees. After an equity stake by Korean Air was not successful, in 2018 the rump of the airline was sold to low cost carrier Smartwings. Most of their A319 are leased out and their single long haul A330 is a lease from Korean Air. They have recently ordered the small A220 jet to replace their small ATR turboprops.

Well my drink is empty and so I will signal the stewardess to bring another. 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.

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Lithuania 1934, Smetona gives back Memel to Germany but can’t bring himself to give the rest to Russia

A tiny country between 3 large ones will be in a constant struggle to just survive. Sometimes that means fighting to preserve basic language skills, sometimes it means running to Cleveland, Ohio to be sustained by a diaspora in the faint hope of return. 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 celebrates the 60th birthday of dictator Antanas Smetona. Earlier Baltic country stamps had an exuberance that seemed half way between Kaiser era Germany and early Soviet, an interesting combination. See, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/08/09/latvia-1919-ulmanis-slays-the-russian-dragon-to-take-kurland/  . Here we have an aging grey leader with no real answers on how Lithuania could survive. This is very reflective of the pessimism setting in. So you know, happy effing birthday.

Todays stamp is issue A43, a 30 Centai stamp issued by Lithuania in 1934. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.50 used.

Antanas Smetona was born to peasants on an estate belonging to the widely prominent Radziwill family. Lithuania was at the time under Czarist Russian rule. There was much promotion of the Russian language in Lithuania and local students were even forced to recite prayers in Russian. Poles and Germans in the same school were allowed to use their own language. Smetona protested and was expelled. He appealed to the Czar’s education minister and was allowed to return in exchange for the compromise of saying his prayers in Latin. He then abandoned studies toward a priesthood and began studying the history of the Lithuanian language. He helped write a more complete Lithuanian grammar book for students while working in a bank. Russia’s defeat by Germany saw the Baltic states get  recognized as independent after the war. The area of Memel was further taken from Germany. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/21/memel-1920-the-french-worry-about-the-germans-and-forget-to-worry-about-the-lithuanians/  . There was much pressure from Soviet Russia, Poland, and Germany to receive the territory that Lithuania processed. There were also many ambitious Lithuanians wanting to serve the new government. Getting them to agree on much was next to impossible and there was much corruption involved in repatriating to Lithuanians assets that belonged to German, Russian, Jew, and Polish residents before independence.

In 1926 Smetona participated in a coup that made him President. Over the next few years he consolidated power until he was ruling by decree. He tried hard to limit foreign influence in Lithuania. He spent lavishly on the armed forces with the view that his greatest military threat was the Soviets. To that end he gave Memel back to Germany in order to turn them into an ally as they were in the First World War.

A year later Hitler and Stalin signed a non aggression pact that gave the Baltic states to the Soviets. Soon Smetona was packing his bags. He did not want to be the one to hand over the country  to the Soviets and he hoped that he could lead a government in exile. He was stopped at the German border by Lithuanian border guards. He tried and failed to convince the local regiment commander to offer at least token resistance to the Soviets. They then let him and his family slip over the border. Smetona found himself unwelcome in Berlin as Hitler and Stalin were then unlikely allies. He applied for a visa from not yet at war USA that was granted on the condition that he stayed out of politics. Before taking the USA up on the offer, Smetona went to Switzerland in hopes of setting up a government in exile. In Bern he found many of his old rivals in exile and none wanted to be involved with the former dictator. After a long journey that included Portugal and Brazil, he finally made it to the USA. Again he found his old rivals had no place for him, The Lithuanian Ambassador that he appointed was in cahoots with the old rivals in Bern.

Smetona’s son upon arriving in the USA had taken a factory job in Cleveland, a city that then had a large Lithuanian community. Unlike most deposed dictators then and now, Smetona did not leave Lithuania with a great sum of money. Finding no support among the diaspora in the USA, Smetona and his wife ended up moving in with his son. He died in his son’s home in 1944 due to a housefire. The government in exile was not able to do much when the Soviets retook Lithuania from the Germans. By then the Soviets were American allies and the government in exile had collaborated too much with Germany. The only achievement was maintaining recognition of Lithuanian independence as granted by the League of Nations in 1919.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Antanas Smetona. Sure he wasn’t able to keep Lithuania independent but he was able to shut up his ambitious rivals while the country faced such challenges and proved himself not a crook when he left with no stolen money. Well above par, if we understand that par is pretty low. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Ivory Coast 1974, Felix the irresistible force thinks he has been stolen from too much

The Ivory Coast charted a different course than many in Africa by staying close to colonial power France. The President for life marketed himself and changed his name to the irresistible force in charge of the ivory miracle. It was true that people weren’t having much luck resisting, but by the end he had stolen too much and the people had enough. Ironic for a man that had came to prominence by penning an article complaining about what he perceived as French thievery. 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.

President Felix Houphouet-Boigny marketed his rule as the ivory miracle. The simple portrait bulk postage stamp makes a pretty good case for it. Bulk postage implies a functioning country. As with bulk postage throughout the world, mint versions of this stamp are worth more than twice the used form as most really were mailed. Ivory Coast is no longer so functional regarding the post. The last bulk mail issue was from 1994 and the last stamp recognized as legitimate is from 2015.

Todays stamp is issue A111, a 25 African Franc stamp issued by the Ivory Coast in 1974. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations issued over several years. In the late 1980s there were new versions reflecting then new currency devaluations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The President eventually known as Felix Houphouet-Boigny was born either in 1901 or 1907 depending on who you ask in Yamoussoukro during the time the Ivory Coast was a French colony. His birth name was Dia (magician) Houphouet and he was in the line to be a tribal chief in the Akoues tribe. He became chief at a young age but was represented by a regency. As per colonial policy, tribal chiefs were offered education in French local schools. During this time he trained as a medic and converted  to Catholicism, Christened name Felix. Felix worked as a medic and organized a club for indigenous medical personnel. The French authorities considered the club  a labor union and transferred him to a French hospital in a smaller town. He then penned an essay in a socialist newspaper saying that the French had stolen too much from the African man as regards to agriculture in the Ivory Coast. When the French figured out Felix wrote the article, they offered him a job as a colonial tax collector to buy him off. Soon Felix was rich.

After the war Felix won a seat in the French Parliament in Paris representing the colony. The Africans quickly aligned with the French communist party as it was the only party in favor of ending the colonies. Felix assured the French he was not a communist as he was too rich to be one. He instead began to advocate a gradual process toward independence unlike most African leaders of the time. France however was ready to leave and Felix became the first President of independent Ivory Coast. In the runup he added Boigny (the irresistible force) to his name. As he consolidated his power for a long rule he initially had some resistance. He had rival Jean-Baptiste Mockey exiled for using a form of voodoo involving black cats against him. Creepy, I can see why he had to go. He shrunk the military to avoid coups and let the French continue to run the economy that mainly involved coffee and cocoa, not ivory.

In the 1980s the world price for coffee and cocoa dropped and the country took on a great deal of debt to buy peace by continuing to pay farmers the old prices. Felix desperately begged Europe to pay him above market prices and then failed again when he halted exports to try to raise the market price. Felix was still spending lavishly moving the administrative capital to his hometown and building there a giant Catholic Basilica in the bush and an airport that could handle the Concorde SST. When Felix died in 1993, his fortune was estimated at $7 billion. His children argued how much of the fortune belongs to them versus the state. It did and still does support a peace prize in his name that is handed out annually through the UN. Perhaps odd for a leader that supported armed opposition to African governments in Angola Benin, Burkini Faso, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria. Felix is still fairly well remembered in the Ivory Coast, benefiting in retrospect for what came later.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Concorde supersonic airliner. If I was the leader of a place not doing so well with so much money waiting for me in Switzerland, I sure would want a Concorde at the airport ready to zip me away. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Nicaragua 1983, Nationalizing the gold mines, sure output will drop but if the money stays here?

One of the first actions of the new Sandinista regime in 1979 was nationalizing all the mines. Almost all mining in Nicaragua is gold. This stamp talks up this action as an achievement. 44 years later Nicaragua has the same regime it had in 1979. Perhaps now is a good time to judge how it went. 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 have a great love of stamp issues from a new communist regime. The countries always have big industrial plans that their now in power technocrats are eager to try out. They are best early on in the regime when there really is much optimism, Here in Nicaragua we get the optimism with better modern stamp printing of the 1980s, thus a unique stamp. Notice mining is shown as an advanced high tech enterprise. Not a man breaking his back in a dark, airless hole picking at a rock. No this is a stamp by and for technocrats. Compare this to this Japanese mining stamp I did a while back, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/08/02/japan-1948-getting-back-to-work-in-the-mine/   .

Todays stamp is issue A166 a 1 Cordoba stamp issued by Nicaragua on October 2nd, 1983. It was a two stamp issue, the higher value being airmail, celebrating the nationalization of the mining industry. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents cancelled to order.

There are mines in Nicaragua that mine silver, copper, lead, and zinc. All the way back to the Spanish, gold mining was front and center to the industry in Latin America. The usual method was that foreign companies would pay the government for the mining concession and handle the mine themselves. The political left is not wrong in it’s accusation that this prevents the wealth being created from reaching the people. All of the gold mined is exported.

Nicaragua had reason to celebrate the nationalization of the gold mines in 1983. At first the mines output went up as employment levels rose and investments were made. !983, four years after the nationalization proved to be a high water mark for gold mining in Nicaragua. New veins of gold must be constantly sought out as existing ones play out. Nicaragua without outside help had no ability to do that and by 1988 the gold output had fallen in half.

The industry did also have some new challenges relating to the rivalry between the USA and the Sandinistas. The area of the mines in northern Nicaragua saw much activity from the American backed Contra rebels. In 1984 the CIA went as far as mining Nicaraguan harbors. The mines were not deadly but when struck emitted a giant boom sound designed to terrify, and discourage exports. Nicaragua felt this was an act of war and took a case for compensation to the International Court of Justice. They won in Court but the USA refused to pay even after the UN General Assembly voted 93-3 on a non binding resolution to pay.

Gold mining output is now much higher than in 1983. The country gave up on nationalization and invited in a Canadian firm to run the mines. You won’t find this success on a newer Nicaraguan stamp. The wealth created is not getting through to the people.

Well my drink is empty and I find myself sympathetic to the 80s technocrats of Sandinista Nicaragua. In power for 40 years means corruption as long replaced innovation, but early on at least there was hope. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Portugal 1941, Recognizing the Common Person in a Regional Issue

One nice thing in common between the Socialist. I believe they now prefer Progressive, and National Socialist, I believe they now prefer Christion Nationalist, governments is they often portray the simple worker in a positive, even heroic light. Here we have a rancher from the then Province of Ribatego. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage after you are done riding fences on the lower 40 acres. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

When we romanticize hard work such as done by this Portuguese rancher, we airbrush out the toll that it takes on him physically. However what we should not do is forget what such productivity does for his soul. Perhaps hard work followed by a younger retirement age is the answer.

Todays stamp is issue A134, a 1.75 Escudo stamp issued by Portugal on April 4th, 1941, It was part of a 10 stamp issues featuring different regions and tradespeople. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $4.00 used. The value of this high denomination bulk postage issue rises to $40 unused, as bulk stamps were for actual mail.

The region presented was the then Province of Ribatego. Ribatego literally means up the Tagus River relative to Lisbon at the river’s mouth. The large area, with no border to the ocean or Spain is not densely populated region. The large river crossing it makes it uniquely suited to agriculture especially cattle ranching.

The old map showing Ribatejo Province.

I mentioned that this stamp came from a time of a national socialist government in Portugal. In the early seventies, there was a revolution that changed that. The new center left government meant change was coming to Ribatego Province. At the demand of the European Union regional lines were redrawn with most of Ribatego finding itself in the newly created Santarem. The Santarem region is named for the largest city in the area.

If one senses a shift in this from productive rural living to the cities, I believe that would be correct. Now Portugal has to spend two and a half percent of gross national product to import enough food.

A search today of ranching in Portugal gets two main results, one hopeful and one sad. The sad one was ranches being sold for high prices to be vacation homes and Air B+Bs for people from somewhere else.

The more hopeful one was from a regional state park offering jobs helping look after their herd for younger would be ranchers. This probably won’t last with the excuse of climate change offered, but I for one am excited at the idea of the young experiencing  ranching.

The modern cattle waiting for new ranchers with the Tagus River in the background

Well my drink is empty and there are many chores to get to. Come again soon for another story to be learned from stamp collecting.