Category: Uncategorized

Categories
Uncategorized

Russia 1970, An Imperial era Cruiser Aurora, just keeps surviving if not her Captains

The early 20th century was an embarrassing time for the Russian Navy. There was an embarrassing defeat by Japan, a deadly friendly fire incident where fishing boats were mistaken for ridiculously far from home Japanese torpedo boats and this cruisers most famous shot was a blank fired under mutiny. 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 older Naval warships from the naval construction race are quite strong looking and indeed an important role for them was to project power. They had huge crews so large hulls, they were armor plated unlike modern ships and the multiple large cannons are more visually powerful than modern shipboard missile silos.

This stamp is issue A1800, a three Kopeck stamp issued by the Soviet Union on July 26th, 1970. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations showing ships of the Soviet Navy. The Aurora was 70 years old at the time of the stamp but was still a navy ship with a crew and captain to maintain the ship and handle tourists and ceremonial functions, the other vessels in the stamp set were modern. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

The Aurora was launched in 1900 after being constructed in Saint Petersburg. It was a 6000 ton cruiser with a crew of 650 and part of the three ship Pallada class that were designed for Pacific ocean service. As a new ship, the sailors aboard had inadequate training. In 1903, the ships set out for Port Author in the Russian far east to reinforce the ships there. While on route in the Red Sea, there were second thoughts and the heavier ships were called back. Once back home in Saint Petersburg, there were third thoughts and the ships were again ordered to the Pacific accompanied by much of the Baltic fleet.

It was here that lack of training caused a disaster. Spotting several British fishing trawlers from Hull in the North Sea, they were confused with Japanese torpedo boats and fired at. Then the fleet went into chaos firing wildly at friendly ships. Aurora was lightly damaged and lost two sailors including the ship’s chaplain.

Arriving in the Pacific the force then faced the Japanese fleet. The fleet of this period Japan was mainly British built and trained and had new tech range finders that made their big guns more accurate. The Battle or Tsushima was devastating for the Russians. Many ships were damaged or sunk with the two top admirals and many ship’s captains, including the Aurora’s dying. The damaged Aurora was made a flagship and protected some smaller and slower vessels running from the Japanese fleet. The force made it to neutral Manila and was interred there for the rest of the war.

After the post war return, Aurora was made into a much needed training ship. However a ship full of young cadets many of whom were politically radicalized was not much good to the Czar. In the February 1917 Revolution, the ship mutinied and her captain was killed to be replaced by a sailor elected from the crew. In November 1917, the mostly Bolshevik crew fired one blank round that signaled to the city the beginning of the attack on the winter palace.

The ship’s crew picked the winning side in 1917, so was awarded this Order of the October Revolution

The 20s-40s saw the ship again engaged in training duties and friendly show the flag foreign visits. During the Siege of Leningrad from 1941-1944, the ships 6 inch cannons were removed to form an onshore battery and the ship was heavily damaged from air strikes. Refurbished post war it resumed as a training ship before being parked permanently as a tourist ship. Firing the first (blank) shot of the 1917 revolution is thought quite noteworthy.

To last so long the ship has had much work done. In the late 1980s, the below waterline hull was cut off to be replaced by a new hull created from the original ships drawings. The old hull was sunk to create a reef. In 2013 it was suggested to by the Russian Defense Minister that the Aurora be named flagship of the Russian fleet and resume showing the flag foreign visits. The ship was duly taken to it’s original shipyard and refurbished but then instead just returned to it’s Saint Petersburg home to continue to receive tourists. Not many ships from this era survive. One that does is the Japanese battleship Makasa, that the Aurora faced at the battle of Tsushimi. Keeping these old ships painted and afloat is expensive but there are many fans. In 2009 the Makasa was fully repainted by volunteers from the current American aircraft carrier Nimitz. Admiral Chester Nimitz had previously promoted saving the Makasa during the American post war occupation.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast those that keep these giant monuments to history afloat. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

Categories
Uncategorized

Benin 1997, The Renaissance is limited to the capitol

One question that arises when there is a dictator for life. With whom do you replace him. Domestic and international pressured opposition to be allowed in government. The new politicians were promising a Renaissance. 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 bird on this stamp has nothing to do with Benin. The stamp uses the old name carduelis spinus. The more modern term is the Eurasian siskin or the more common name Black-headed goldfinch. It is not endangered and winters in southern Europe and summers in northern Europe and Siberia. Saint Petersburg in Russia has surpassed even Benin in honoring the black-headed goldfinch. There is a frequently stolen and replaced statue of the bird. The reason the statue is frequently stolen is that the birds coloring resembles the uniform of a prominent local school.

Todays stamp is issue A284, a 150 Franc stamp issued by Benin on July 30th, 1997. It was a six stamp and one souvenir sheet issue in various denominations honoring songbirds. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents cancelled to order. In the early 2000s, a large group of Benin issues were declared fake and some old issues were overstampted for use. The overstamp included a lower denomination but of course that does not mean that the Benin franc appreciated. For some reason the catalog claims value of the overprinted version up at $80.

This area of the west African coast was changed a great deal both by colonialism and the end of the slave trade. The French built the new capital on the coast with their administration centered there. This was both a draw and a displacement of the local tribes. The end of the slave trade saw European navies trying to stamp out the trade still going on with independent Brazil.

Soon ship fulls of Afro Brazilians began to be deposited all along the coastal ports. They became a separate ethnic group than began to achieve far higher levels of economic development than their numbers would indicate.

From 1972-1992 Benin was ruled by Dictator Matheou Kerekou. He was an avowed Marxist and changed the name of the country from Dahomey to Benin. The French had used the name Dahomey but it was also the name of the place before them. The name change was hoped  to better represent the tribes of the interior. Can’t have that.

It will surprise nobody that Benin did not become a worker’s paradise. The end of the Cold War provided an opportunity for the put upon Afro Brazilian merchant class to rise. The sudden end of Eastern bloc aid was a blow and the early 90s was a period of donor fatique. Nicephone Soglo and his wife Rosine formed a Party for a Renaissance in Benin. They were well off and of Brazilian heritage and the party was most powerful  in the capital.

You never see the President of Brazil dressed like this. Soglo should send him an outfit.

International pressure forced Kerekou to appoint Soglo first Prime Minister and then he successfully ran for President in 1992. Benin was perhaps overdue for a renaissance. Solgo’s results were somewhat short of Florence though the Brazilians in the capital were happyish. Solgo did think to attend in person, one of the few heads of state. the first Tokyo International Conference on African Development. Benin was looking for another benefactor and Japan was about the only one out there offering new money. Interestingly the first conference was judged a failure by the Japanese because they were still just handing out direct aid instead of anything sustainable or measurable.

Tokyo gets a full house for it’s African aid conferences. Perhaps too full, the next one is set for Kenya

 

Kerekou ran against Solgo again in 1996 under the slogan, How do you like me now? Well that should have been his slogan. He was then reelected. Solgo did not slink away. Instead he realized his party’s prospects were mainly in the capital. Soglo ran for Mayor of the capital and ended up mayor for life. Well until he was replaced by his son. No doubt the promised renaissance is right around the corner. No doubt Soglo’s son has calls in to China and Brazil.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon when there will be another to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

Categories
Uncategorized

United Nations 1970, Fighting Cancer UN style, with conferences

In theory, international cancer organizations make sense as an advancement made in one place can be offered quickly to fellow cancer sufferers around the world. So the question is, how is this organization founded back in 1935 doing? 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.

Despite the not great printing, I do like the image on this stamp. A Greek style hero in direct battle with a deadly beast. The Union for International Cancer Control is of course more about conferences and scientific publications, but it is good to remind attendees that there are people out there battling for their lives who need a hero. Notice the stamp is mostly in French despite being a New York United Nations issue. It was not until more than 10 years later that the Geneva offices of the UN began to offer separate issues.

Todays stamp is issue A110, a 13 cent stamp issued by the United Nations on May 22nd, 1970. It was a two stamp issue in conjunction with the then Union Against Cancer conference in Houston, Texas that year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

There was a first ad hoc conference of international cancer experts in Madrid in 1933. There it was suggested that the conferences become regular events. In 1935 in Paris an organization was formed under the Latin name Unio Internationales Contra Cancrum UICC, to provide for the conferences. The group had members both from governments and private cancer societies. In 1947, the organization moved to Geneva to work more closely with the World Health Organization.

As the conferences grew the UICC began to get involved in publishing with both a scientific journal and a frequently updated textbook on cancer diagnosis. There is a full time staff of about 50 in Geneva under a medical professor.

Above her there is a ceremonial head that is chosen by members to serve a two year term. Here is where there as been some backsliding. For the whole history of the UICC the President was a doctor or professor. Instead now we have Princess Consort Dina of Jordan as the President. She is not a doctor though she lead a pro cancer society in Jordan after losing her mother to cancer. Some may view this as breaking the glass ceiling that have kept down Muslim women who are also Princess Consorts, but it also displays going down the modern rabbit hole of virtue signaling celebrity over hard science. Sure enough her accomplishment was scheduling  the next conference, now conference and expo, in the Middle East in that hotbed of cancer research that is Oman. Fate has stepped in and the Oman expo was cancelled due to the coronavirus.

Princess Dina of Jordan without her crown at the UN talking cancer

Fear not, the UICC is still actively producing webinars on fighting cancer in the age of COVID. Subtitled no doubt, go home and die. If the UICC is going to stay with not science leaders, I propose the next one be the singer Bonnie Tyler. She understands Holding out for a hero as conveyed on the stamp.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

Categories
Uncategorized

Dhufar 1974, The Sultan’s stamp advisor keeps alive the dreams of his rivals whether Imans or communists

Where would we be without the ultra helpful stamp advisors of local Sultans? Well stamp collectors aren’t  going to learn much about the province from official Omani issues and only a tiny portion of collectors are Mormon, and so are aware of Dhufar’s place in Mormon lore. 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 of course is not a real stamp so there is no catalog listing. It proports to remember the 100th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union, which dates it to 1974. Dhufar was not a member, and as far as the Union was concerned, the area was represented by member Oman. The stamp does not tell us what painting this is.

Oman was a rough place in the 1960s. The interior sections under a Imam were trying to break away from the Sultan of Muscat. The nomadic interior people were far different from the descendants of Arab traders on the coast. In neighboring Saudi Arabia, the Imam had some support. He also had postage stamps, printed in Britain by stamp dealer Clive Feigenbaum and handled by Lebanese stamp dealer Youssef Salam Tedros. The support lead Lebanon and Syria to accept the State of Oman issues for postage so it was possible to order your topical stamps with real postal cancelations. I covered a fake state of Oman issue here, https://the-philatelist.com/2020/03/18/omanstate1969-the-state-of-being-a-fake-stamp/    .

The discovery of oil in the interior strengthened the Muscat Sultan’s resolve to hold on to the interior and the Imam was defeated and went into exile. If Feigenbaum and Tedros were to continue their fake stamp business they needed a plan B. Tedros became the postal advisor to a local Sultan in Dhufar in northern Oman on the border with Yeman. He was and is a vassal of the Sultan of Muscat.

Muscat took the name of Oman as part of national reconciliation. There was a new threat as socialist South Yeman began supporting rebels seeking to liberate Dhufar and all of Oman from the Sultans. There was fighting in Dhufar that made the world news and indeed areas of Dhufar were under rebel administration.

In the press materials for the stamp issues, it was strongly implied but not said directly that the stamps were for use in the rebel held areas. This implication lead socialist Syria briefly to accept the stamps  for postage so there are a few Damascus postal cancelations of the stamps. Oman’s real post office did not accept the stamps but did not file formal objections to Dhufar stamps with the Universal Postal Union as they had done previously to the State of Oman issues.. They must have understood that it actually was for the benefit of the Sultan.

A clocktower in modern stampless Dhufar

In 1986, the fighting in Dhufar came to an end with the rebels defeated and the Sultans still in charge. The Sultan and the stamp dealers decided it was time to end the stamp issues. Too bad the socialist rebels never had a rival postage stamp advisor. Tiny far off, war torn places are better with rival stamp issues.

The stampless, doomed Dhufar rebels. Leave it to the socialists to let their women fight alongside

Dhufar plays a part in the lore of the Mormon Church. The Mormon prophet Lehi is believed to have sailed from the “Land of Bountiful” around 600 BC for the New World. They place the land of Bountiful as Dhufar.

Well, my drink is empty. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

Categories
Uncategorized

South Africa 1942, Saluting a few South African fighter pilots

This stamp is a little bit reminiscent of a Japanese stamp done a while back, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/13/japan-1942-saluting-the-japanese-pilot/   . Here we have an official portrait of DSO awarded pilot while he was still in the fight. There is a great story to tell. 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.

South African artist Neville Lewis had served in the British Army in World War I and between the wars developed a distinguished reputation as a portrait painter. In 1940 he was named the first official war artist of the Union Defense Forces. In 1942 there was an idea for a stamp series showing the contributions of the various services. Lewis summitted images suitable for minituration on a stamp of an individual fighter pilot, a nurse, a sailor, a tanker, and a member of the black native corps. The pilot, the sailor, and the nurse made the issue. Lewis was disappointed that the native corps member did not make the issue as he thought it was the best, but it should be remembered that the native corps did not deploy overseas. The image is below.

Volunteer soldier of the South African Native Corps who didn’t make the cut to be on the stamp issue

Todays stamp is issue A27, a one and a half Pence stamp issued by South Africa in 1942. It was a nine stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Bob Kershaw was a pilot of a Hawker Hurricane fighter with No. 3 squadron of the South African Air Force. There was a deployment in early 1941 to Kenya to participate in the campaign to dislodge the Italians from Ethiopia. On March 15th, during an attack on a Italian air base at Dire Dawa, Kershaw’s Squadron Commander John Frost’s Hurricane was hit by anti aircraft fire. The hit was to his engine’s coolant tank and so he knew in short order that the Rolls Royce Merlin engine would overheat and seize up. Frost decided to land the Hurricane at a satellite field. He did so and set the Hurricane on fire so it would not fall into Italian hands.

Hawker Hurricane fighter

Seeing what was happening, Kershaw also landed his still flyable Hurricane and by ditching parachutes and Frost siting in Kershaw’s lap and handling the stick, both were able to escape in the single small seated Hurricane. Kershaw became the first South African recipient of the British Distinguished Service Order. Kershaw soon converted to Spitfires and was promoted to Major. He was however later shot down and survived the war as a POW.

Frost left and Kershaw center

John Frost was later made a wing commander and his unit converted to the American made P40 fighter. Over Egypt  and escorting also American made A26 Boston, America called them Havoc, bombers, John Frost went missing and neither him nor his plane was ever found. It is thought that he may have fell to the famous German ace Hans- Joachime Marsalles who got six of his 158 kills that day.

Kershaw post war managed a Ford car dealer in London. He eventually moved back to South Africa where he was made a wing commandant in the post war air force. He died in 1998 in Knysna.

Well my drink is empty. This will be a fun night because there is so much toasting to do. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021

Categories
Uncategorized

Bolivia 1962, Remembering perhaps too fondly, the Bolivian cavalry

By 1962, Bolivia was a poor, landlocked country. It’s last chance to date of real wealth came in the 1930s when oil was expected to be found in the Chaco region. Bolivia spent heavily to improve it’s military to be able to hold on to the claim to the area in the face of  the rival claims of Paraguay, a weak country with it’s own history of shrinking wars. 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.

So if a country never wins a war why celebrate the military history? Instead why not  concentrate on those currently serving in the hopes of the current being proved more useful. Well that is not how Bolivia viewed it in 1962. So here we have a Calvary charge of the Bolivian Army. The only war that I can find with any meaningful deployment of Cavalry was the 1930s Chaco War, so that is the story I will tell below.

Todays stamp is issue A153, a 500 Boliviano stamp issued by Bolivia  on September 5th, 1962. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations displaying different one time sections of the army. there were also semi related air mail issues. By 1962, what had been Cavalry regiments were now mechanized divisions. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The area of Chaco was recognized as an area of Paraguay although there had been some peaceful intrusion by Bolivian nationals. There was a hope on the part of foreign oil companies that the area might prove rich in oil. Royal Dutch Shell worked through Paraguay to search and Standard Oil worked through the Bolivian government. After having previously lost its outlet to the Pacific in an ill thought out war with Chile, Bolivia built up it’s Army to defend the hoped for big oil strike. An arms deal was struck with the British arms concern Vickers to heavily rearm including with airplanes and even three tanks. The arms package was not completely delivered as Bolivia did not make all the due payments.

When war broke out with Paraguay, Bolivia looked much more powerful on paper, including 7 Cavalry regiments. This was somewhat a paper tiger as over one third of army units were absent or on leave at any one time. Yet Bolivia was confident that under German general Kundt there would be success.

The expensive Vickers tank that Bolivia hoped would save them

The motorized equipment proved ineffective due to dust and inability to deal with breakdowns. The Cavalry on both sides ended up fighting on foot as the area was too barren for horses to forage or kept watered. Advanced countries cut off arms supplies to both sides. This proved very advantageous to Paraguay which had developed an effective locally made hand grenade called the small turtle. The Paraguayan forces proved faster moving and were kept slightly better supplied as the area was Paraguay. In 1935 Bolivia had lost the war  and the area was recognized as Paraguay, though not officially until 1997. 170,000 people died in the war.

Well what ever happened to the big oil strike that was just around the corner. The corner was further off than thought. In 2012 then Paraguay President Frederico Franco announced an oil strike in the area or the Periti River in Chaco  and that in the name of the 30,000 Paraguayans that died in the Chaco war,  will soon be the richest oil zone in South America. Don’t hold your breath would be my advice.

President Frederico Franco who announced the Chaco oil strike 80 years later.

 

Well my drink is empty. You think of the quite high losses in these stupid wars over nothing and it becomes difficult to recognize the bravery that this stamp wants you to remember. Come again soon for another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

Categories
Uncategorized

Soviet Union 1988, Restructuring, speeding up, and democratization will get us on track to being poor

From 1928-1973 the economy of the Soviet Union grew faster than the rival USA. After that there was a slowing down of progress. In 1986 new leader Gorbachev blamed the slowdown on Brezhnev and started a program to bring market forces into the industrial and agricultural economy. 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 expressing the hope that the restructuring will succeed uses a great deal of traditional Soviet iconography. The whole point of the restructuring however was to redistribute from the lazy worker to the profit bottom line of the still state owned enterprise. The operation now had to make enough to pay salaries, full employment be dammed. The effort failed, but imagine if had worked. The full power of the authoritarian state was  utilized to get more out of and pay less to the worker. A hoped for workers paradise becomes paradise for management.

Todays stamp is issue A2731, a five kopeck stamp issued by the Soviet Union on May 5th, 1988. It was a two stamp issue in the same denomination this promoting economic reform and the other political. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used or unused. 5 kopecks is now worth .065  of an American penny. A pretty poignant example of why the reforms couldn’t work. 5 kopecks wasn’t covering the cost of sending a letter yet the system worked. Suddenly raising the postage rate to meet and beat expenses required hyper inflation and a deep decrease in demand.

There was some debate inside the Soviet Union about why things became stagnant after 1973. The obvious answer was the 1970s oil shocks that saw a large increase in output being redirected to cover energy cost, a situation shared with the west. The Soviet reformers of the 1980s had different ideas. They began calling workers work shy, lazy and drunk. They say this was allowed to happen as leadership was old, grey and out of touch. For older, grey leaders like Brezhnev and Chernencko it was an easy slur.

Gorbachev gave a speech at Togellati to describe his economic reforms. Togellati was the site of one of the biggest car factories in the world. Now employment and output is down over 80 %, the factory is owned by Renault/Nissan and most exports go to Kazakhstan, which didn’t use to be exports. The idea was that GOSPLAN in Moscow would stop mapping out production and resources, but that the enterprise after filling any government orders could sell as much as it wanted for whatever it could. The government would no longer cover shortfalls but still get any profits.

The old Stalin era GOSPLAN headquarters that used to centrally plan the economy. Now it is the Duma building

The results were just disastrous. GDP in the old Soviet Union declined 64% over the 11 years after this stamp. A few oligarchs got rich but the average worker was impoverished. Even life expectancy, which peaked at 69 in 1988 dropped to 64 in the early 2000s. In 1991 Gorbachev was deposed and the Soviet Union broke up. It would be 2004 before Russian GDP exceeded pre restructuring levels. The GDP in Russia is now more than twice the old levels but wealth is much more concentrated.

Well, my drink is empty. I will pour another to toast my fellow drunk, lazy, work shy workers out there. Our leaders should be at least trying to make our lives paradise. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

Categories
Uncategorized

Columbia 1938, Coffee growing from a Priest’s assigned pennance to Juan Valdez and rollercoasters

Columbia is famous for coffee growing, though in output it is third in the world after Brazil and Vietnam. How it got there was a combination of the little guy beating out the big guy followed by an old fashioned uplifting Madison Avenue ad campaign. 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 little progression in Columbia and then a reversion. The stamp issue lasted over a decade with the first printing carried out by the American Bank Note Company in the USA. My stamp is from that batch. In 1944 there was a batch printed locally by the Columbian Bank Note Company and even something called Lithographia National Bogotá. In 1949, the stamp was back to the American Bank Note Company with the stamp turning blue. No of the changes effect the stamps low value but I wonder the story there.

Todays stamp is issue A176, a 5 Centavo stamp issued by Columbia on March 3rd, 1938. It was an eight stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp in all it’s forms is worth 25 cents.

Coffee planting began in Columbia in the 1790s. It was a group of Catholic Priests that promoted the cultivation. In particular, a Priest named Francisco Romero would require coffee cultivation as penance. In 1808 the first export of Columbian coffee was made out of the port of Cucuta.

In the late 19th century, international coffee prices were quite high and the rich families of Columbia set up large slash and burn plantations to take advantage. To do so, they borrowed large sums of capital from abroad. In the early 20th century, there was both a a war in Columbia and a drop in the international price and lead to bankruptcy of the large scale operations. The industry was saved by a group of very small planters who formed a federation to get their high end arabica beans out to the world market.

In 1958 the coffee planters federation hired an American ad agency under William Bernbach. His motto was “Lets prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling.” The federation was worried that their beans would be blended with cheaper beans from other countries and people would not realize how good the Columbian beans are. Bernbach came up with the fictional character of Juan Valdez who would be usually shown with his mule Cochita to represent positively the Columbian coffee planter. For 37 years Juan Valdez was played by Columbian actor Carlos Sanchez and since 2006 by real life coffee planter Carlos Casteneta. The branding is even popular in Columbia with 135 coffee shops named for Juan Valdez.

William Bernbach
Juan Valdez with Cochita the mule

The coffee federation to show how important coffee planting was to Columbia and inspired by a sugar industry experience opened a Coffee Experience Park in 1995. As with stamp collectors these days, they found the park wasn’t interesting anyone under 40. To increase visitors, they acquired the old Zambezi Zinger roller coaster from an amusement park in Kansas City to attract the young at heart. Ugh.

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if Mr. Valdez has any suggestions for the next round. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

Categories
Uncategorized

South Africa 1962, Peak gold

Around the time of this stamp, 40 % of the gold ever mined on earth had come from South African mines. Despite the artificially low prices of the metal due to being fixed to a basket of currencies, there was a class of Rand lords that had new fortunes. 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 love the image on this stamp. Having fought the earth to extract it, you now have the gold molten and pure and you can watch them being poured into the molds of those life changing gold bricks. The pits of Hell yielding to heaven.

Todays stamp is issue A113, a two cent, the currency was newly decimalized, stamp issued by South Africa on May 31st, 1961. It was a 23 stamp issue in different denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The first large scale gold strike in South Africa was in Witwatersrand in 1884. There was a huge gold rush where the population of Johannesburg increased 10 fold in 4 years. There was quickly a financial system put in place to fund the capital needs of the new industry. It is thought that control over the industry was a contributing factor to the inter white Boer war at the turn of the century. As part of the compromise that ended it, 64,000 Chinese contract workers were brought in to do the hard work deep under ground. The gold rush expanded when technology advanced to allow gold to be extracted from pyritic ore by drowning it in a solution of cyanide. The government set up compensation for miners of all races suffering from mining related silicosis and pulmonary tuberculosis.

Starting around 1910 the gold mining industry changed as some of the early fields played out and management tried to cut cost. The contracts with the Chinese were not renewed and the Chinese went home. In their place were very low cost black miners not recruited locally but rather migrant workers from outside South Africa. White miners formed a union to, in addition to wage demands, tried to keep the migrant blacks only doing the old Chinese jobs. Though the miners were white, the South African government sided with management in order to keep up production. The black miners eventually formed a separate union to fight separately from the whites to improve their lot. South African gold output peaked in the mid 1970s at over 1000 tonnes per year.

The gold industry has gradually declined since. The change in government saw one change that proved beneficial. The migrant recruitment ended and all miners are now recruited locally. The relatively high pay has been one place where South African blacks have advanced economically.

Gold mining is still a very important industry in South Africa although it is now lower than China and Australia and accounts for only 4 percent of the world’s gold output. Employment in the industry has dropped to 100,000 from the peak of 360,000. There is hope that there is still much gold to find and that new technology can extract more gold from the tailings of played out former mines.

Well my drink is empty. What got me interested in this subject was recently watching the 1974 movie Gold. the movie stared Sir Roger Moore as a South African mine manager that has to deal with danger in the mine, ossified management and a plot from international finance types who want to flood the mine killing everyone to create a market moving event they can bet on because owning a freaking gold mine isn’t enriching them fast enough. Great locally shot movie! Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

Gold movie poster

 

Categories
Uncategorized

United States 1966, Remembering a folk hero, Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed’s real name is John Chapman. That happens to also be my name. So when I spotted this stamp, I knew it was time to learn more about him. Below is what I found. 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 came out in an opportune time as the reputation of Johnny Appleseed was on the upswing in the sixties and seventies. The idea of an itinerant man planting trees and communing with the animals and the indians appealed directly to the youth movement of the era.

Todays stamp is issue A739, a five cent stamp issued by the United States on September 24th, 1966,  Johnny’s 192nd birthday. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents mint or used.

Johnny Appleseed was born in 1774 in Massachusetts. His mother died when he was two and his father quickly remarried and soon Johnny had many half brothers and sisters. When he was 18 he left home taking with him his 11 year old half brother. He first went to Pittsburgh and became itinerant throughout the midwest. His business, and yes it was a business, was to come to a town, buy a small patch of land in the near country, fence it off and plant nurseries. When the plantings were established, he would find a neighbor willing to tend the trees in return for a share of the profits. He would then visit his nurseries annually. This was not a coat and tie type of job and many thought Appleseed a hobo. He played into this by wearing a tin bowl on his head that he would remove to eat out of. He also tended to hire children to be helpers.

How Johnny Appleseed is remembered

Johnny was a deeply religious man and was always recruiting for his obscure Christian denomination, the New Church. This was and is a tiny denomination founded in the 18th century by Swede Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg believed he had received a revelation from God that the Christian church would be replaced by a “new church” that would worship Jesus Christ and him alone as God. This was in the lead up to Jesus returning to Earth. Johnny would bring New Church pamphlets with him in addition to the seeds for which he was more famous.

The emblem of the “New Church”

Johnny Appleseed lived to age 70 and died in a cabin next to one of his nurseries in Fort Wayne Indiana. At the time of his death he owned more than 1200 acres spread out around the midwest. As he never married his estate was left to his one full sister. During his life everyone assumed him poor and the government entered litigation seeking back taxes for all the lands. His sister ended up losing most of the wealth in litigation expenses relating to the estate. Interestingly the variety of apple trees he was planting produced apple not fit for eating but only for use in cider, an alcoholic drink

Well my drink is empty. Not really the story I was expecting, but it should be remembered that even heroes are foremost human. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.