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French Occidental Africa 1906, General Faidherbe can’t give Maurel & Prom what they want

If a coastal trading post is successful as was Saint Louis in modern day Senegal, there will be a push from the trading houses to push inland. This potentially cuts out the middleman. General Faidherbe imagined a French African Empire stretching from the west coast of Africa to the Red Sea in the east. Therefore he did his best for the French trading house Maurel & Prom. 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 from one of the periods where wildly spread out colonies were jointly administered. Hence a French General whose activities were in Senegal on a stamp meant for the Ivory Coast. Around the time of independence there was a pan African hope that many of the nations could come together in large groupings as the French had done. It had not worked for France and the Africans themselves could not pull it off.

Todays stamp is issue A2, a 2 Centimes stamp issued for the French colony of Ivory Coast when it was part of French Occidental Africa in 1906. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2 whether used or unused. There are versions of this stamp issue where the Cote de Ivorie printing is doubled or omitted due to printing mistakes. This pushes the value up to $400.

The Saint Louis trading post in Senegal was quite successful. We covered a Senegal stamp telling the story of the bridge to Saint Louis herehttps://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/20/senegal-1935-a-bridge-connecting-a-trading-post-becomes-a-symbol-of-a-city/  . By this period, the slave trade was over but there was still lucrative trading in cattle and peanuts raised by Africans and then sold in Saint Louis to the trading house Maurel & Prom. The trading was going on with both the Serer people of the African Empire of Sine and with nomadic Arabs from further north.

The trading house had the idea to push French inland. General Fadeherbe lead the expedition of about 300 French. He had taken a 15 year old native girl named Sidibe who bore him a son and taught General Fadeherbe the local dialects. Moving inland brought conflict with the Empire of Sine. The Sine Army was defeated at the Battle of Logandeme in a few minutes. General Fadeherbe burned nearby villages as a warning and took over major areas. The King of Sine pleaded and threatened in an attempt to not lose the contested area. To loose the area would cut off access to British arms markets in Gambia, their only source of weapons. The King threatened to kill all white people in Senegal and all cattle headed to market in Saint Louis. The French kept the land.

The Sine Empire did manage to make the French pay a heavy price. No they did not kill all the white people but they destroyed many of the peanut fields, killed much cattle, and harassed French outposts. This of course ate enough of the profits that the expedition failed in it’s profit motive. France eventually began paying tribute to the Sine King in order to be left alone. This arrangement was in affect till 1969 when independent Senegal pulled recognition of the title.

The French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war saw many French Generals killed, captured or dismissed. A call went out for colonial officers to return to France. He took with him his son but left behind Sidibe. Once home the 40 year old General was promoted and married his 18 year old niece by his deceased older brother. She helped raise his son and bore him 4 more children. The General did not have as much luck with Prussia as with Sine and his army was destroyed at the Battle of St. Quentin. He retired from the Army and became a politician and author. Maurel & Prom still exist but now mainly do oil exploration.

Well my drink is empty and I have nobody to toast, the trading house was greedy, the General’s expedition foolhardy, and the Sine wanted to kill all the white people, of which I am one. Perhaps just this once I will toast myself for finishing another article. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Finland 1963, It might be time for a new airmail stamp, the DC-6 modern airliner is now old fashioned

Stamps sure can last along time. When this stamp was new in 1950, the DC6 was the new, fast, almost intercontinental airliner. By this version of the stamp in 1963, the DC-6 was out of date and just serving low cost charter Finnish airlines. 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.

Some might argue that an attractive image of an airplane over a winter wonderland is timeless. That the aircraft was old and not in domestic service only matters to plane nerds. To which I would point out that the stamp required two redrawings over the years to account for currency changes. Finland did not make this mistake on their next airmail issue. Instead the mistake was never making another airmail stamp.

Todays stamp is issue AP5, a 3 Markka stamp issued by Finland on October 10th, 1963. There are two versions of the this last version of this stamp with either 13 or 16 tiny lines through the zero number. My eyesight, even with magnification cannot tell which mine is. Thus there is mystery as to whether according to the Scott catalog my stamp is worth 30 or 40 cents used.

The DC-6 was launched in 1946 as the next development of the smaller DC-4. The plane could fly 300 mph, carried about 60 passengers, and introduced pressurization to enhance passenger comfort. It was almost intercontinental. It could fly nonstop from the east coast of the United States to Europe. From Europe to the USA facing head on the Atlantic’s westerly winds, required a fuel stop.

An early option was a sleeper version, where the daytime seats fold and a bed comes out where the overhead compartments would be. This version can be picked out by a few small circular windows at a higher level. The plane does not have that and may be of the longer freighter version. Some of those had passenger windows like the plane on the stamp, some did not. By 1960, most of the 704 DC-6s built were operating as cargo planes in the third world or in the USA as a firefighting water bombers.

You might notice that the DC-6 on the stamp has no livery. The model was not in service with the Finnish Air Force or Finnair, then known as Aero O/Y. It is not unusual for mail bags to go on foreign airlines, but not something you want to brag about on your stamps. This lack of DC-6s in Finland was rectified in 1961 when two now defunct vacation charter airlines, Karair and Finlantic took used passenger examples. Finland is still not done with the DC-6. A nose section of a plane formally in Canadian service has been restored in Finland and put on static display. Colorado has Finland beat, it was after all an American plane. One is used there statically as a kindergarden classroom.

Well my drink is empty. Come back soon when there is another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Philippines 1970, Trying to be self sufficient in steel, and failing

Smaller countries have to import a lot of things that are expensive and it becomes a force keeping you down. Soon after independence, the Philippines’ government built a large steel mill on Mindanao to replace imports of steel. The story shows how hard that is to pull off. 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.

A while back I did a similar stamp from India, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/11/21/india-1958-independant-india-will-be-great-building-on-the-success-of-people-like-j-n-tata/    . I complained about the pour printing not showing the steel mill to full effect. This stamp shows what is possible with more modern printing. You get a sense of what a massive operation the Iligan Steel Mill was.

Todays stamp is issue A214, a 10 Sentimos stamp issued by The Philippines on January 20th, 1970. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations showing off the Iligan Steel Mill. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents unused.

The steel mill was constructed by the government in 1952 an part of their National Shipyards and Steel Corporation. It was at the time the largest steel mill in southeast Asia, which remember excludes China and Japan. Operations commenced but were not efficient and lost a great deal of money for the government. The government owned management company then applied to the USA Export/Import Bank for a 60 million dollar loan. This seems a strange thing  to do as The Philippines was no longer a colony of the USA and the Export/Import banks job is to assist with American exports. The bank was not forthcoming with a loan but suggested instead that if the steel mill was in private hands the credit markets might be more open to it.

In 1962, the steel mill was sold for a small fraction of what it cost to a new firm controlled by the crony capitalist Jacinto family. For a time this succeeded in getting the mills losses off the governments books. Meanwhile the family used the steel mill as something to borrow against, not for investment in the mill but their lifestyle needs.

In 1974, the Jacintos having extracted what they could get out of the mill defaulted and the mill passed back to the government under a new government owned company, the National Steel Corporation. Losses continued and the government sold the mill off in the 1990s, with the Chinese owned Malaysian outfit, the Westmont Group, playing the part of the Jacintos. Apparently The Philippines had run out of domestic robber barons. The financial crisis in Asia in 1998 was the end for the Westmont Group and the Philippines had to nationalize the steel mill for the third time.

Hope for getting the losses off the books springs eternal and The Philippines again sold the steel mill to Ispat Industries of India in 2004. The financial crisis of 2008 was the end for the mill, as per usual, a great deal of money had been borrowed against it. Interestingly, the Singapore liquidators refused to take possession of the now closed steel mill as they would then be responsible for it. Ispat filed suit against their old bankers for not taking it, and the liabilities involved in owning it. This as greatly complicated the schemes of the local government and current potential robber baron SteelAsia. Closing it was the end. A new investor would have to put in a great deal of money to get it operating again. The point with all the prospective investors was to have some big shiny thing they could borrow against. Nobody believes making steel there could be profitable and the national government does not seem prepared to absorb the losses for the benefit of the workers or even the original import avoidance goal.

Well my drink is empty and I am ever more impressed by the private operators of steel mills around the world who keep them going year after year. This is quite an accomplishment when competing against others for whom losses don’t matter. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Czechoslovakia 1961, Novotony has another five year plan toward stagnation

Everything seemed to come  years late to communist Czechoslovakia. Here we have a 1961 five year plan to get industry beyond war rebuilding and on toward previous powerhouse status. Gee, shouldn’t that have come in 1951? Well not when it took Stalin until 3 years after his death to have his team in place. 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 a rolling mill bridge as part of a high tech textile plant. That this function is ever more automated shows the challenge facing the countries leadership. At the top of communist organizations there is often a quarrel between those up from the local trade union movement and the more intelectual, internationally aware aspects of the movement. Think Stalin versus Trotsky. Stalin would be looking at output and employment levels, while Trotsky might more be looking at showing off sophistication by say a trophy automated textile mill.

Todays stamp is issue A400, a 20 Haleru stamp issued by Czechoslovakia on January 20th, 1961. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations issued as part of the kickoff of the third 5 year plan to do with industrial development. This was the last stamp issue in connection with a five year plan initiation. Even the powers that be did no longer have their heart in it. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. This stamp was locally printed and not part of the farmed out for the international child collector so common at the time.

The area of Czechia had industrialized quite early and was considered the industrial heartland of the old Austria-Hungarian Empire. When it was down to just the ethnic German rumpstate of Austria in 1919, there were questions of joining Germany as the state would not be viable alone. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/07/19/gerrman-austria-1919-the-rump-state-no-one-wanted/ . Such an industrial powerhouse was then integrated heavily with the German industrial war effort of World War II. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/07/26/bohemia-and-moravia-1939-showing-off-batas-skyscraper-in-zlins-urban-utopia/ . The circumstances of how the Czechs fell to Germany in 1938-39 meant that the communist takeover post war was not so immediate as the prewar government in exile had more legitimacy. It took until 1948-49 for the communists to get a firm grip on things. Even here there was trouble as the same sort of phases happened. The first communists leaders were the old exiled fellows that were part of the 1920s Internationale movement. These were mainly Jewish intellectuals that were at odds  with Stalin’s industry first goals. Such people in the Soviet Union were purged in the 1930s but their fellow travelers managed to get in power in eastern Europe post war.  That the communist takeover was a few years late meant reindustrialization was begun off track. Stalin quickly got such leaders purged from eastern Europe, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/04/03/romania-1955-promoting-female-empowerment-or-just-stalin-in-a-skirt/   . Things again were behind schedule in Czechoslovakia and it was not until 1955, when Antonin Novotny a communist from the trade union movement was in power. By now however Stalin was himself dead and the Soviet Union was itself rethinking it’s industry first strategy.

The relative performance of the Czech five year plans show understandably poor performance compared to what might have been posible. Between 1948 and 1957 industrial output rose 170 percent. That sounds high but it must be remembered how low output was at the end of the war. To compare with actual industrial powerhouses, Germany and Japan were up about 300 percent in the same timeframe. Suddenly you no longer thought of the area as an industrial heartland. After the communists fell, more factories closed and the ones that stayed open were back to German ownership and the expertise being sought out in Czechia was the willingness to take less than western pay rates.

The lack of industry growth did not lead to total devastation as the country fell behind indusrially. The lefty internationalist intellectuals set up a film industry that was an important part of the New Wave Film movement that was also in France and Italy in the 1960s. Since in Czechoslovakia the films were part of official approved output, they benefited from higher budgets and professional studios more so than in the west. The uprisings of 1968 saw many of this group go into western exile. Simple industrial workers might be forgiven for feeling left out.

Well my drink is empty and I may pour another to throw at Antonin Novotny. He was pensioned off during the 1968 troubles after a more than a decade chance to turn around the difficult hand he was dealt. He forgot perhaps that the idea of the five year plan was that at the end you could measure results against goals. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

 

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USA 1948, Remembering the four Chaplains from the SS Dorchester after meeting U-223

The SS Dorchester was a cruise/transport ship that was converted to a troopship for war service. In 1943 it was headed for Greenland with 900 aboard, twice the cruising complement. It met it’s fate from a torpedo delivered by German U boat U223. About a quarter of the people aboard were saved by nearby coast guard cutters. A horrible loss for the USA. To lessen the blow, The USA made a big deal of four Chaplains, each of a different sect, who voluntarily gave up their life vests and perished. 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 idea that the leadership is the last to leave a distressed ship was the standard of seamanship. Remember the 3rd class females on the Titanic more likely to survive than higher deck first class men. Apparently such thoughts were slipping as the government decided to reinforce the former standard with the wonderfully politically correct act by the four chaplains of different faiths on the Dorchester. Sometimes an old standard needs reinforcement, as was shown by the recent Italian cruise ship disaster. Interestingly, the stamp design had to be modified before coming out, The four chaplains had not been dead for the required 10 years before a stamp can be issued. Thus their names were removed. Another rule that has since dropped away.

Todays stamp is issue A403, a 3 cent stamp issued by the USA on May 28rh, 1948. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

The SS Dorchester was built in 1926 and operated as a cruise and transport ship along the eastern coast of the USA between Miami and Boston. There were 300 passengers and 90 crew with a small capability to carry some freight. In early 1942 the ship began it’s war service with most of the same crew and still in private ownership. In 1943 there was a convoy headed for Greenland with 2 other cargo ships and three escorting Coast Guard cutters. The early morning torpedo hit came without warning and killed power to the steam engine. Thus the ship was not able to communicate it’s distress to escorts or even blow the abandon ship whistle. The water was so cold that it killed more than drowning but two of the coast guard cutters managed to save 230 of the 904 on board. The escorts were not attacked by the submarine U-223. The four chaplains who gave up their life vests and parrished were Rabbi Alexander Goode, Father John Washington, and Protestant ministers George Fox and Clark Poling. The ship sank in 20 minutes bow first, the opposite of what the stamp imagines.

U995, the only surviving Type VII U boat, at a Naval Memorial near Keil, Germany

U-223 was a Type VII German U-Boat constructed at Keil in 1942. The Type VII was the most common type of U-boat. It’s 1943 patrols in the North Atlantic saw it participate in 8 Wolfpacks. A Wolfpack was a tactic of mass attack by multiple subs on a convoy. The Sub would often try to avoid return fire by escorts after the attack by hiding underwater directly under the survivors in the water. U-223 sunk three ships of comparable size to the Dorchester. In another encounter  nearby depth charges forced the damaged sub to the surface and then it was shelled by British destroyer HMS Hesperus. It barely escaped badly damaged. The sub then transferred to the Mediterranean based at Toulon in occupied France. On March 29th, 1944 it was caught by three British destroyers off Palermo and sunk. In it’s last battle it sunk the British destroyer HMS Laforey. 23 of the submarine’s crew of 50 had lost their lives. The sub commander during the North Atlantic battles was Captain Lieutenant  Karl-Jurg Wachter. See also, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/09/09/germany-1943-u-boat-wolfpacks-bring-the-war-across-the-sea/     .

A later famous person was scheduled to be on SS Dorchester but missed the boat. Beat author Jack Kerouac was a merchant seaman and radioman on the ship. Right before sailing he received a telegram offering for Kerouac to play football at Columbia University. Later in the war the US Navy dismissed him from service after 7 days for being of indifferent character and processing a schizoid personality. Leave the fighting to real men I guess. They wouldn’t make decent beat authors anyway.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another for all those that died in the Battle of the Atlantic. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Orange River Colony, For a time, the British Race Patriot wins over the Afrikaner Bond

The British had a goal of a British sphere in Africa from Cape Town to Cairo. Opponents to this were not just found among African natives or rival European colonial powers. South Africa had many Afrikaner settlers of Dutch heritage, many who had already trekked north to give the British their space. At the turn of the 20th century, they turned and fought to keep what they built. To meet this challenge, the British administration turned to self proclaimed British Race Patriot Alfred Milner who dreamed of uniting British people who had gone far and wide, as England was weak without their congress. 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 Orange River Colony stamps do not resemble the earlier issues of the Orange Free State. For a while the old issues of the Boer free state were overprinted VRI for Victoria Regina Imperatrix to signify areas of British occupation. It was only in 1903 that the stamp printers were caught up enough to reflect the current situation and honour Edward VII.

Todays stamp is issue A8, a one penny issue of the British Orange River Colony in 1903. It was a 9 stamp issue in various denominations and the only definitive stamp issue of the Orange River Colony that lasted 10 years. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The previous independent Orange Free State was founded in 1854 by Afrikaner Boers of Dutch heritage whose main activity was farming. The area was about 60% black but those folks had no say in government though actual slavery was banned. The British vision of a south to north British sphere was put forth prominently by Alfred Milner, later Governor of the Orange River Colony. His credo is reprinted below not out of approval but to open a window into period thinking.

“I am a Nationalist and not a cosmopolitan …. I am a British (indeed primarily an English) Nationalist. If I am also an Imperialist, it is because the destiny of the English race, owing to its insular position and long supremacy at sea, has been to strike roots in different parts of the world. I am an Imperialist and not a Little Englander because I am a British Race Patriot … The British State must follow the race, must comprehend it, wherever it settles in appreciable numbers as an independent community. If the swarms constantly being thrown off by the parent hive are lost to the State, the State is irreparably weakened. We cannot afford to part with so much of our best blood. We have already parted with much of it, to form the millions of another separate but fortunately friendly State. We cannot suffer a repetition of the process.” Milner was left leaning and a member of the Labour Party.

The Viscount Milner

The Boers sensing the threat formed the Afrikaner Bond to defend themselves from this British threat and fought and eventually lost a string of Boer Wars that ended with the Orange River Colony. It came with attempts to make the place more British. The British military effort in the area was helped along by the discovery of gold in 1886. The resulting gold rush brought many new inland residents who were mostly British and referred to by the Boers as Uitlanders.

After the Boer war, many Boers pledged allegiance to the British Crown and in return were allowed to play a part in post war politics. By 1910, when the British colonies in South Africa formed a British Dominion as the Union of South Africa, many members of the Afrikaner Bond were playing a part and looking out for Boer interest, a process that Alfred Milner would have found suboptimum. Times change and then keep changing.

Well my drink is empty and I find myself reading  and rereading that man’s credo. Saying things frankly in that way is so alien. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

 

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New Zealand 1920, In Victory, New Zealand remembers the Maori volunteers

New Zealand, despite it’s far away location and small population, went all out in service to the victorious Empire during World War I. Over 10 percent of the population served overseas. Among them were many of the Maori tribe of Pacific islanders. Their participation was a little more complicated. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The portrait of the man is what drew me to this stamp. I assumed he was a deceased politician that is rivals had zinged by slipping in Devil’s horns on his stamp honour. The makings of a fun stamp. Thus I was disappointed when he turned out to be a Maori Chief. Even the most rabid colonialist would not portray a native that way, well maybe if New Zealand was a French colony. As confirmed on many later New Zealand stamp issues featuring Maori, their leaders wear their hair with small pony tails in that manner.

Todays stamp is issue A50, a one and a half pence stamp issued by New Zealand on January 27th, 1920. It was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the Victory of the British Empire in World War I. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp was worth 55 cents used.

New Zealand immediately began a large scale mobilization when World War I broke out in Europe in 1914. Though New Zealand’s first action involved removing Germans from Samoa where their landing was unopposed, the bulk of the troops served in Europe and especially the unsuccessful Gallipoli campaign in Turkey. The mobilization was massive with over 10 percent of the population serving overseas. The casualties were catastrophic. Of the 100,000 who served, 16,000 died and 41,000 more were injured. I did a New Zealand ANZAC monument stamp here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/16/new-zealand-expands-a-war-memorial/  . At first the force was all volunteer and was open to Maori tribesman. By 1916, conscription was introduced but not for the Maori. In 1917 the government tried to extend the conscription to Maori but faced strong opposition. No Maori was sent overseas as a conscript.

Self proclaimed Princess Te Puea was the niece of a Maori Chief who claimed to be their King and the daughter of an English land surveyor who busily maintained a Maori wife in addition to his English wife. Colonial life sure sounds hectic. Te Puea had a wild adolescence that included much drinking, fighting, and promiscuity. This left her unable to conceive a child, perhaps job one for a real Princess. Upon the death of her mother, she returned to her family and began pushing to have her title recognized by the New Zealand government and compensation of course for her myriad woes. She was a leader in the Kingitanga movement that not all Maori were a part of. She hit upon the attempt at Maori Army conscription and lead protests in Waikato, dramatically hiding Maori men from conscription that remember did not apply to them. The authorities suspected Te Puea of being really a German spy and pointed to German heritage on her families English side. Well that does sound royal.

After the war Princess Te Puea thought that living like a Queen might enhance her cause. She formed a steel guitar and hula band that toured named after a battle between Maori and colonials that the colonials rudely won. She also applied  to the government for funds to build a Maori Royal Court. Her funds were later cut off after it was found that funds given her had evaporated. She tried to take a one/third income tax Royal tribute from Maori followers of the Kingitanga movement but of course trying to collect taxes from the Maori was a fool’s game.

self proclaimed Princess Te Puea. No crown but they seemed to have given her a English Medal to feel more a part of things

Princess Te Puea fell into obscurity in her older years. She had fallen out with most other Maori leaders and made a big stink about New Zealand’s Centennial in 1940 when she was not given an equal footing with the British Governor General. She died in 1952.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the memory of those of all heritages that served in World War I. I have had some fun here with this con artist Princess, but the real tragedy was in quickly hurrying of to war without considering the consequences. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Laos 1977, Astronaut stamps become Cosmonaut stamps as the King goes for reeducation and the “Red” Prince becomes President

What to throw away and what to keep. For the communist Pathet Lao the ancient Royals had to go. Except not entirely. Laotian Royals had multiple wives and dozens of children. Among them were 3 “Red Princes” whose French educations left them followers of Ho Chi Minh. Perfect for a Communist head of state, with the slight nod that maybe not so much was changing. 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 of the last stamp issues of the Royal government of Laos honored American Apollo astronauts. There were no stamps at all for a year and a half and then when stamps came back, one of the first celebrates Soviet Cosmonauts. Different but just a little the same right. Except this issue cellebrates 60 years since the Bolchevick revolution in Russia. That is a pretty big hint that Pathet Lao was having it’s strings pulled form the outside, just like they accused the other side.

Todays stamp is issue A99, a 5 Kip stamp issued by Laos on October 25, 1977. During this period the stamps went under 2 names. Less political issues used Postes Lao. More political earned the full if clunky Republique Democratique Populaire Lao. the regime is still in power but last used the mouthful name on a stamp in 1982. This was a five stamp issue in different denominations that was also available in two different souvenir sheets. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents. The sovenir sheet that included this stamp is worth $6.00.

The Royal government faced a civil war virtually constantly after World War II. The Pathet Lao was openly communist but also claimed to be nationalist. The Royal government, having lasted through the French was seen as collaborators of colonialists. They perhaps were not helping their otherwise valid point by opening areas to North Vietnam’s military. After the USA left Vietnam in 1973 a treaty was signed in Laos that retained the King but had a coalition government including communists. This was not good enough and with South Vietnam and Cambodia falling in 1975 the Pathet Lao made their move. In August 1975 they marched into the capital unopposed with 50 women in front of the column. For a while the King stayed in the Palace. At the end of the year he submited his abdication but just moved to an apartment in Vientiane.

The Pathet Lao had their own Royals. Prince Souphanouvong was a lesser Royal born to a concubine in 1905. His paternal bloodline got him an education in Vietnam and then in France during the period of French Indo China. Such education of natives never leads them to love de Gaulle or even Petian. They instead all seem to become followers of Ho Chi Minh. Prince Soupanouvong returned to Laos a Red Prince and was made a General Secretary of the Pathet Lao political arm. Power to the People!

With the abdication of the real King, Souphanouvong stopped calling himself Prince and the Communist named him President, a non executive head of state. The now ex King was even named his Supreme Adviser. Power to the People. The real commies could not however stomach still having the King around. There was still some fighting in the countryside mainly eminating from the Hmong minority. Remember them from the Eastwood movie “Gran Torino.” Worrying that the King would leave the capital and lead an uprising, The Royal Family was rounded up and sent to a re-education camp. It was announced in 1978 that all the Royals died simultaneously from malaria. Well we know today that there are deadly Asian bugs around.

None of this affected Soupanouvong. In fact even in the re-education camp he would still visit and consult with the ex King. As the eighties went along, the country came less controlled by Vietnam and reopened again to tourism and trade with Thailand. After Soupanouvong retired in 1991, Laos decided that no longer needed Royals to serve as head of state. They do after all have that susceptibility to malaria.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast big families, they help a family adopt and get on. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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South Africa 1991, as we wind it down, why not some achievements to inspire the next bunch

I while back I did a South African stamp from the early 60s as they started to try to go it alone that made the case why it could work, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/21/south-africa-1966-a-tiny-minority-can-go-it-alone-because-they-have-diamonds-but-do-they/  . In 1991 the writing on the wall was more clearly read and South Africa was transitioning to majority rule. So why not look back at some things South Africa achieved going it alone. There was stuff to talk about, like gold mines, but how about medical breakthroughs. Stamps can teach this stamp collector. 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 achievement of the first human to human heart transplant in 1967. There was a 1969 stamp showing Dr. Christian Barnard the man who performed it. He gained some notoriety after the achievement and his behavior perhaps is why he was edited out here. As a white South African on the world stage, the world simply demanded that he condemn his own country. He duly Shat on his country even going on a black Africa tour to do it. He of course wanted a Nobel Prize and probably was personally politically liberal. It did not work. He did not get a Nobel. The bow and scrape dance must have earned Dr. Barnard much credibility among South Africa’s majority? No his death in 2001 did not merit a memorial stamp. Interestingly, at least to me, was that his liberal 1960s position was that South Africa should be divided to give blacks homelands, the 1980s policy, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/20/bophuthatswana-1985-the-tswana-people-get-industrious-in-the-bop/  .

Todays stamp is issue A276, a 25 cent stamp issued by South Africa on May 30th, 1991. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog. the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Dr. Christian Barnard was trained and practiced in Cape Town. A hospital in Minnesota, having had good luck with another South African doctor, sought more and got Dr. Barnard for a few years, There he became involved in a top flight heart institute. The field of transplanting hearts seemed life changing. In 1954, the heart of a chimpanzee had been transplanted into a human and beated but the man died 90 minutes later never having woken up. Probably for the best that. Several teams in America and now Barnard’s team in South Africa transplanted one dogs heart into another. A small percentage lived. Dr. Barnard in 1967 was ready to try on humans. He convinced those involved there was an 80% chance of success. The heart of a brain dead 25 year old woman that had been hit by a car was put in a 57 year old man near death from hypertension and diabetes. In the women’s last minutes she had ice water poured in her ear to look for any reaction. The transplant was successful and the man woke up with the new heart. He died a few weeks later from pneumonia brought on by the anti rejection drugs.

Dr. Barnard in 1969

Dr. Barnard was now famous. He divorced his wife and married a string of young models. He even claimed to have had a one night stand with Gina Lolabrigida  while in Rome to have an audience with the Pope. His reputation sank over time as it became obvious that heart transplants were not a long term success for patients. He further lowered himself when he began promoting an anti aging creme. Country’s don’t get to cast their heroes

The reason heart transplants didn’t work is theorized that the patients brain had adjusted to the original damaged heart and those instuctions continued to the new healthy heart. Soon enough the new heart was itself bad.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the team at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. It still exists and still uses that name. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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USA 2020, This is a REAL stamp. Hmmmm…..

I got this in the mail from a charity. This label showed though a clear window on the envelope with a big “This is a real stamp” and an arrow to it, see below. Whether it is or not is a good question. 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 envelope I got

Stamps. com allows you to download an image and have it printed on their shipping label. The Paralyzed Veterans of America, a charity I do support, hoped that by including a stamp you are more likely to return their request for a donation. Their logo of a wheelchair bound veteran/soldier saluting is included. Interestingly the request included a no postage necessary business reply mail envelope so they wanted you to return the label to them unused. To me this is not a good message from the charity. They will spend any donation I give soliciting more donations rather than on helping the American hero in the wheelchair.

While this has no value to a collector. Remember the old stamp collecting rule, if it is not in the catalog, it is not a real stamp. So we have the basic argument between collector and postal patron. The patron will remind you that this will get your letter mailed, so case closed. I disagree, so will a metering label but people understand that is not a stamp. It does have a value of 55 cents though, and that is more than twice the catalog value of most of the stamps in my collection.

Stamps.com was founded in 1996 in El Segundo California by three Masters of Business Administration candidates at the University of California at Los Angeles. The original name was Stampsmaster but it was the bubble stock market dot com era and the name was quickly changed. Interesting that no stamp dealer had grabbed stamps.com. When I started this site nearly 3 years ago, I had to put the dash in the domain because I couldn’t get thephilatelist.com. The dash probably cuts my views in half. Well enough of my whining, lets get back to the go go big money 90s. In a year and half the company had received 36 million dollars of angel investor funding, including a personal investment from American Postmaster General Marvin Runyon. They then, still within the year and a half, cashed out with an ipo in the public market that raised over 50 million dollars. The postal service was working with them on private but official postage delivered over the internet. The iffy double dealing with the Postmaster saw the law changed to allow advertising on the internet label-stamps.

Then Postmaster General and former Ford and Nissan executive Marvin Runyon. His nickname was Marvelous Marv.

After the dot com bust, stamps.com realized what the postal service or any stamp dealer could have told them. Stamps are a small margin business with declining volume over time. They still exist as they have diversified by buying shipping companies but are loosing money.

The download your own picture to our label model was spoofed in 2004 by the celebrity mug shot website, thesmokinggun.com. They successfully ordered USA legal stamps with images on them of notorious figures like Slobodan Milosovich and Monica Lewinsky of blue dress fame. Stamps.com refined their rules to ban any vintage image.

Well my drink is empty and I think I will have a few more while I ponder angel investors with big money interested in money losing stamp websites. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.