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Jamaica 1970, Mixed Race Leaders try to graft Socialism onto Black Jamaica

How a place is to be administered after the colonial power leaves is a difficult issue. Socialists in the mid 20th century brought much to that discussion but convincing the people that this is how they should self determine is a challenge. 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 rather like this stamp. So many former colonies shut off anyone who participated in the colonial administration as if they were evil vassals of the devil. Yet here is a stamp issue that declares them heroes. Not that Jamaica was in a great place but it was independent and there was hope for a better future. This is not a standard Commonwealth issue with the Queen in the corner aimed at Anglophile stamp collectors. This is a more open window into Jamaica.

Todays stamp is issue A89, a 5 cent stamp issued by Jamaica on March 11th 1970. It displays former Prime Minister Norman Manley. It was part of a 5 stamp issue honoring leaders of the movement toward independence. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used or which independence leader was displayed. One of the leaders is Marcus Garvey is also known as a civil rights leader in the USA. This does not seem to help it’s value which I think is pretty good evidence that not enough historians of the civil rights movement collect stamps.

Post World War II, Great Britain’s time in Jamaica was nearing an end. As part of the transition two members of the Jamaica mixed race community were given prominence. They were Alexander Bustamante and the subject of this stamp Norman Manley. They were well educated in Britain and surprisingly even served in Empire militaries. Their educations had seen them exposed to the workers unite socialist movements that they hoped would be good for Jamaica. The challenges economically for Jamaica were great. Sugar cane really does require the type of large plantations and ample slave labor to be economically successful. Therefore it is not suited to post land reform, post independence Jamaica. In the 1950s, there was a bauxite mining boom that saw Jamaica become the world’s leading producer. These facilities were foreign owned and it is always a challenge to make sure the foreign company is making enough to continue while the area is seeing enough of the benefit. Remember Dr. No’s laird in Crab Key was a bauxite mine in the James Bond movie.

The two leaders formed rival socialist parties and set out toward land and education reform. In education, results were mixed as the new opportunities only slowly trickled from the top down and land reform saw output collapse as the crops did not suit the new small farms. The bauxite mines were so heavily taxed and beset with labor strife that Jamaica has fallen far down the list of producers. Another independence leader, Marcus Garvey, proposed former slaves emigrating back to Africa, where they won’t be held back the vestiges of the colonial system. His ideas were never tried.

Manley’s rival, Jamaica’s first Prime Minister, Sir Alexander Bustamante
The road untraveled. Marcus Garvey

By the end of the 60s things were getting worst fast. Manley’s son Michael took over his father’s party and served as Prime Minister several times the first in 1972. By then mixed race leaders were unfashionable and many of the younger Manley’s six wives were black. He even took to wearing a formal but shirtless and tieless Kariba suit. Bustamante old party was now in black hands and the two parties had armed gangs fight it out in the street during election time. 800 died in the 1980 election.

Michael Manley, in his kariba suit, his fourth wife Beverley, and then USA President Carter

Well, my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Marcus Garvey. Since his ideas were not tried, he did not disappoint anyone. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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China/Manchuria 1950, China figures out how to scare the USA

The Cold War was a time of diplomatic games to get an advantage. Here was a stamp that displayed one of the key turnabouts. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

There are both German and Italian stamps from the 30s and 40s that similarly show Hitler an Mussolini, but face it. Italy was a second string power in terms of military if not cultural power. Stalin and Mao signing a treaty that amounted to an alliance is really much scarier to potential rivals like the USA. Just 5 years earlier, Stalin was our ally against Hitler and in the last days at least against Japan. Two years before China was ruled by the USA allied nationalists. Chinese troops at the exact time were pouring into North Korea and pushing back the American gains in Korea. 6 years after World War II the effect of all this must have been terrifying.

Todays stamp is issue 1L177, a 5000 Juan stamp issued by the Northeast China Postal Service (Manchuria) on December 1st, 1950. It was the last days of Manchuria being postally administered separately from the People’s Republic. The stamp honors the treaty of friendship between China and the Soviet Union earlier that year by showing Mao and Stalin shaking hands. The Northeast China issue is in different colors and denominations from the same stamp issued by the PRC. The 4 vertical Chinese characters on the upper right of the stamp also signify it. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $29 in mint condition. There are reprints of this stamp that have a lower value, but they are printed on a duller paper.

Manchuria had been occupied by the Japanese during World War II and before. In the late days of the war, the Soviets invaded in order to be in place to take the Japanese surrender. The area had been important to Russia since czarist times as railroad and port access was helpful to a Soviet Far East presence. After taking the Japanese surrender, the area except the needed ports and railway was turned over to Mao’s communist forces. This explains why separate postal administration lasted into the first years of the PRC.

A treaty of Friendship was signed in 1950 was closely modeled on the one signed with the Chinese nationalists in 1946. It replaced that one and had some additional goodies for China. It allowed for the turnover of the Russian railway and the ports of Dalian and Lushun to China. These were some of the last enclaves of European colonialism except for Hong Kong and Macau and getting them back was an important accomplishment. The treaty also provided to China a 300 million dollar loan at a time when civil war recovery and supporting the invasion of Korea was a big expense to China. The treaty ran until 1979 but did not prevent the Chinese-Soviet communist doctrinal split after the end of Stalinism. Deng Xiaoping did not want to extend or have a new treaty with the Soviet Union. He was then anxious to attack Vietnam, a Soviet ally that the treaty would have prevented.

With Chinese troops pouring over the border into Korea pushing back America’s hard won victory over the North Koreans, the effect of the alliance was profound. The American General Macarthur was removed after suggesting a nuclear attack on China was the only military solution to the Chinese onslaught. Instead the line was stabilized into trench warfare very near the original North-South border until a cease fire was finally arraigned in 1953. Chinese troops in North Vietnam in the 60s also kept America from bringing that war to a successful conclusion, showing how important the treaty was. War with China now meant World War III.

Well my drink is empty and I wonder how scary the early 1970s pictures of Nixon and Mao were to the Soviet Union. Very scary I am sure,  No stamp of that though, the closest I could find was the Chinese ping pong stamp. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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The United Nations wants to help you with your factory, or did until the developed world realized the implications

Today we look at the cycle of the United Nations. The initial promise, the flawed execution, the abandonment, and then the reassessment to perhaps justify a continuation. 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 the first United Nations stamp I have covered. It is a great period piece of a different time. Factory smokestacks spewing not pollution but streams that turn into arrows signifying economic growth. It makes one want to join Gregory Peck and don the grey flannel suit. Notice also the acronym on the stamp. It is the French acronym for the organization. The lower denomination of the stamp issue is similar but has the English acronym UNIDO. Remember French and English are the international languages of diplomacy.

Todays stamp is issue A98, a 13 cent stamp issued by the United Nations in New York City on April 18th, 1968. It was a two stamp issue that celebrated the forming of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in 1966. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents, mint or used either denomination of the issue. Sometimes with collectibles, things go up in value as they become seen as a failed period piece. This stamp may have a shot at such a revival.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization arose out of whiz kid studies done for the Secretary General’s office in the 1950s. With so many new nations forming at the end of the colonial period, a universal plan for quick industrialization of the new countries was imagined. Expert help, capital, and help meeting international standards so goods could be exported were all parts of the plan. You have to admire the audacity of thinking they could actually pull something like that off. Remember though the 1950s was a more optimistic time. The Secretary General realized quickly that the task at hand was great and a dedicated organization was required, so one was formed in 1966.

This was something that the third world was highly in favor of. A UN organization would work most easily with the kind of socialist operations that were being envisioned by the new countries. A group of 77 such countries banded together in Lima, Peru during 1976 calling for more resources and setting the specific goal that 25 percent of the worlds industrial output originate from their countries. This may seem an understandable, low short term goal to the developing world that still had great hopes for the future now that they were setting their own path. To the developed world it crystalized that production was to them a zero sum game and the goal was to take from the rich and give to the poor. Such a pose cannot be received well by the people of the developed world, who were implicitly being asked to provide resources for the effort.

A large bureaucracy was formed in Vienna that absorbed much of the rich country largesse. The work of the agency did not successfully develop any of the 77 counties. Indeed UNIDO did little to keep going the socialist enterprises as economic reality struck in the 80s and 90s. During the 90s, the USA, the UK, France, Canada, and Australia all withdrew from the organization. The organization still continues with 700 employees and a budget of 500 million Euros, paid for mainly by Germany, Japan and Scandinavia. It has refashioned itself with talk of sustainable development and renewable energy, so a President Trump probably wouldn’t have much success gaining UN funding for a scheme to bring smokestack factories back to the Midwest. Even if he allowed solar panels on the roof. An office building filled with children of the rich bureaucrats in a swank, jet set, European city. Now you are talking about something more realistic.

Gerd Muller, new head of UNIDO takes office and the fancy folder. He just left office in Germany with the change of government where he distributed German aid. There his result was doubling the budget with no mention of results of the distributions. The two masked people are probably the flower arraigners.
Li Yong the old boss of UNIDA. In China he harmonized fiscal and industrial policy. More on point, but notice the fancy building behind him is no factory

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering what the former whiz kids thought when reality hit later and they were more mature. Something like the executers were not as smart as the planners, or was it always just a scam to get set up royally in Vienna. A little bit of that modern pessimism seeping in. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Finland remembers Toivo Kuula for adding music to the new national identity

There is an old slogan from the Fennoman independence movement. Swedes we are not, Russians we can never be, therefore Finns we must be. 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.

Todays stamp does a good job in telling the story of Kuula with just a picture. A very serious younger man of some class portrayed in a country setting. After all an areas natural culture arises from peasants in the countryside and then formalized by a more serious and educated upper class in the city.

Todays stamp is issue A356, a 30 Markka stamp issued by Finland on July 7th, 1983. The stamp celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of classical piano and choral composer Toivo Kuula. According to the Scott catalog, the single stamp issue is worth 40 cents used.

Toivo Kuula was born in Finland and studied under legendary Finnish composer Jean Sebelius. Though he had experience as a conductor and an unfinished symphony at the time of his early, unexpected death, he was most famous for his choral works that were usually accompanied by piano and perhaps a small string section.

The Finland of Kuula’s youth was a Grand Dutchy that pledged allegiance to Czarist Russia. The people still had many ties to neighboring Sweden including language. Rising up from the peasant class was a unique local culture and language that many hoped could form the basis for a new independent Finland that was free of both Russia and Sweden.

Part of this is a movement to make more formal the local peasant culture that often included stirring, patriotic, and romantic songs sung in local dialects around the campfire at the end of a hard days work in the fields. I recently did a Yugoslav stamp featuring Vuk Karadzic who was doing similar work in Serbia. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/30/communist-yugoslavia-1950-sells-off-the-invalid-exile-stamps/ . Ataturk in Turkey was doing similar things. He went so far as to bring in Austrians to do classical arrangements of the Turkish peasant campfire songs. The challenge of course is to keep the passion and local flavor of the music intact as it is turned into something played in a opera house. According to the music critics of the day, Kuula pieces such as “The maiden and the Boyar’s son.” and “The sea-bathing maids” did a good job of this. Kuula’s teacher Sibelius famously said “Don’t listen to critics, they don’t make statues for critics”. He has a point and after listening to a few of the pieces I wonder if Kuula did a better job with titles than the music itself.

Finnish peasants dancing. You have to start somewhere.

Kuula did not live to enjoy an independent Finland he was so in favor of. He was partying in a hotel on a Saints festival day when he was hit by a stray bullet fired from a group of nearby Jagers.  Jagers were independence fighters that were Finns trained and funded by Germany as a way to shrink and weaken Russia. They were successful in breaking Finland off from chaotic revolutionary 1917 Russia and the soon after the collapse of Germany prevented Finland from becoming a German stooge. Interesting to me that Germany was behind the independence movement, I had detected some German influence in the music of Kuula as well. Why do locals so often get co-opted by outside forces?

The Jaegers when they were organized as a battalion of the German Army. Recruited from Finland they were released from German WWI service in the Baltics to fight for Finnish independence and kill Kuula

Well my drink is empty. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Sri lanka 1974, Madame Prime Minister would like you to remember her late husband

Breaking away from the colonial power is hard. For how much do you throw away or at least pretend to. 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 stamp today does not give away many clues to the world wide philatelist. The former prime minister on the stamp was assassinated years before with his widow taking over his political party. The early 70s saw her and her party back in power and soon follows a tribute to her late husband. All well and good and domestic philatelists can follow what is happening. For world wide collectors more investigation is required to know what is going on. Sounds like a job for The Philatelist.

over and over PM Sirimavo Bandaranaike. In the stamp she asks you to remember her husband. Her daughter then remembered her after she was elected President, (other guy assassinated even), and gave her another term as PM in her old age

Todays stamp is issue A168, a 15 cent stamp issued by the Peoples Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on September 25th, 1974, It was a single stamp issue honoring S.W. R. D. Bandaranaike, the then current Prime Minister’s late husband and former Prime Minister himself from 1956-59. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents whether mint or used. If you have the later version with 15 cents blotted out and 25 cents in it’s place, you are in luck because that version is worth $7.

Ceylon got it’s independence from Britain in 1948. The people to whom power was given were those who had participated in the colonial administration. So the British first names and Oxford educations did not mean a lot to vast bulk of the people  that were not participating in the tea plantation based economy except as exploited workers. This lead to much tumult in the 1950s.

I suppose a true grass roots movement could have formed but instead why not have the feelings coopted by those in power. There was a natural divide as many of the new leaders had come back from their Oxford education as indoctrinated socialists. Since socialism is of course in favor of the worker and happy to take on affectations of local nationalism, it seemed a great fit. Solomon Bandaranaike was just such a leader. He was the son of a knighted colonial administrator and when his party won the election he was ready to give his country full independence.

The Knighted patriarch of the family. Soloman Bandaranaike. Nice uniform in the Kandy tradition
What the fun of being colonial stooges if you don’t score an English style stately home built for patriarch Soloman and still in the family.

Well at least he was willing to do the standard socialist things. The British were blamed for troubles and the English and Indian Tamil languages were targeted. The tea plantations were nationalized and instead of being closed down or privatized among true locals the exploited workers were now being exploited on behalf of the state. British military bases were closed and even the local military was targeted as a bastion of colonial sympathy, which was true but now a thought crime. Eventually the name of the country was changed and notably not to Kandy, the name of the place before colonization.

Naturally policies like this made a lot of enemies and soon Mr. Bandaranaike was assassinated. Not by the British, by then they didn’t care enough, but by gunman working for the Indian minority that were a left over from the colonial period. Remember how small the elite of independent Ceylon was. The two large parties were both in the hands of single families. Mrs Bandaranaike became the worlds first female Prime Minister and continued and intensified her late husbands policies. This perhaps would be a better milestone for female empowerment if it were not just nepotism and a would be cult of personality.

Economic output dropped and the UK and USA aid dried up as there was ever more socialism and by extension opposite side cold war posturing. Eventually the Tamil rebelled and the decimated military was not in a good place to fight it, so it dragged on and on. Also going on and on was the families political party which later featured such diverse leaders as the Bandaranaike’s son and daughter, who show their solidarity with the people by no longer having British first names.

Well my drink is empty and my learned musing/screed above might be thought of as pro British. It is actually the opposite. As the colonial power, it was their job to lift up all the people and not just a small elite. It was also a crime to permanently change the demographics of the place for their own convenience without a thought to what that meant for the future peace. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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Gold Coast 1948, Christianborg Castle is readied for it’s last turnover

As trade developed along the African coasts, forts and castles were built along the coast to protect the traders. Eventually a Danish one became the seat of government of independent Ghana. So slip on your amoking 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 we have another of the late colonial period stamps that I call the victory lap stamp. They feature the British Monarch and views of the colony. This one is a little different. Christianborg Castle was not built by the British, instead it was bought from the Danes who first built it. It still does celebrate the shift in power toward the coast and the building of a distinct nation separate from old tribal rivalries.

Todays stamp is issue A10, a 2 penny stamp issued by the then British Crown Colony of the Gold Coast in 1938. It was part of a thirteen stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. A mint 5 Shilling stamp from this issue is worth $65.

The Gold Coast, as the name implies, started along the coasts and slowly moved inland. It was first found by the Portuguese in 1471 but later Danes, British and Germans were involving themselves with the gold and slave trade. The Ashanti tribe was heavily involved in both and retained control of inland areas. Eventually The British bought out the Danes and made an alliance with the Fente and Ga tribes in opposition to the Ashanti. There were four Anglo-Ashanti wars that ended the slave trade and raiding and allowed for more advanced gold mining. The Ashanti had just panned for gold.

The colony went along pretty well. Cocoa trees were brought in and became the areas main cash crop. The British were ruling indirectly with many aspects left to tribal councils. There was also much infrastructure including roads, railroads, schools and hospitals. Unlike so many colonies, promising locals were given English educations at no cost to them. A British lead Gold Coast military served in both world wars.

This work did much to build a country but also lead toward independence. The newly educated and veterans were not part of the tribal system that British had coopted. Urban centers like Accra outside this Castle built up with such people and they wanted change, both away from the tribal councils and the British. It was perhaps a mistake to turn over power to this new elite instead of through the more traditional African tribal system as the result after independence was a theoretical republic but in reality a strongman who changes more often with coups and less with voters. We can’t know how it would have worked if the tribal system had been retained post independence but Gold Coast grew much faster in the first half of the 20th century than Ghana did in the second half.

Christianborg Castle was built by the Danes in 1661 and named after King Christian. It was later sold to the Portuguese and at one point conquered by the Ashanti before being resold to Denmark. In 1860 the Danish sold the castle and other Gold Coast interests to the British. In the late nineteenth and early 20 century the castle was rebuilt with wood upper floors to operate better as an administrative center for the Gold Coast Colony. After independence, the castle was the seat of the new government and was renamed Osu Castle after the Accra township. About 10 years ago, Ghana took out a 50 million dollar loan from India to construct a new Palace called Jubilee House. The old castle is to be opened to tourists who will want to see the reminders of the old slave and gold trade that make up the castle’s long history.

The replacement Jubilee House. Having spent $50 million of India’s dollars on it, Ghana seems to have fired the gardener.
With Osa Castle now opened for tourists, the name has reverted to Fort Christiansborg. Ghana hopes to honour/cash in on the history by building an upscale office and residential complex on the grounds.

Well my drink is empty. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Imperial British East Africa Company 1890, Another Company fails to administer a colony

Trying to go beyond trading posts gets complicated. In theory building some infrastructure could multiply trade but involves more capital than quick returns. 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.

Todays stamp is not much to look at. The sun and crown are supposed to be symbolical of light and liberty. Whose light and liberty is not clear. If Great Britain truly cared about the area, they wouldn’t have sold off the rights to make something of it. The few adventures that came to make their fortune must have felt quite alone. Since the company was in possession of a Royal Charter, perhaps Queen Victoria would have been better placed on the stamp. The idea that the head of the most powerful nation on earth was on your side and looking out for you might have raised your confidence.

Todays stamp is issue A4, an eight Anna (Indian) stamp issued by the Imperial East Africa Company in 1890. It is part of a 17 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $6.75. A grey version of this denomination is worth $350. The blue version I have if it were overstampted British East Africa after the failure of the company is worth $115. If they mistakenly inverted the overstamp, the value goes to $8000.

Great Britain was awarded the territory of modern Kenya and Uganda by the treaty of Berlin in 1885. It was previously under the Sultan of Zanzibar. British goals at the time were more to do with southern Africa so the area was on the back burner. Sir William Mackinnon, a Scotsman who made a shipping fortune based on steamers that plied their trade first in the Bay of Bengal and later extending out to Aden, Zanzibar, and Mombasa in the new British territory. He proposed a company that would build a railroad and road between Lake Victoria and Mombasa to expand the ivory and agricultural trade while stamping out the still widespread slave trade and bringing Christianity to the local tribes. This was quite a tall order but the capital raised was far below what was needed.

The Imperial British East Africa company managed to set up administrative offices in Mombasa and hire Fredrick Lugard, a noted soldier and explorer. His task was to map out a route for a railway to Lake Victoria, build forts along the way and make treaties of friendship with local tribes along the way. To do this he was provided a supply of pre printed treaties that were enforceable by the British Empire. Interestingly, Lugard found that the most useful part of the treaty signings was a blood brother ceremony with tribal chiefs where both men receive small cuts that are bound together so that blood is shared. True to the shipping heritage a steamer was built in Scotland in kit form to use on Lake Victoria once the railroad was able to bring it.

Blood Brother and Baron Fredrick Lugard. One founded the most prestigious University in China and one is today honoured with new statues and roads named for him. Can you guess?
Blood Brother and Agikuyu Chief Waiyaki Wa Hinga

Shortage of funds saw to it that progress on the railroad was slow. The interference in the local slave trade also angered local chiefs including Waiyaka Wa Hinga who was a blood brother of Lugard. This did not stop him from plundering and burning the fort Lugard had constructed nearby in preparation for the railroad. Lugard had to put together a new expedition to put down Wayaki Wa Hinga and other unruly chiefs. The expedition captured and killed Wayaki Wa Hinga and put down the rebellion but in doing so bankrupted the Imperial East Africa Company.

An 1892 cartoon in Punch magazine casting the expense of Uganda as a white elephant

William Mackinnon proposed abandoning the operation, but Lugard convinced British Prime Minister Gladstone to continue the efforts there as British East Africa. They eventually got the railroad built and got the ship, that had sat in kit form in a wharehouse in Mombassa for 10 years operating on Lake Victoria as intended. The area became a British  protectorate in 1894 and the Crown colonies of Kenya and Uganda in 1920.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to Willian Mackinnon and Fredrick Lugard for trying to accomplish an impossible task. There was enough of his fortune left upon Mackinnon’s death in 1893 to endow a scholarship fund that to this day funds educational bursaries to young men from the Scottish West Highlands. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Honduras 1987, Always a sucker for Latin American leaders in a sash

Finding the formula for good government in small poor countries is always a challenge. In the late 80s, Honduras tried to be more democratic and were I Honduran, I would have joined 27 percent of Hondurans who voted for the man with the sash. So 27 percent though, and he won? 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 like this stamp as a sort of mildly updated Latin American stamp of old. It usually was easy to distinguish left from right with just a portrait of the politician. A man of the right will deck himself out as a dime store fake Mussolini. A man of the left will put himself forward as a dime store Che Guevara. Today it is not so easy as there are more women involved in politics and the current generation is too self conscious to wear a costume. Already here in 1987 you see President Azcona wearing his sash with an ordinary business suit rather that a proper tuxedo.

Todays stamp is issue C754, a .85 Lempira airmail stamp issued by Honduras on February 2nd, 1987. It was a two stamp issue showing then President Jose Azcona del Hoyo and the Honduran flag on the first anniversary of the peaceful democratic transfer of power. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents in it’s used condition.

Honduras was more peaceful in the 80s than the countries around it such as Nicaragua and El Salvador. Both of the latter were plagued with well funded insurgencies acting out cold war politics. The Honduran military had done a better job clamping down on left wing elements and so was more stable. This allowed the USA to pay Honduras large sums to rout aid to the right wing contras through Honduras. The aid allowed the military to gain strength with American F5 fighters, C130 transports and Huey helicopters and Israeli training to use them properly.

Large amounts of aid from a superpower inevitably have strings attached and soon there was much pressure to  democratize. So in 1986 there was an election with very mixed results. The right of center political party could not get it’s act together and fielded four separate candidates, including Azcona. The left of center party had only one candidate who got 46 percent of the vote, the highest by far percentage. Instead of him winning or perhaps going to a runoff the vote totals of the four right wing candidates were combined and the one with highest vote total, Azcona at 27 percent. became president. This suited America well, as he was the pro business, more Spanish less indigenous leader they prefer to deal with. He was even raised in Spain.

Wondering about door number two with more votes but no sash, meet Rafael Callejas. He was later President and expanded welfare and kicked out the contras. He also won his 52 percent of the vote with the help of 300,000 dead Honduran voters and was indicted for corruption and even pled guilty to it in his later work in soccer administration. Everybody now sing; You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life in Honduras.

Azcona’s term was less than successful. The Nicaraguan and El Salvadoran civil wars were winding down and with it aid from the USA. Azcona tried to be pro business development by trying to peg the Honduran currency to the USA dollar to prevent capital flight. This resulted in huge deficits and was ultimately unsuccessful. With more democracy it was harder to clamp down on decent and therefore the opposition became more violent. At the same time the military was shrinking and with less politics to argue about young disaffected youth turned to gang crime. This has been a plague throughout Central America and unfortunately one they seem intent on exporting north. It might make some want to build a wall.

Well my drink is empty. I paged forward in the Scott catalog and in 2005 there was another stamp of a then current Honduran President proudly wearing a sash. Good job, be proud of who you are. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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Italy 1930, getting youth excited about Virgil

Mythology is filled with stories of romance, heroism, and adventure. A great way to get youth reading, and maybe collecting stamps. 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 stamp today is sponsored by a youth organization promoting the study of mythology. The story presented on the stamp has war, adventure, and romance. The presentation on the stamp is so formal and old fashioned, that I wonder if the effect is lost on the youth of the day. The stamp designers clearly loved the subject matter so their reverence can be forgiven.

Todays stamp is issue A106, a 1.25 Lira stamp issued by the Kingdom of Italy on October 21st, 1930.  The stamp features Anchises and his sailors first viewing Italy after the fall of Troy. The stamp was part of a 9 stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the bimillenary of the birth of Virgil. The stamp was sponsored by the National Institute Figli del Littorio and the higher denominations of this issue included a surcharge benefiting them. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $12 used.

The National Institute Figli del Littorio was a fascist scouting type organization that tried to get chapters started among those of Italian descent around the world. They were notably successful in Malta, where the mostly Italian people were under British rule. The real boy scouts of Italy had been banned and the Catholic youth organization had been severly restricted. School teachers were also heavily pressured to sign up the children. In 1937, the organizations both foreign and domestic were directly absorbed by the Gioventu Italian del Littorio, the youth arm of the then in power fascist party.

How you make mature adults embarrassed about youthful Scouting, politicize it. It would be nice to think it couldn’t happen again.

Long term readers might remember I was more sympathetic to a same era Soviet stamp on their similar Scout replacing Young Pioneers stamp. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/06/29/soviet-union-1936-the-young-pioneers-take-a-bite-out-of-crime/. Here I admit to being swayed by the fun stamp and the great period video on them that you can see below. Commenters please feel free to post videos of fascist scouts looking harmless. My German uncle was in the Hitler Youth in his youth and I remember gasps at an eighties family reunion at an old picture of the family dinner table with him in a scout uniform that did not benefit from the Nazi armband.

Anchises was a simple sheppard when he was spotted by the God Venus, who fell instantly in love with him. She disguised herself as a maiden girl and got  Anchises alone. He was overwhelmed by her attractiveness and she told him she was really a visiting Princess. Anchises was full of lust and he removed her clothing and they made love. Afterward Venus cast a sleeping spell on him and dressed herself. She then revealed herself as a God to Anchises. He begged to be killed as he thought nothing good could come from a mortal being with a God. She informed him that he would be okay and that she would bear him a son named Aeneas. The baby would be raised by nymphs until age five then brought to him.

Venus’s seduction of Anchises as imagined by artist Sir William Blake.

Anchises was instructed never to boast of seducing a God or he would anger Zeus. When he did later he was either killed or blinded depending on the telling. He still later featured in Virgil’s story of his son Aeneas. After the defeat of Troy, Aeneas with his father and fellow defeated Trojans went in search of a new home. There travels took them to Crete where many died. They then traveled to Sicily and Carthage. This story is told by Roman poet Virgil in his epic poem Aeneid. The story told the tale of how Aeneas became the father of the Romans. The poem was written about 25 BC.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another while I imagine myself being seduced by the Goddess of love. I have been married to her for 28 years and I have no fear of Zeus learning of it. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Confederate States of America 1862, Putting their live President on the stamps

When an area of a country breaks away some traditions fall away. One American tradition that ended in the Confederacy was not putting current leaders on postage stamps. 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 stamp today is the most common issue of the Confederacy. It featured an engraving of Confederate President Jefferson Davis by Ferdinand Joubert. The first 12,000,000 copies were printed in London by De La Rue and the shipment to Richmond included printing plates and paper to continue production of the stamp locally. The English paper ran out and the plates became worn so over time the quality of the printing deteriorated. I believe my copy is a later printing.

Todays stamp is issue A4, a five cent stamp issued by the Confederate States of America in 1862. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $7 mint but with no gum on the back. Gum would have doubled the value and it would have doubled again used. There is a mistake version of this stamp with the image of President Davis printed on both sides of the paper. It is worth $2,500.

The post office of the Confederacy is the department of the civilian government that functioned the best. The Postmaster John Reagan sent an agent to Washington with letters offering jobs to Union postal officials. Many accepted. The use of American stamps was banned after 7 weeks and local postmasters issued provisionals until the definitive stamp issues were ready. The postal rates were set higher than the Union, five cents on this stamp is the equivalent of $1.36 and only was good for a letter going less than 100 miles. The post offices stayed in operation until the end of the war.

Jefferson Davis grew up in Mississippi under wealthy circumstances. He served in the US Army in the Mexican War and owned a plantation that used slave labor. His first wife died of malaria after 3 months of marriage. After 10 years single Davis remarried the granddaughter of the governor of New Jersey and they had 4 children. He got into politics and served as Senator from Mississippi where he argued against succession. At a Constitutional Convention after succession. Davis was appointed the President of the Confederacy. The only other candidate considered was Robert Toombs of Georgia.

The war dragged on for almost 4 years when Confederate General Lee surrendered to Union General Grant. Davis and his cabinet escaped Richmond and headed south. The idea was to set up the government in exile in Havana and continue resistance in the large area of the South that was still controlled. Although the Confederate Treasury Secretary Judah Benjamin made it to Havana it wasn’t to be  and the Union caught up to Davis in Georgia. Southerners think the story that he was captured in female clothes trying to escape detection is a myth. He only had on his wife’s overcoat to keep off the cold. Okay then… He was held in irons awaiting trial for treason until Papal intervention and a large bail payment allowed his release.

A Yankee period image of the capture of on the run President Davis.

Davis lived for a time in Canada and Scotland before his legal troubles ended and he returned to the South. In Memphis, now separated from his wife he started an insurance company with former Confederate Officers as his agents. Davis also fought legally to reclaim his plantation which had been divided and rented out to his former slaves. Eventually his situation improved after the end of Reconstruction and Davis was able to write books and profit from Confederate nostalgia.

Weirdly to modern eyes, President Davis got an American stamp issue in 1970 in the Form of the Stone Mountain Memorial near Atlanta. In the last Georgia Governor’s election, Democrat candidate Staci Abrams proposed blasting the Confederate hero carving off the granite mountain in the style of the Afghan Taliban with their Buddhist stone relics. Abrams only lost the election by 20.000 votes.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Postmaster Reagan. Putting together a successful post office in a new country during a war must have been a big undertaking. I can forgive him for breaking tradition and including President Davis on the stamps. Just founding fathers would not have done enough to make clear the Confederacy was something new. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.