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Norfolk Island, people come (in chains), people go

Norfolk is a small island dependent on Australia with a declining and aging population. Australia wonders if it is worth keeping it occupied. It has been that way from the beginning. 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.

One way for a small island to generate some revenue is to contract out to print stamps for the worldwide stamp collector. The island petitioned repeatedly for the right to print stamps and Australia granted it right before World War II but the stamps themselves had to wait till after the war. It helps if the island is a part of the British Commonwealth, which Norfolk is by extension by way of Australia. The fact that many of the current residents of Norfolk are descended from immigrants from Pitcairn Island guaranteed there would be stamps, as they are big business on Pitcairn. However in 2016 as part of the reorganization of Norfolk’s administration, the separate Norfolk postal system was shut down and anything newer is printed by and for Australia.

Todays stamp is issue A22, a 5 Australian cent stamp issued  by The Australian self governing dependency of Norfolk Island on October 27th, 1968. It was a single stamp issue depicting a mother of pearl carving of the Nativity in celebration of Christmas that year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents whether mint or used.

Though a Polynesian settlement had at one time existed, Norfolk was unoccupied when spotted by Captain Cook in 1774. He named it after Mary Howard, the Duchess of Norfolk. She had asked Captain Cook to name an island for her but by the time he did unknown to him, she had died the year before.  New Zealand style flax was growing there wildly and that attracted the first penal colony from New South Wales to better cultivate it. The flax became less valuable and it was decided that the penal colony be abandoned in 1814.

In 1824, Tasmania and Britain had ideas for a second penal colony specifically to house the worst criminals that had been sentenced to death but as was common then seen that sentence commuted to life in prison. Thus an island 900 miles offshore was ideal. In the 1850s the importation of convicts to Tasmania had ended and it was soon again decided to abandon the facility on Norfolk.

The facilities left by the penal colony proved attractive and 189 residents of Pitcairn Island landed in 1856. The were mainly descendants of the Tahitian wives of the HMS Bounty mutineers. The colony resembled Pitcairn, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/29/pitcairn-islands-1967-an-island-with-more-stamps-than-people-this-one-overprinted-in-gold/ , but was less religious. A native dialect even developed that was a combination of 18th century English and Tahitian called norfuk. The island was administered by New South Wales both before and after the creation of Australia. An airstrip was built on the island during World War II to take advantage of it being half way between Australia and New Zealand.

Australia granted much self rule after the war but things did not go well. As Australian citizens, the young adults mostly leave seeking work and study opportunities and tourism is the only real industry. An appeal was made to Australia in 2010 for additional subsidies. The Australians responded by shuttering the local institutions and taking more direct control. The dole became Australia level generous but for the first time, Norfolk residents were expected to pay Australian income tax. This was quite a blow on the island and now there is talk of appealing this to the United Nations as a nation being held against it’s will by another. Meanwhile every year the population drops and there are now barely 1000 residents. I doubt the UN will take up their case as the Norfolk islanders are white. Interestingly the island has so few last names that the phone book included nicknames like Diddles and Rubber duck.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another in remembrance of the former Norfolk postal service. Maybe I am just still thirsty. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Germany 1991, A newly united Germany remembers the Junkers F 13, an innovative product of a previously united Germany

The Junkers F 13 was an innovative product of a great man with a united country behind him. The industry he worked in now requires a consortium of companies and countries to ever more rarely bring a product to market. In the optimism of 1991, Germany can be forgiven to look back fondly at what was accomplished and imagining it could happen again. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

If there is a failure in the aesthetics of this stamp, it is not capturing how radical this airplane would have looked in 1919. It was a world of open cockpit biplanes. The stamp does however show you the characteristic corrugated alluminum alloy skin that made the advancement possible. So as with so many stamps, the more you look the more you see.

Todays stamp is issue A711, a 30 pfennig stamp issued by Germany on April 9th 1991. It was a 4 stamp issue in various denominations remembering German pre war civilian airplanes and airships. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents whether mint or used.

Hugo Junkers founded his company in 1895 in Dessau, Germany initially manufacturing boilers and radiators. Hugo had some radical ideas for getting into the manufacture of airplanes. He had the idea that aluminum could be made strong enough that the skin of an airplane could be made integral to it’s structure. This would reduce weight and allow for better aerodynamics. To make this work, Junkers developed an age hardened alloy of aluminum that they called Duralumin and further strengthened the metal by corrugating it. The resulting F 13 airliner of 1919 was thus a revelation facing the post World War I need for civilian airliners.

Hugo Junkers had to work hard to market his airplane. One thing he did was start his own airline that in turn bought over 60 of the airplane. His airline was eventually in 1926 merged with an airline subsidiary of the Lloyd’s shipping line to form Lufthansa which in turn took another 72 F13s. Junkers offered low down payments and lease deals that got F13s flying all over the world. The planes had a variety of different engines mostly from Daimler Benz, BMW, and in house Junkers designs, but the airframe was perhaps more advanced than the engines available. Over 300 F13s were built by 1932 and the technology developed was still very much in evidence in the later larger and more numerous tri motor Junkers airliners.

Hugo Junkers in 1920.

As the politics in Germany changed it became quite bad personally for Hugo Junkers. He was requested by the Nazi government to participate in the rearming of Germany. Hugo said no thank you. He was then put under house arrest and told to give up his stock in the company he founded and all of his patents. In exchange, Hugo would not be tried for high treason. Hugo was an older man by then not up to the stress coming his way and he died at home still under arrest. The stolen company then went on to build many notable warplanes such as the Stuka dive bomber. In the 1960s the remnants of the Junkers operation were merged into Messerschmitt.

In 2016, a new build replica of the Junkers F-13 was built as a personal tribute to Hugo Junkers. Though it had a radio and a transponder, it was otherwise original including a rebuilt 1930s vintage Pratt and Whitney radial engine. The technicians and engineers on the project had so much fun, that they agreed to take further orders and at least 4 new builds have been completed. Not bad for a now over 100 year old airplane.

One of the new build F13 replicas. The builds happen in Switzerland, thus the Swiss cross.

Well my drink is empty but I will be ready the next time Germany wants to toast Hugo Junkers. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Ireland 1967, 100 years later Irish stampmakers fantasize about alternate history

A newish stamp with a picture of an old stamp is not at all unusual. Ireland was using British stamps in 1867 but that doesn’t mean the imagination can’t conjure up what a newly independent stamp issue of 1867 would have looked like. If the Fenian rebellion succeeded. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and st back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Since this stamp is an Irish fantasy lets examine how they did. Not so bad. Most new countries start with a coat of arms, even one where the independence was achieved from violent chaos. One can note a pretty giant difference between this would be issue and the later real issues of the Irish Free State. They aren’t all about the Catholic church. The Fenians were rough men, whose struggle was routed in class not in intricacies of interpreting scripture. Their independent Ireland would have been different than what came later. Kudos to the stamp designer, S. Allen Taylor, for picking up on that. By 1967, Irish stamp issues were becoming way more secular. On some of the real early stamps, Ireland could be mistaken for a caliphate.

Todays stamp is issue A62, a 5 penny stamp issued by Irish Republic on October 23rd, 1967. The stamp recognized the 100th anniversary of the failed Fenian Irish rebellion of 1867. It was a two stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

The class situation was serious in 19th century Ireland. The landowning class was largely British and the available land was often used for cattle raising, so the beef could be exported to feed the insatiable English desire for corned beef, that was newly cheap and available to the masses of industrial workers. This left the Irish short of food and money. Thus there were frequent rebellions against British rule. There were also many Irish leaving for the USA, Canada, and factory work in England. The situation eventually corrected with corn beef resourced from Uruguay. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/07/uruguay-1889-we-will-grow-by-immigration-merino-wool-and-corned-beef/

Several leaders of a 1848 uprising were in Paris and in contact with Irish in the USA. After the American Civil War there were many Irish born veterans that had been paid to fight for the North. Taking inspiration from the Irish Fianna of the middle ages. They hoped their armed arrival in Ireland and Canada would lead to an uprising that would end British rule. Fianna were sons of Ireland in the middle ages that were landless and had to scratch out a living as armed bands. There were several Fenian attacks in Ireland, England and Canada that were mainly hoping to seize weapons. The attacks failed and so the leaders were not able to lead an uprising of the Irish people.

That does not mean the Irish people did not remember and appreciate the effort. After the rebellion was put down there was a massive outpouring of wishes than the Fenians not be hung as traitors but instead given amnesty. Some were and some weren’t. The old Fianna mottos were. We have purity in our hearts, we have strength in our limbs and our actions match are speech. The modern Fenians added that they were deeming better to manfully die in the struggle for freedom than continue an existence of utter serfdom. A movement needs some martyrs and these were better than most.  In England, they were seen differently of course, see the cartoon below.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another of Irish Whiskey to toast stamp designer S. Allen Taylor. Stamp collectors like to remember an old stamp, but it goes the extra mile to imagine what an old stamp would have looked like if things had gone differently. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Tunisia 1960, the system? what system? I am the system!

Is this what independence activists were about. A President for life, living in the old Ottoman Bey’s house and insulting the French, who educated him, then jailed him, and by the look of this stamp still dressed him. 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.

Is this a French stamp? The writing is French and this guy could pass for a French President. He was educated in France at no expense to himself. He married a rich French widow. This stamp was printed in Paris. No, this fellow hates France, lead riots against it for which he was jailed, blames all the countries problems on France. You can see the disconnect between that attitude and the image this stamp of independent Tunisia puts forward. Maybe they resent what they desire to be but know deep inside that they don’t measure up. Many Tunisians vote with their feet and head for France. Love and hate, two sides of the same coin.

Todays stamp is issue A69, a 20 Milemine stamp issued by the Republic of Tunisia on June 1st, 1960. The stamp shows President Bourguiba ratifying the new constitution and was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

After the war French control of the Maghreb of north west Africa was at an end.The French colonial administration allowed for some self rule by leaving in place an Ottoman empire Bey Lamine. The independence fighters, all of whom were violent were divided into modernists who were secular and socialist and another traditional and religious. Bey Lamine chose to stack his ministers with modernists including Habib Bourguiba, his prime minister. At the first meetings after independence, the Bey presided now as King of Tunisia dressed in the uniform of a Marshall of the Ottoman Empire. This was not what the modernists had in mind and with the French gone and the traditional Arabist in exile, in Geneva so maybe not so traditional, it was time to go after the King.

At Bourguiba demand, Tunisia was declared a republic and the elderly Bey/King put under house arrest in the borrowed apartment of a recently departed Jewish friend. Bourguiba of course wanted the Carthage Palace for himself. Next came the search for the Crown Jewels which were never found. Queen Lalia did not survive the four day interrogation over the location of the jewels that went as far as having her stomach pumped. The King died a few years later.

Bourguiba liked to put himself forward as modern and like many modern rulers of post colonial countries he kept all power for himself. In 1976 he declared himself President for life. He modeled himself after Turkey’s Ataturk but had lessor results. As he got old and infirm his second wife began to rule in his place. Eventually the deputy, Prime Minister Ben Ali enacted a medical coup that placed the former President out of the Palace and under house arrest. Bourguiba’s wife ran for Paris before it was her turn to have her stomach pumped and Bourguiba divorced her. Prime Minister Ben Ali fell himself during the Arab Spring. He fled in the Presidential Jet but to France’s credit was denied landing and had to divert to Saudi Arabia. His wife Leila, a former Paris hairdresser made it out with him but is wanted by Tunisia for money laundering. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Perhaps Turkish President Erdogan could appoint a new Bey in exchange for a modest annual Suzerainty.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering whether on Tunisian independence Day if the celebrations were bigger in Paris or Tunis. There was definitely nervousness in Carthage(Palace). Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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San Marino, in a small surrounded country political violence in dangerous, so think twice while you admire our prison

Staying independent is job one for a small state. Sometimes modifying behavior to get along is necessary. 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.

Here is something you never see on a postage stamp, the state prison. Now San Marino’s prison was really an ancient fortress on a hill so worth a look. The year before though, there was a political murder that threatened relations with Italy. Showing the prison may make the point that San Marino could handle any crime itself.

Todays stamp is issue A24, a 5 Centesimi stamp issued by San Marino in 1922. It displayed the Roca state prison and was part of a 19 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.50 unused.

San Marino  and Vatican City were the only city states that maintained their independence during the unification of Italy in the 1860-70s. The people are Italian and the population is small. After the devastation of World War I, politics in Italy turned toward the extremes. This was understandable as mainstream politics had just been completely discredited by the war, not just in Italy. San Marino had remained neutral in that war but did not completely avoid the wars deprivations or the political radicalization. In 1921 radical leftists murdered a prominent doctor, Carlo Bosi, who was known to have fascist views. This greatly angered Italians and there was a great fear that San Marino would be invaded by gangs of Squadrismo. Squadrismo were localized groups of blue shirted fascist that often responded in kind to Socialist violence, they were right wing rivals to Mussolini’s black shirts. Among methods they were known for was forcing people to take castor oil a strong laxative, leaving victims naked tied to a tree, and made to swallow a live toad. San Marino quickly asked the Italian state police to send 30 officers to help keep the peace. In 1923 a fascist government was elected and a government was formed under a fascist who had voluntarily fought for Italy in World War I.

Once elected radicals become undemocratic and the fascists remained ensconced  until 1943 when the fascists fell in Italy. It was then the turn of the communists to get elected and then overstay their welcome. There was a governing crisis in 1957 when the communist lost their majority but refused to yield power until threatened with violence from Italy.

Rocca prison on todays stamp ceased being a prison in the early 1970s. It is now a tourist attraction as an 11 century fortification. It regularly fires off 19th century cannons to the delight of spectators. San Marino, now quite wealthy is somewhat known to have very few prisoners. So few that it is easier to have their food catered by a restaurant than maintain a cafeteria. There are periods where a prison sentence means solitary confinement because there are no other prisoners. What happens when a small town is it’s own country.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the diplomats of San Marino. It must require the great skill of many generations of diplomats to keep San Marino from being swallowed. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Paraguay 1972, Peron to the left of me, Peron to the right of me, stuck in the middle with Stroessner

Sometimes tough times call for a strong leader. In South America that often means a claudillo. What to do though when your military leader is bland and ineffectual. 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 my favorite stamp issue from Paraguay. There was a Presidential summit of the anti communist, military Presidents of Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and todays stamp Argentina. Decked out formally with serious expressions and being South America, a flag sash. I did the Brazil President issue here, https://the-philatelist.com/2017/10/19/a-friend-and-ally-who-wears-a-sash/, The failed lefties of the time are so much better remembered today, but the chaos that comes with them less so. So a stamp issue showing a coalition of the forgotten is interesting, and very different stylistically.

Todays stamp is issue A250, a 75 Centimo stamp issued by Paraguay on November 18th, 1972. It was a four stamp issue that was also available as a souvenir sheet. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.  Even the souvenir sheet is only worth $2.50. must not be much of a demand for a souviner like this but I love them. A stamp issue will portray them as they saw themselves.

Anti communism was a big agreement of the people at the summit. They were all close to the then in power Nixon administration. In Argentina’s case this unity was short lived. General and de facto President Alejandro Lanusse was scheduling the first election in a long while with the hope of increasing legitimacy. Argentina was on it’s third junta government since 1966. Peron was still in exile but his stand in was running. His stand in represented the left wing side of Peron’s support. As such he was able to retain Peron’s support and also tear away votes from the far left. His inauguration saw Chile’s Allende and Cuba’s Castro there to cheer but the fellows on this stamp issue were nowhere to be seen and glum. They need not have worried Peron would soon be back in power, and prove to be more right than left.

In Argentina there was a fairly strange group of centrist in power after Peron was overthrown. Peronists were banned from participating in elections, so the people elected proved weak and unappealing to both left and right. In 1966, the last elected President was deposed. The military hoped to install a public government similar to Brazil that was stronger but less ideological. However the left is only going to be upset by the uniforms and these type armies had many generals that thought they were the one to make it work, of at least get rich trying. So under the generals, left wing violence increases, and yet there was little progress in stamping it out. Guns and butter centrism also had the old South American problem of runaway inflation.

In the mid 1990s as an old man, President Lanusse released his autobiography where he criticized later General leaders for their excesses during the late 70s dirty war. He also criticized then President Menem a member of the Peronist party. The old fellow who himself lacked achievement thinks everyone else does it wrong. I suppose I should be sympathetic to an old man claiming people should have listened to him. However instead I think President Menem did the right thing by putting the old fool in house arrest. Hopefuly his home poccessed a lot of mirrors. Strong and wrong beats weak and right according to Bill Clinton.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Paraguay stamp designers of 1972 for offering such a visually striking alternative to the 68er visuals. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Spain 1870, Can Amadeus stop the rocking after the glorious revolution

Queen Isabella II was not well regarded. She vacillated politically disappointing all sides. Yet when she was deposed it was her replacements turn to vacillate. 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 Queen is gone! Long live the Queen, in Paris exile. So who is this on the stamp. One of the upstart faceless general/ politicians that replaced her. No they don’t inspire confidence and change places so fast there isn’t time to get a stamp designed and printed. So what are Spanish stamp designers to do to show Spain’s best. 19th century European stamp fans can guess. Here we have Espana, the Latin female embodiment of the Spanish nation. The full face gives it away, Royals prefer profile portraits.

Todays stamp is issue A20, a 50 Milesimas stamp issued by Spain on January 1st, 1870. It was a 14 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $5 used. A mint version would be worth $125, proving praise be that the stamp was actually meant to be mailed.

Queen Isabella II was forced into Paris exile in 1868. A group of dismissed former generals/politicians  had landed from exile and most of the Spanish Army had defected to them. A self proclaimed glorious revolution. Unfortunately for the conspirators they were badly divided. They were from the left, so many of the conspirators desired a Spanish Republic. Others wanted a King, not a vacillating Queen. They themselves debated between Isabella’s young son. a German candidate, who seemed most competent but would likely lead to war between France and Prussia, A Portuguese who had served as regent there and Amadeus, the second son of Victor Emanuel I, the King of Italy and head of the house of Savoy.

After a regency that looked more like a military junta, Amadeus was named Amadeo I, King of Spain. Amadeus had previously annoyed his father by marrying a minor Piedmont noble who was rich and therefore made him less reliant on an allowance from his father. Soon after the marriage, she wrote to the King asking him to discipline her husband regarding his infidelities. Victor Emanuel wrote back that he understood her feelings but who was she to dictate how her husband acts and the jealousy was unbecoming in a woman.

Future King Amadeus with his wife Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo

Amadeus was not having much luck in Spain. The political party that brought him in relied more on election fraud than popular support. He faced House of Bourbon based uprisings in Basque and Catalonian areas and republican uprisings in the cities. The Army wasn’t much help as the artillery corps went on strike. Amadeus tried to go around the country to bolster his support but then faced an assassination attempt that shot up the Royal Carriage, killing the horses but leaving him unhurt. The political party than instructed Amadeus to discipline the artillery corps. He did that and then immediately abdicated. A Republic was declared and Amadeus made a surprise visit to the legislature declaring that Spain was ungovernable and he was going back to Italy. Any vestige of the glorious revolution ended two years later when the republic failed and Isabella II’s son Alfonso was crowned King. Alfonso had rumors swirling around that his father wasn’t really King consort Francis a homosexual, but one of Isabella’s generals that had conspired against her.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another and toast the beautiful Espana as seen on todays stamp, even though perhaps Amadeus was right and Spain is ungovernable. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting, First published in 2019.

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White/South Russia 1920, Fake stamp issued by the Black Barron

It was a hopeless fight. The landowning class of Imperial Russia trying to change the fate that awaited them from the much more numerous Red Army. Could they use the old aristocratic military tradition and playing to religion to win over the people and turn the tide? 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.

White Russia, renamed in retrospect South Russia, wasn’t a real country. So todays stamp was more to raise revenue and publicity for the military and political movement. The nature of the stamps, poor printing on poor paper but at the same time oversized show them not for postage but more like mini propaganda posters.

Denikin, named after the White movement’s general, are common and of little value. The exception being one of these stamps with a cancelation from actual postal use. The White movement half occupied a decent amount of territory including many post offices that mostly were not functioning but occasionally…

After the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution several former Czarist military formed a new volunteer White army to take on the new Red Army. The old Czarist army was mostly in tatters after being defeated by Germany in World War I. The Red Army, though larger, was not in good shape either. General Anton Denikin lead his forces and occupied much of Ukraine. the Caucus mountains and along the Volga river. The group appealed based on Russian patriotism and  Russian Orthodox Christian identity. The Bolsheviks were described as Jewish. In theory, a division along these lines was adventitious to the White movement, as Russia was only about 5 percent Jewish. The Bolsheviks on the other hand, while promoting atheism, had leaders that were 88 percent of Jewish background including the leader known as Trotsky who was Commandant of the Red Army.

The Black Barron

Despite receiving support from the West and from the wealthy landowning class, their forces of mostly Cossacks was not successful. The Red Army defeated the White Army at Orel 300 miles south of Moscow in October 1919. General Denikin resigned and went into exile and was replaced by General Pyotr Wrangel who the Reds made famous as the Black Barron. The force was gradually pushed back to the Crimea from which many went into exile including the Black Baron. Those that chose to remain suffered through decossackifacation  with many killed. The Black Barron himself was poisoned by his butler’s brother who was a Soviet agent while living in Belgium and working as a mining engineer. Denikin lived out his live writing memoirs in Paris and later in New York City. He lobbied against the provisions of the Yalta treaty that called for the forced repatriation of Russians in the western zone after World War II that included anti Soviet Cossacks and White Russians who were promptly executed as Denikin had warned. His daughter many years later made contact with Putin and Denikin has been rehabilitated and his remains returned to Russia and buried with honor. Among his writings from exile were discussions on the proper relations between Russia and Ukraine who he described as Great Russia and Little Russia. His work was extensively quoted by Putin during the Russian troubles with Ukraine recently. His injection of religious identity politics during the civil war in Russia means that he was considered an enemy by Israelis.

Well I am left with an empty drink glass and a fake stamp. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Portuguese Guinea 1913, training assimilados to break away

Why did European countries try to hold on to colonies when the original reason  for being there had passed and the involvement is a burden for all involved? Let us consider. So slip in 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 sets The Philatelist record for how many ways Portugal showed that they did not care about Guinea through the stamp issue. Notice that Guinea is just overprinted on a stamp of Macau, another Portuguese country on the other side of the world. Next notice that is the Vasco da Gama 400th anniversary issue from 1898. This version is from 15 years later. Next notice that Portugal’s form of government and currency had changed. Both great reasons for a new stamp issue but instead handled with overprints. Grade F for effort.

Todays stamp is issue CD26, a 10 Centavo on 16 Ries stamp overprinted for the colony of Portuguese Guinea in 1913 on a stamp intended for Macau. The colony also used the same stamp  but intended for Portuguese Africa and Timor. There were eight different denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.60 whether mint or used.

The Portuguese first arrived in Guinea in 1452. There was not much land area onshore controlled by Portugal just the trading post at Bassau  and a few close offshore islands. The name Guinea is from the Portuguese for black people. The trading was mainly in slaves. There was  a hope that some of the gold that came from the interior might pass through Bissau but most stayed in Ghana, then the Gold Coast.

After the end of the slave trade, Portugal sold the rights to economically develop /exploit Guinea to foreign firms. The area did not prove attractive to white colonists. Crops of peanuts and palm oil were exported in small amounts but not in quantities enough to be profitable. The population was growing fast and rice for food was an important crop. Again with this, productivity was quite low and the colony always had large trade deficits.

The colony brought with it a duty to civilize. Starting in 1913, the colonial administration began classifying local African as assimilated or unassimilated. To be assimilated one had to speak Portuguese, be baptized Catholic, and live in the manner of a westerner. Fewer than 10 percent of the Africans qualified. Getting certified Assimilado meant that there was better ability to get jobs and educational opportunities. The Portuguese claimed to hope that the Assimilados would inspire their fellow blacks to join them as sort of junior Portuguese citizens.

Instead the Assimilados lead the independence movement against Portugal. As the ones that inherited the colony after Portugal departed in 1974, they must take responsibility for the lack of progress since. The Assimilados are only a small minority and still live as colonial masters used to, except ever more degraded. As such they are more a connection to the past than the way forward for the bulk of the people who never assimilated. The junior Portuguese citizens proved to be something less than inspiration.

Well my drink is empty and I will open the discussion in the below comment section. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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1924 Paris Olympics, the last of the modern Olympics that paid homage to the ancient Greeks

The ancient or the modern. It is easy to both idealize the ancient and get bogged down with the modern. It was understandable that a modern elite might view backwards toward Greece as a roadmap toward self improvement. 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 of The Philatelist.

An athlete celebrating his victory wearing a toga. Not how the Olympics are seen today. A fitting way to show the games as they were the last ones organized  by the Frenchman Pierre, Barron de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics. Coubertin believed that emulating the ancients was a way to uplift modern elites to be better. The 1928 Olympic stamps showed modern athletes and showed additional modernity by having a surcharge to help pay for the elite’s games. I don’t think the Barron would have approved.

Todays stamp is issue A27, a 50 Centimes stamp issued by France on April 1st, 1924. It was part of a four stamp issue for the Olympics in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $5.75 used. A imperforate version of this stamp is worth $1,000.

Pierre de Coubertin was a French nobleman who was dismayed by the French loss in the Franco-Prussian War. In the same period the British Empire was at it’s height. He attributed the relative success of Britain to the elite public school system that many of it’s leaders passed through. The English public schools had played each other in athletics modeled after how they imagined the ancient Greek Olympic games. Coubertin thought the lack of athletics in the equivalent French schools left the aristocracy worthless and weak. He conceived a revived Olympics as a way to turn the system around. The events chosen were demonstrations of manly strength and soldierly skills. Intrinsic in the vision were amateur athletes and gentlemanly sportsmanship that tended to keep out potential participants from the working classes.

Coubertin’s vision of the modern Olympics was naturally watered down after his retirement. One of the most famous stories from the 1924 Olympics was told by the movie “Chariots of Fire” from 1981. The movie told the story of a Jewish English runner who competed and won despite his wealthy but less than Noble background. He further offended by hiring a coach as part of his training, that some felt violated the spirit of the amateur athlete. The story is told as a hero overcoming anti-Semitism and was that, but also demonstrates that the times were changing.

The 1924 Olympics were played at the Stade Olympique de Columbas first built in 1907. The stadiums renovations have seen it shrink from 50,000 to 15,000 seats. It is still slated to host the field hockey event when Paris hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics. The 1924 Olympics only had revenue of 50 % of the costs of the games, despite large crowds. The much more commercial 1928 games, after Coubertin’s retirement, almost broke even. Something gained, something lost.

Well my drink is empty and I pour another to toast the participants of all the modern Olympic games. The Barron believed that participating was far more important than who won. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.