Category: Uncategorized

Categories
Uncategorized

United Nations(Geneva offices) 2000, Painters for the new century

When you enter a new century, it is a good time to check out what is going on in the arts. The UN is in an especially good place to do that as they have offices and representatives everywhere. What did they find? 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 competition featured artists from around the world and all the entries went on a traveling exhibition from London to Brussels, then Stockholm, then New York City. Six stamps featured art from the exhibition with 2 stamps each issued by UN offices in New York, in Geneva, and Vienna. The artists were 1 American, 1 Japanese, 1 Philippine, 1 Kenyan, 1 Greek, and 1 Lebanese, Rita Adaimy the painter of “The Embrace” on this stamp and the only female.

Todays stamp is issue A319, a .90 Swiss Franc stamp issued by the United Nations on May 30th, 2000. The two Geneva issues had different denominations with this the lower. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.10 used. Though this is a Geneva issue, I got it in a pack of stamps I bought at the UN headquarters gift shop in New York in 2013. After getting home from that trip, I put the pack aside unopened till I found and opened it last week. Ah, Lost treasures…

The millennium art competition show us where the art world was at. Despite attracting entrants from around the world the entries turned in were remarkably uniform. In this case it might lead you to believe that Auguste Rodin might have an outsized influence on the contemporary female artists of Lebanon. Perhaps he does and maybe that is not so bad. Imagine a similar competition from the dawn of the 20th century, you would have had fewer entrants from fewer places but you would have had much more diversity of style. You also would be dealing with art from Rodin himself rather than someone who ripped him off.

Artist self portrait as a cross stitch pattern. Try that Rodin

Ms. Adaimy is still an artist and Pharmacy educator in Lebanon. She recently participated in a multi section mural at the Lebanon Museum of Contemporary Art. The mural is in the graffiti style and sponsored by the European Union in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the UN Human Rights Commission.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the UN for showing us the state of the art world in this millennium. That the state is not so good in not their fault. At least they are not yet doing a stamp set on the current state of postage stamp gasbaggery. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

Categories
Uncategorized

Iceland 1925, Denmark builds a storehouse of culture, as part of sending Iceland on it’s way

The-Philatelist often writes up stamps of newly independent countries that take credit for infrastructure left behind by the former colonial power. Something like a power station is one thing but what about something that was the place’s central storehouse of knowledge and culture. Isn’t some sort of thanks in order for the generosity? Apparently not, and this is even true where both colony and colonial power were within Scandinavia. 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.

You can see from the printing style, how influential Denmark was on Iceland’s stamps. The fact that they were printed in Denmark often meant stamp shortages in Iceland at the time of this stamp. In 1928 a proposal to solve the problem lead to more trouble. A Vienna group of stamp dealers calling themselves the ‘Friends of Iceland” proposed printing a large batch of commemorative stamps. Against the advise of the Postmaster, Iceland agreed to the printing of 813,000 Kronars of stamps, 600,000 of which would go to Iceland for postal use and the other 213,000 would compensate the Austrian Friends of Iceland. Fraud was then perpetuated and Iceland did not not catch that the print order that they signed off on had at some point had a 1 inserted before the 8. A police investigation was initiated but still had made no progress when the war broke out more than a few years later. No jurisdiction in Vienna perhaps even among “Friends of Iceland”. If the Iceland police had renewed their efforts after the Anschluss, the might have had more cooperation. The stamp issue with so many extras seems to have better values than this issue today, so perhaps a crooked Austria beats a niggardly printing Denmark.

Todays stamp is issue A12, a 20 Aurar stamp issued by Iceland on September 12th, 1925. It was a 5 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents used. The value of the stamp unused rises to $45, showing how few went to collectors when new. The 20 Aurar stamp from the Vienna issue is worth $90 used, twice what it was worth unused. That one got to collectors.

In 1906, Denmark started construction in Reykjavik of a new building that could properly house a National Library and national archive. The large stone building in traditional Scandinavian style was the work of architect Johannes Magdahl Nielson. This was his only building commission outside of Denmark. At home he was more known for his many churches. The year the library was finished, Nielson was awarded the Eckersberg Medal. Later in 1925, he was Knighted.

In modern times as Culture House

The building, now known unofficially as the Culture house, held the National Library and also took in the collections of the national university library and a noted collection of traditional Icelandic furniture. The building held the National Library until 1994 and came under the auspices of the National Museum in 2013 to continue the furniture display. The building is on the national registry of historic places but the history as laid out now mainly goes over the work of Icelandic stone masons and leaves out entirely that the whole thing being a gift of Denmark.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait until when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

China 1947, the KMT’s third and final mainland phase

Chiang Kai-shek had attempted to rule China as a one party state. After the Japanese withdrawal in defeat in 1945-6, it was time to reimagine what post war China would look like. A new constitution was written, that granted the Chinese people new rights and political freedom, but was only in effect for five months. Even afterward in Taiwan it was superseded by emergency provisions for over 40 years. 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.

Today’s stamp shows the Constitution of 1946 during the brief time it was in effect along with the Great Hall in the then capital of Nanking. The Great Hall had been built in 1936 to house the National Assembly. Interestingly when built it was not expected that the National Assembly would be meeting very often so the building was also to be the host of plays put on by the National Institute of Drama. Nanking experienced some drama itself in late 1937 when Nanking fell to the Japanese. There is some hyperbole about how rough the Japanese occupation was, no there was not a contest between Japanese officers on who could kill a 100 Chinese by sword in the shortest time. It was a much rougher occupation though than say the American occupation of Tokyo. Imagine instead Tokyo being occupied in 1946 by Chinese, Mao or Chiang. Anyway the building still stood to host the National Assembly in 1946 and still stands today.

Todays stamp is issue A89, a $3000 Yuan stamp issued by the KMT government on mainland China on Christmas Day 1947. It was a three stamp issue in high inflation battered denomination. There was an earlier version of the stamp with the same image of the Nanking Great Hall but no constitution. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents unused.

The constitution granted a great deal of rights to the people of China. It was the KMT’s long promised third stage of Chinese development. There was to be no discrimination based on sex, religion, ethnicity or political party. If arrested, the accused had a right to see the charges against  him in writing and to have a trial within 24 hours of arrest. Julian Assange would have appreciated that provision. The National Assembly was to work a little differently, it elected the President to a six year term. It set out three principles for the people, nationalism, democracy, and livelihood.

Writing the Constitution was mainly the work of John Wu. He was a Chinese born Catholic that was educated at the University of Michigan Law School. For many years he kept up a friendly correspondence with then American Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Oliver Wendel Holmes. At first the Communists participated in the drafting, they proposed dividing the Assembly on a fixed ratio of 33% communist, 33% KMT, and 33% everyone else. When this was not done, they withdrew support and announced that the constitution would not be enforced in areas held by them. After the Revolution John Wu taught law at Setan Hall University in the USA and wrote novels. He eventually retired to Taiwan.

John Wu

5 months after the constitution theoretically went into effect in KMT held areas in China, it was superseded by the National Assembly. The country was in civil war and martial law and emergency powers were the order of the day. These emergency provisions traveled with the 1946 constitution to Taiwan. I guess if if you want to get the third stage of development right, it shouldn’t be rushed. The National Assembly, now in Taiwan in 1954 decided officials elected on the mainland under this constitution in 1947  would remain in office until there could be new elections on the mainland. Thus Taiwan put off those pesky elections until the 1990s.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast John Wu. It is amazing to think how much influence these Christian, American educated folks had in China. I wonder to what extent people worried about them being foreign agents. Come gain soon when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

Categories
Uncategorized

Afghanistan 1984, Antonov An-2, the ultimate bush plane

A sign that an aircraft model is not replaceable is a long production run. Turboprop versions of the An-2 are still in limited production in Ukraine and China having first entered production in 1947. The continued existence of the two factories allows many more older airframes to be refurbished and modernized. What has proved more challenging is designing a replacement. 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 from Afghanistan points to the usefulness of bush aircraft in so many places around the world. Due to where industrial capabilities lie, most bush airplane designs came from Russia and Canada. Most operators though have small fleets and so there is not a clear economic case for a replacement model. Luckily there still is the ability to refurbish, but it will be interesting to watch how long the old airframes can go on.

Todays stamp is issue A441, a one Rupee stamp issued by the Soviet puppet government of Afghanistan on June 29th, 1984. It was a seven stamp issue in various denominations celebrating 40 years of aviation in the country. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused or cancelled to order.

In the early days after World War II, the Soviet Union drew up plans for a a 12 seat utility airplane to be built by Antonov in the Ukraine. It would use a license made Wright Cyclone piston engine. The plane was a biplane to give strong lift and allow for takeoff and landing runs under 700 feet. The An-2, Russian nickname Annie, NATO code name Colt had a very low 30 mph stall speed. It thus in a 35 mile an hour headwind, not uncommon at altitude,  the plane could fly backwards relative to the ground. The plane was useful for supplying distant outposts, crop spraying and skydiving.

In 1960 production of the AN-2 moved to Poland and got going in China. Over 18,000 airplanes have been built. Poland stopped making the An-2 in 1991 and for a while some production moved to Russia. During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese AN 2s attacked an American spy base in Laos and were chased off by Huey helicopters where the fighting was guys shooting out of open doors with automatic rifles. In the Yugoslav Civil War of the early 1990s, Croatian crop duster AN-2s were dropping improvised barrel bombs out of the open door at Serbian/Yugoslav targets. In todays war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Azeri unmanned An-2s are being used as drones for surveillance and bombing. Armenia claims to have so far shot down seven of them.

There was a fairly notorious 1976 crash of a An-2 in Novosibisk, Siberia. A recently divorced pilot attempted murder suicide by trying to crash the plane into the apartment of his exes in-laws where his ex wife and toddler son were staying. He instead hit the buildings stairwell and the plane’s 200 gallons of fuel started a large fire. Despite quick work by the fire department, four small children died from burns. None of the pilot’s targets were hurt.

Antonov no longer provides type certification for the An-2, so the for the many examples in the west, it is illegal to use the An-2 for business purposes. I mentioned above there are modernized versions with turboprop engines, cabin air conditioning, and GPS based navigation. There is of course the issue of how many improvements you can make before the plane is no longer simple enough to operate in the bush.

The currently offered, again from Ukraine, An-2-100. These can be built new or converted from old airframes

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till  when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

Categories
Uncategorized

USA 1893, A Columbian Exposition brings the worlds eyes on Chicago

Coming up on the 400th anniversary of the voyage of Christopher Columbus, America thought it a great time to celebrate it with a World’s Fair. They further decided to hold it in the west in Chicago to display how far things had come on the “frontier”. 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.

First we should take a little time with this stamp issue. In my opinion a masterpiece of a stamp issue. Rather than just show the World’s Fair. Instead we get a 15 stamp issue taking us through the history of Columbus’s negotiations with Queen Isabella, the highs of the first landing, the difficulties of the new colonies, the lows of Columbus being returned in chains to Spain and even the redemption he experienced in Barcelona late in life when people realized the magnitude of what Columbus accomplished. All this from 1893 when most stamps were royal portraits.

Todays stamp is issue A72, a 2 cent stamp issued by the USA in 1893. It was a 15 stamp issue with denominations as high as $5,( at least $132 in todays money, the CPI calculator only went back to 1913. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used. High values in the set seem to stick with unused, never hinged copies especially the few imperforates and those with no gum. The $5 stamp is up at $9500.

It was an ambition of the USA to host a World’s Fair comparable with earlier ones in London and Paris. An earlier one in Philadelphia was unsuccessful. The Columbus anniversary was the excuse and Congress had to decide between bids from New York City, Chicago, and Saint Louis. Financial packages were heavily considered and it was quite the effort but Chicago outbid New York. It was also argued that Chicago had more space, cleaner air, and better represented a country whose center of gravity wasthen moving west.

Chicago also had a great advantage of new urban architects including Daniel Barnham  and Fredrick James Almsted to work on the project. They designed a beau arts style “White City” with a large reflecting pool representing Columbus’s ocean journey. There were 42 pavilions displaying different countries and record producer Sol Bloom designed an amusement park for the kids.

The Reflecting pool and the temporary buildings of the Fair

The fair started as a success. One of the displays was a “street in Cairo” that featured America’s first belly dancer doing the suggestive dance called the Hokky Pokki. The dancer was known as Little Egypt and was really from Syria and married to a local Greek restaurateur. The tune she moved to was composed by Sol Bloom and is today known as the Snake Charmers song.

Dancer known as Little Egypt doing the Hokie Pockey

The Fair ended early after the mayor was assassinated and it was thought more appropriate for the fair to close early. Surprisingly given the time, the Mayor wasn’t killed by an anarchist but a crazy man who thought that railroads were killing too many people at crossings and the Mayor should have fixed it. Clarence Darrow took the assassins’ case hoping to have him declared insane. The prosecution pointed out that he had loaded his revolver for safety by not having a bullet in the first chamber showing a right mind. It was one of Clarence Darrow’s few trial losses.

You can probably gather that the fair would not pass the smell test of the modern politically correct. Even in the period, black civil rights leader Fredrick Douglas wrote a pamphlet complaining that black people’s contributions to Columbus were being ignored. In more modern times the tact changed. Now the idea of an idealized white city is thought racist. The country pavilions were recast as freak shows. Special attention was directed at the Woman’s Pavilion which had a display of woman made Indian, Samoan, and African crafts under the banner of “Woman’s work in savagery”.

The powers that be in Chicago have changed a little since 1893. The Mayor is now a mixed Indian/African American lesbian named Lori Lightfoot. Earlier this year she authorized the removal of the Christopher Columbus statues in Chicago.

Chicago removing statue of Columbus in the middle of the night between protests.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the people who put fairs together that celebrate progress or perhaps spill it on people that would take it all down. Come again soon when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

Categories
Uncategorized

Uzbekistan 1993, With no more silk road trade, the Tashkent Turks tire of the Boyars and the exiles and revert to Kokand

The silk road trade made Tashkent rich. It also made it a target of Turkish Khans seeking tribute. In desperation, the traders allowed themselves to be conquered by Russian Boyar adventurers hoping for good governance. Instead the silk trade was allowed to dry up and the city was flooded with exiles the Soviets didn’t trust and wanted out of the way. Maybe if they united with the rural Uzbeks and gave the Turks another try. 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 question was how and how much to subdivide the Turk people of Central Asia. Tashkent went to the extreme and tried to be a city state to protect it’s wealth. The early Soviet years saw the entire area organized as semi autonomous Turkestan, the other extreme of possibilities. The Soviet break up saw a middle road, with independent Uzbekistan reverting to a new Khanate of Kokand. That is what is reflected in the new coat of arms that is more like Kokand than more recent Soviet days.

Todays stamp is issue A8, a 15 Ruble stamp issued by independant Uzbekistan on June 10th, 1993. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents cancelled to order. It is strange to see a non postal cancellation on what appears to be a bulk issue.

The Silk Road was the key to developing Tashkent. It wasn’t just Chinese silk, but also paper and gunpowder that were traded. The Turk population had to be able to interact with Chinese, Indians, Russians, and even Germans and British. The wealth and interaction changed the city and it attempted to govern itself as a city state, still under a local Turk Khan. The neighboring and formerly ruling Khanate of Kokand whose borders closely resemble modern Uzbekistan was able to reconquer Tashkent. To due so they occupied it with 30,000 defenders for the walled city.

Into this came Russian Boyar General Mikhail Chenyayev. Boyars were a multinational class of aristocrats who contract with the Czar to do  certain tasks. In Chenyayev’s case he was to bring the Russian flag to central Asia. He only had with him 1000 men. Knowing how well defended it was, the Czar had instructed him to leave Tashkent alone. Instead his small force scaled the wall in the middle of the night and killed the Kokand leader and paralized the defenses. Promising the city would be tax free and not militarily occupied, Tashkent was conquered.

As the Czar gave way to the Soviets Tashkent changed in a way that disappointed the local Turks. Cold war barriers got in the way of the old trade. In the meantime Moscow picked Tashkent for industrialization and as a place to go for eastern European exiles to whom they did not really trust. The city grew to be the fourth largest city in the Soviet Union, but the Turks were now a minority in their own city. The end of the Soviet Union saw a new Kokand form as Uzbekistan and there was a quick migration out of the exiles and Soviets. The city has not shrunk as the population was replaced by rural Uzbeks. The migration out can be spotted on modern AT&T commercials. The spokeslady, Milana Vaayntrub, was born in Tashkent in 1987, the daughter of Jewish exiles. The change saw the family emigrate to the USA when Milana was a toddler. The question is, the Soviets didn’t trust her family, nor did the Uzbeks, can AT&T?

Milana Vayntrub as Lily the AT&T lady. When she is not selling you a phone, she is advocating for Syrian refugee settlement in Europe. Interesting Tashkent doesn’t occur as a likely destination.

In recent years, China has been interested in reinvigorating silk road trade with a Chinese financed Silk Belt and Road initiative. This will not be of any good to Uzbek Tashkent. The Chinese have decided instead to route the new belt of roads and rail through Kazakhstan.

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

Categories
Uncategorized

Ras Al Khaima/ Khaimah 1969, Finbar Kenny brings postage stamps to a high tent on a pirate coast

Translated Ras Al Khaima means top of the tent, and indeed the Emirate contains the highest peak in the United Arab Emirates. In the old days it probably had some great smugglers dens. Now it hosts the worlds longest zip line. This stamp collector would rather talk about the old days. 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 docking of the lunar and command module of that years American Apolo 11 mission to the moon. A note about how spelling changes. They currently list three acceptable spellings for the Emirate in English, none of which is the one this stamp from 1969. The Emirate now seems decisive in wanting an h at the end of Khaima. Interestingly, in the first year of the Emirate’s stamps in 1964, the cancelation to order done on the stamp spelled the Emirate differently than on the actual stamp. The cancellation was prescient on putting the h at the end of Khaima, but then switched the Al to El which again is not one of the three allowed English spellings.

This dune stamp is considered fake so it is not in the catalog. Between 1964 and 1972 1036 stamps and 70 souvenir sheets were issued by Ras Al Khaima. Mid way along the currency switched from  Indian Rupees to Riyals so there are even some overprints of early issues changing the currency. This issue of 6 stamps and one souvenir sheet came out on August 15th, 1969.

The area of Ras Al Khaima has been occupied by humans continuously for 7000 years. It is associated historically with the trading post of Julfar. The area has been rules by the House of Al-Qasimi since 1721. Another line of the Royal house rules the Emirate of Sharjah. During this early period the British involved with the private British East India Company labeled the area of the coastline a pirate coast. There is some contention that this is just the British putting labels on trading competitors, however it is known that the Al-Qasimis were tied to the Somalis. Their allies in old times were the Persians and their rivals were the Omanis in Muscat and their British allies.

At first there was much inconclusive fighting with Muscat. In 1820 to they said put a stop to the piracy, the East India Company attacked by land and sea the fort at Ras Al Khaima. When they charged the fort they found it almost deserted. Unable to locate Emir Al-Qasimi, they traveled to Sharjah and had that Al-Qasimi sign a capitulation that agreed to an end to piracy and slavery. Ras Al  Khaima again seperated from Sharjah in 1869.

1820 British and Muscat siege of Ras Al Khaima

In 1963, the British stopped being the protector and stamp issuer for the Trucial States as they called them. That allowed American fake stamp guru Finbar Kenny come in to fill the stamp breach, signing a deal with Sheik Saqr Al-Qasimi. However the time period was very bad for Ras Al Khaima. Two islands that the Emirate claimed were occupied militarily by Shah era Iran. It seems the Al-Qasimi ties with the Persians had frayed. This became very important to stamp collectors because Ras al Khaima delayed joining the United Arab Emirates until the whole area agreed to to take up the cause of returning the islands. As a result of the delay, Ras Al Khaima produced the last fake dune stamps. Emir Saqr ruled from 1948 -2010.

Emir/Sheik Saqr Al- Qasimi

In 2003 Saqr removed crown prince Khalid in favor of son Saud. Khalid was forced into exile in old rival Muscat, Oman. Upon Saqr’s death on 2010, Khalid posted a video claiming the Emirship for himself, but the Emirate council recognized instead the selection of Saud. Khalid than funded a western PR campaign suggesting that his father and brother were in cahoots with the Islamic Republic of Iran in their nuclear weapons program. Sometimes the Philatelist has to update his scorecard to track the leans. Dunes do shift.

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

Categories
Uncategorized

Germany 2003, remembering the Porsche 356B 40 years later

I am generally more impressed with stamp issues that promise a better future than remember a great past. With an achievement like the Porsche 356, why not take the time to remember, especially when the remembrance supports a good cause. 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.

With a new stamp from an old car comes the question of how to photograph it. Period photos from advertising? No you are remembering a car, not trying to sell it. A modern photo of a classic car? No, an old car in great condition is probably more about the owner than the car itself. Germany decided to use a series of car drawings of the type a car identification book for children might have, even with some quick stats. This is a great idea as there were more kids dreaming about Porsches than adults driving them.

Todays stamp is issue SP434, a 55 +25 semi postal stamp issued by Germany on October 9th, 2003. This was an 8 stamp issue that remembered important cars from Germany’s past. All cars were post war and a few were even East German. The 25 cent surcharge benefited something called the Federal Working Party on Independent Welfare. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.90 whether it is mint or used.

The Porsche 356 was a post war development of the pre war Volkswagen Beetle. The car had a smaller, lighter body and had engines that were uprated over their state of tune in Beetles. The car used the independent swing axle suspension of the Beetle but over time upgraded it to cope with more power. Initial thoughts of aluminum bodywork were deleted to keep expenses down. The car was still quite expensive costing a little more than an American Corvette with 3 times the power and 40 percent more weight. The British Austin Healy 3000 split the difference with less power, weight  and expense than the Corvette, but more weight and power than the Porsche.

What all three of these cars did well was demonstrate the 3 countries different approaches to going fast. To Germany, it was important to keep light so only as much power as could be gotten out of the light Beetle engine. In this period of the 356 in the early 60s, that power was as much as 3 times what the Beetle had. The Corvette was bigger with the engine out of big, powerful American cars. The American car was far faster and more stable, but the light Porsche could catch up in the turns where its agility, rear engine traction and independent, if dangerous suspension helping. The Corvette in this period sold better with about 25 percent more volume despite a fewer percentage exported than the 356. The Austin Healy sold less still despite it’s lower price but did achieve many exports. One thing the three cars had in common was souped up sedan engines rather than specially designed engines for sports cars. It kept prices down.

The 356 was made from 1949- 1965. The B model shown on the stamp had larger window and changes in the floorplan to add room. The C model came along in 1963 adding disc brakes. Over time the car gained a few hundred pounds as more equipment was added. The 356 was replaced in 1965 with the Porsche 911 that attacked the problem of higher weight by adding a six cylinder overhead camshaft engine still in the back. Weight was up 30% over the early 356 but power more than doubled. Prices also went up but for a few years a 912 version sold with the 356 engine at only a slightly higher price.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the German attitude toward speed. The idea now seems to be that all cars must now be built to a world standard so it matters less where a car comes from. I preferred it when the cars better reflected the attitudes of where they were from. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

Categories
Uncategorized

Tanganyika 1961, turning an Arabic trading post into a traditionally African city

Tanganyika got its independence from Britain in 1961. The British tended to be good stewards of trading posts on the India trade routes. That was ending though with African leadership and unimagined population growth. 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 harbor of Dar es Salaam as seen from the then European neighborhood of Oyster Bay. At the time, newly independent Tanganyika was in a postal union with Uganda and Kenya. For independence, they could not resist having an issue to celebrate. I am glad they did as it showed the assets of the place making the case that things could work out. I recently did a South African stamp that tried to do the same thing, except in their case with non colonial white rule. Seehttps://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/21/south-africa-1966-a-tiny-minority-can-go-it-alone-because-they-have-diamonds-but-do-they/  . It will offend both nations to say so, but the stamp issues are remarkably similar, right down to the diamond issue. It was also similar in that both sets of early hope did not quite pan out.

Todays stamp is issue A7, a 2 British East African Shilling stamp issued by newly independent Tanganyika on December 9th, 1961. It was a 12 stamp issue in various denominations that celebrated the achievement of independence. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

Dar es Salaam was a coastal city founded by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1866. It means in Arabic, Home of Peace. It was set up as a trading post. When the Germans conquered the area they also based their activities out of Dar es Salaam. They also built a railroad that eased trade with the interior of the country. The area passed to Britain after World War I but continued as a multiethnic trading post. British rule saw a flood of Indians brought in as contract laborers but then often staying on as merchants.

Julius Nyerere was the local African independence leader that became the first Prime Minister, then with a new not British constitution one party President. The multi ethnic nature of Dar es Salaam was not what he had in mind. He proposed moving to a new capital that was not tainted by colonialism and therefore all black. However he was never able to string together enough foreign aid or local productivity to get a proper capital built. The colonial whites were quick to depart Dar es Salaam but Arabs and Indians were also hounded to leave, without their wealth of course. He also supported Africans in Zanzibar to overthrow their Arab sultan and join Tanganyika now renamed Tanzania, the z referring to Zanzibar. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/  Many not African traders were forced into exile but this time whites were left alone so not to attract British intervention.

Nyerere tried to encourage Africans not to move to Dar es Salaam with its colonial taint but rather stay in their villages. He was not successful in this. In 1960, Dar es Salaam had fewer than 200,000 thousand people less than half were ethnically African. Today the city is near 5 million and over 99 percent African. I will leave it to you to compare the economic status of the old trading posts that retained their multi ethnic status after colonial times like Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai to those that did not like Dar es Salaam, Aden, Tangier, and Mombasa.

The current Tanzanian President still from Nyerere’s old party still believes Tanzania needs to grow it’s population. He has closed down family planning western aid as racist and encouraged Tanzanian fathers to have larger families and not be too lazy to support them.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast those that had to uproot themselves suddenly when they were no longer welcome. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

Categories
Uncategorized

Netherlands 1967, a technical university goes brutal

Delft University of Technology has over the previous 177 years,become one the premier technical universities in the world. As such, it is much larger than how it started. In the 1960s that change was reflected in a new assembly hall that replaced a small local chapel for university events. With more students, the University thought big and brutal. 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 suspect the stamp designer was not a fan of brutalist architecture. Well it is an acquired taste. One that I am myself acquiring after doing this Polish stamp, seehttps://the-philatelist.com/2019/03/20/poland-1976-would-it-be-too-brutal-to-try-this-again/ and this Soviet stamp, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/01/02/soviet-union-1983-a-superpower-builds-big/.In those cases it was cold war era communist behind the buildings, but in this case the building came to be in the Netherlands. The impulses were the same as the school was more for the masses than before. Notice the floating spaceship aspect of the building built in 1966, the Russian fad of making their brutalist building appear to be floating was 10 years later. Innovation, as you would expect from a premier university in the field using it’s own graduates.

Todays stamp is issue A107, a 20 cent stamp issued by the Netherlands on January 5th, 1967. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the 125th anniversary of Delft University of Technology by showing the then new assembly hall. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

The University was founded as a Royal Academy in 1842. The original intent was to train colonial administrators for the then vast Dutch colonial empire. Originally the colonies were owned by the Dutch East India Company but the company went bankrupt and was nationalized in 1799. The Napoleonic Wars then played havoc with the empire but after that  the need was seen for more professional management. Over time, the Netherlands home country was rapidly industrializing  and the school transitioned to providing engineering training on an ever more vast scale. At the time of the Royal Academy there were 400 students, now there are over 19,000.

The assembly hall is called the Aula. It was designed by the architectural firm of van den Broek and Bakema, who were both graduates of the University. The firm mainly did large apartment buildings around Rotterdam in the Brutalist style but really went to town with the Aula. Their work was of some note internationally and they were invited to participate in the Interbau development in late 50s West Berlin. See that period Berlin architecture on a stamp here https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/17/berlin-1966-a-new-divided-and-more-corporate-berlin/

The building still stands though the great masses of visible prestressed concrete tends to be discolored if not recently pressurewashed. That is okay, brutalism only improves with a little wear, enhancing the period feel. Delft Technical University received the honor of another stamp on the 150th anniversary in 1992, but that issue did not feature the architecture of the campus. Perhaps the many newer buildings did not measure up.

Well my drink is empty, and thankfully my University days are far behind me. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.