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Housekeeping around the 200th post.

John C Publisher

Since I started this endeavor last October, I have now published 200 articles. That is about 120,000 words. I have personally succeeded greatly in that the research I am now constantly doing is greatly expanding my knowledge and I have come across many new personal revelations. As I hoped it would, the archive of articles is perhaps the biggest asset of the enterprise. When you search it on the sidebar, sometimes the website only gives you a thumbnail. Remember to click on the picture of the stamp to get the whole thing.

Here are links to a few of my favorites if you missed them.

  1. https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/09/communism-provides-smokes-for-atheists-and-then-a-refugee-camp-for-muslims/
  2. https://the-philatelist.com/2018/03/27/fiume-the-city-state-whose-principle-was-music-and-weapon-was-castor-oil/
  3. https://the-philatelist.com/2018/03/05/india-suggests-an-anti-communist-aid-program-that-the-usa-should-pay-for-and-australia-and-britain-agree/

Here are some of the worst.

  1. https://the-philatelist.com/2018/04/20/peak-japan/
  2. https://the-philatelist.com/2018/06/01/hungary-swimming-at-the-helsinki-olympics/

I hope over time my writing and proofreading skills will improve and that if my readership continues increasing that eventually we will all enjoy a lively comment section. Thanks for reading and come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Ruanda-Urundi 1959, if we are leaving the Congo, we are not staying here

As recently as World War I, Belgium was still actively trying to add to its colonies in central Africa. Just 40 years later, there was pressure everywhere to just leave. 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 stamp with a gorilla on it from a European colony in Africa. In todays world we are on dangerous ground. I considered not doing the stamp. At least the gorilla is native to the territory. I will report the intentions of the Belgian colonial administration and why it failed in it’s stated and real objectives. This I believe will show a large contribution to why the post independence countries were such failures.

Todays stamp is issue A29, a 10 Centimes stamp issued by the Belgian administration of the United Nation Trust Territory of Ruanda-Urundi in 1959. It was part of a 14 stamp issue in various denominations showing examples of the local wildlife. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

During World War I Belgium sent an invasion force into the area from neighboring Belgian Congo. The area was then part of German East Africa. The attack was successful and the wars end saw Belgium occupying the territory. Post war the League of Nations recognized Belgium’s administration of the area but put forth conditions that Belgium was to ready the area for independence by investing in education and economic development. The Belgians had invaded under the old profit model where the economic output of the area is first used to make remittances back to Belgium with only a fraction remaining in the area to fund progress in the colony. The Belgians stated their goals this way so as to justify an extended time of the area as a profitable colony. “The real work is to change the African in his essence, to transform his soul, to do that one must love him and enjoy daily contact with him. He must be cured of his thoughtlessness, he must accustom himself to living in society, he must overcome his inertia.” Not sure any amount of time or money could achieve all that.

The money to accomplish it was miniscule. The education system was mainly just charity through the Belgian Catholic Church. The economic output was mainly coffee plantations of the type that rarely survive independence. At the time of independence the two new countries had less than 100 native college graduates between them. There were Royal lines in the two countries that predated colonial times and still ruled aspects of the administration of natives. These were not popular and were from a minority tribe. It was still Belgium’s intention to turn the countries fully over to them.

The Crown Prince in Burundi tried a stunt to give the Royal line more legitimacy. He returned early from his Belgian education with no degree but marketing himself as a labor leader who was going to rid the place of the Belgians. His party did well in the Belgian organized elections. The Prince and now soon to be Prime Minister was then assassinated. The heads of the rival party were blamed and quickly executed. The show trials purported to show the Belgian Colonial Governor Jean-Paul Harroy was behind it. This got rid of the rival party and surely sped up Belgium’s departure.

The unproven accusations greatly damaged the reputation of Governor Harroy. He had been somewhat a star with a PhD in Colonial Sciences. Something I am sure that is not much studied anymore. His thesis on African soil erosion resulting from colonial agricultural methods was quite influential worldwide and part of the decolonization movement. In any case Harroy returned to Belguim to become a University Professor and both Royal lines were overthrown within a few years.

There was a well known movie called “Hotel Rwanda” that showed scared locals and westerners marooned there desperately trying to get the Belgians to intervene during one of Rwanda’s many troubled periods 30 years post independence. They didn’t of course, by then they knew that their original mission was impossible and the Africans were themselves the ones to end their troubles.

The Mountain Gorilla is native to that part of Africa. They are critically endangered  with only about 880 remaining. This is a small improvement over a low of 410 estimated in 1981. There is a black market trade in gorilla babies stolen to be sold as pets or for Asian zoos. This also usually results in the death of an adult who will fight to the death for the baby.

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

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Soviet Union 1936, the Young Pioneers take a bite out of crime

The Boy Scouts existed in Russia prior to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. It was however the province of White Russian Scoutmasters. So the Scouts were reimagined to fit the new system. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The visual on this stamp is not the usual fare. Countries like to put their best foot forward on their stamps. So to see a crime being committed, the hooligan on the right is breaking into a mailbox, is surprising. Thankfully the boy on the left is not a part of the gang but rather a Young Pioneer. So he can be trusted to put a stop to this mischief. If only life was so black and white.

Todays stamp is issue A323, a one Kopec stamp issued by the Soviet Union in April 1936. The 6 stamp issue honors  the Young Pioneer scouting organization. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1. An imperforate pair of this stamp is worth $1650.

In the first years of Communist rule there was much questioning if Scouting should be allowed to continue, Many Scoutmasters were supporters of the Czarist regime and many had fled. Others could not be trusted to train the young to be a part of the new system. Vladimir Lenin’s wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, proposed a new scouting system that would promote communist values. The remaining loyal Scoutmasters proposed that the existing Scouting system be taken over and this was done. The new organization began in 1922 and by the end of the year there was a national organization named the Vladimir Lenin Spartak Young Pioneers Organization.

The organization grew rapidly and was open to girls as well as boys. By 1940 there were nearly 14 million members and by 1974 that number reached 25 million. Most of their activities were standard scouting stuff but there was an overlay of preaching about the greatness of the Communist Party. Last year in America it was considered controversial that President Trump spoke to the Boy Scout National Jamboree, so politics no longer mix with Scouting.

This tie in to the Party proved the organizations undoing. When the Communist Party was dissolved in Russia in 1991, that was also the end of the Young Pioneers. There as been a much smaller revival of the Pioneers in modern Russia and a few of the former Soviet Republics still close with Russia.

Well my drink is empty and I have a special surprise for you. Below is a Soviet film about 10 minutes long about a Pioneer summer camp circa 1940. It is in Russian of course but still easy to follow and a window into a different time. Enjoy. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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150 years of South Australia, Was 1986 the last time such a thing was celebrated?

The stamp show a ship that carried the first British settlers to a colony on the other side of the world. Showing the ship shows how perilous the whole enterprise was. 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. celebrated

I am torn, me not the stamp, about the visuals. The ship is shown, but not in a way to get a sense of the chances being took to sail in it to the other side of the world. A Royal decree is shown but not in a way that it can really be read. By 1986, even Dominion status with Great Britain was controversial. As such it makes it difficult to get too excited about Britain gaining a new colony. Celebrating such an event has gotten even more precarious since, with the thought that settlers were taking something from someone else more politically correct. It must be remembered though that Australia is a huge place and the number of Aborigines in the whole of Australia was only 500,000 people at the time of first European settlement.

Todays stamp is issue A362, a 33 cent stamp issued by the Commonwealth of Australia on February 12th, 1986. The stamp celebrates the 150th anniversary of the founding of the British colony of South Australia. The stamp shows the ship HMS Buffalo that transported several hundred English colonists and the first Governor, Admiral John Hindmarsh. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents.

South Australia was founded somewhat differently from the other Australian colonies. The settlers were not convicts or indentured laborers. Instead they were people who had paid for land in the new colony. The revenue raised was used to bring in at no cost to them other skilled laborers. This might have slowed development but meant there were not masses of unskilled being exploited. It was a fairly dry area, but sheep raising and wheat farming eventually got going. This lack of unskilled labor meant that all the settlers were full citizens and were quickly demanding their rights of self government as English subjects. This was quickly given with a Bicameral legislature and full suffrage including women quite early. This freedom did much to attract further settlers from Germany as well as the UK. Soon copper and even uranium deposits were found in South Australia, but the gold rush was only in Victoria. South Australia in 1901 joined as the Commonwealth of Australia, after a proclamation from Queen Victoria.

The Ship on the stamp is the HMS Buffalo. It was built in Calcutta India as the Hindustan a merchant vessel, and was bought by the Royal Navy after a journey to the UK. It was refitted  to act as a colonist transport. The colonists were first set a shore at an earlier settlement on Kangaroo Island, while surveyors scouted the best place for a city. Adelaide was named after then King William IV’s Queen. The ship made further journeys afterward until it sunk in a storm off New Zealand. Wreckage of the HMS Buffalo was spotted after a tsunami in 1960 temporarily changed the water level. New Zealand’s Navy has since surveyed the wreckage.

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast the memory of the original 600 English colonists of South Australia. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Monaco 1966, 100 years of modern Monaco thanks mostly to Prince Charles III

An out of the way city needs revenue to go with it’s recently received recognition. A bright dowager Princes has an idea and an energetic Prince to make it happen. 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.

Small European city states often have some of the best stamps. It is important to them as they print far more than necessary for postage. Some may think that this extra printing aimed at collectors is what holds down values. I think a bigger problem is the lack of popularity of the hobby in Monaco itself. Though Monaco processes many well off older folks. The country has yet to convince these tax transplants to take up collecting the many attractive local stamp issues. Strong local demand could rapidly raised the depressed value of Monaco’s stamps.

Todays stamp is issue A165, a 12 Centimes stamp issued by the Principality of Monaco on June 1st, 1966. The stamp is part of a 9 stamp issue in various denominations honoring the 100th anniversary of the casino at Monte Carlo. The stamp features Prince Charles III who saw to the completion of the casino project. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint of used. None of the stamps in this issue are worth over a dollar.

Monaco had been ruled by a Prince of the Grimaldi line. They was an allegiance to the Italian state of Genoa and later Sardinia. Though Monaco lies in the south of France the native people are mainly of Italian decent. In the 1860s, Monaco ceded 80 % of it’s territory to France in exchange for French recognition of Monaco’s independence. The loss of territory had a terrible impact on Monaco’s revenue as it lost the tax collections on the agricultural areas.

Princess Consort Maria had the idea of bringing in a Casino that would be owned jointly by the state and the Royal family. She was the de facto Regent for her husband as he was an actor in France in his youth and incapable of ruling. Princess Maria’s son Charles was properly trained and when Maria’s husband Florestan I died, Maria and Charles worked together to make her idea a reality.

An early attempt at a casino was a failure. Monaco was not easy to reach and the small facility was poorly managed and marketed. Princess Dowager Maria set out to make a casino more like a then successful one in Bad Homburg. She set out to recruit the French manager befriending his wife in order to convince on the move to then isolated Monaco. Charles then worked  with the new management to re-site a larger facility on a hill that was rechristened Monte Carlo. Monte Carlo translates from Italian to Mount Charles. Carlo being the Italian styling of Charles. The casino and related development put Monaco on much better ground financially and there was much excitement in 19th century Europe about the prospect of breaking the bank at Monte Carlo. This was not thievery but happened occasionally when someone won more money than the dealer had available at the table. The casino still exists.

I am surprised that both in this 1966 stamp issue and the later one from 2016 celebrating the 150th anniversary of Monte Carlo, there is no recognition of the role of Princess Consort Maria. Hopefully this oversight will be seen to in the 2066 200th anniversary of the casino. If the casino makes it that long, if Monaco makes it that long, if they still produce new stamp issues, if The Philatelist is still around to notice, if, if if….

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another for the traveling gamblers whose losses keep the lights on in Monaco. Hope you still enjoyed your trip. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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If our Navy is going to be more about sea control than raiding, we must modernize

The American rebellion against Britain saw the new armed forces influenced by France. When the Navy started to have big power ambitions, modernization was required. Not just in ships but in training. 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 celebrates the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Doing so, it displays midshipman in original and then current uniforms. This is meant to imply a long and storied history. The reality in 1937 was that America was still a second rate naval power and was really a statement of ambition. The ambition to become preeminent at least in numbers was soon to be realized and the Naval Academy was a big force in making the Navy more professional.

The stamp today is issue A267, a five cent stamp issued by the United States in 1937. It was part of a five stamp issue in various denominations honoring the United States Navy. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

The United States Navy was heavily influenced in it’s beginnings by the French. The British Royal Navy was the preeminent naval power of the time and other navies like the French were more set up for coastal defense and commerce raiding. In the early days, training was in the form of cadet midshipmen learning at sea on Navy ships. There were those that saw this was inadequate as the small crews on the small ships were untrained. An on shore naval academy was contemplated that would be a five year course on sea and land that could provide the Navy a professional, stable force of naval officers. A proponent of this was Admiral Perry. He had colonial ambitions for America that required a professional British style Navy.

An incident occurred in 1842 that lead to the decision to start the academy. A USN brig, the USS Somers was on it’s first cruise to Liberia. A brig is a small sailing vessel with a crew of less than 200 including many new midshipmen. The mission was to bring Washington dispatches to a larger USN frigate. They ended up missing the frigate in Liberia and hoped to catch up with it in the West Indies. On the way the Captain Alexander Mackenzie heard a story passed along from below decks. The story was that the midshipmen were planning to mutiny, stealing the ship and becoming  a pirate ship near the Isle of Pines. Captain Mackenzie instructed the Purser to keep an eye on the midshipmen who the story had come from. Late at night meetings were being conducted with many sailors where papers were presented with Greek writing and Pirate slogans. At this point the Captain took things much more seriously. They were two weeks from port. The Midshipman was placed in irons. He now claimed the pirate story from him was a joke and the late night meetings were recruitment for a fraternity. While no court marshal was held, the officers unanimously felt the conspirators had to be put to death and this was done. There was no mutiny.

Back at port, the Captain found himself facing the court marshal, the midshipman killed was the son of the Secretary of the Navy. He was exonerated on a split decision with many accepting his explanation of the great distance to port and the inadequate restriction facilities on the small boat. Captain Mackenzie’s naval career was over but he was a noted Naval Historian. The Naval Academy was founded in 1845. The Somers affair was fictionalized in a book by Herman Melville called “Billie Budd”.

The Naval Academy continues today and graduates about a thousand midshipmen and now women. About a quarter go in the Marine Corps. The Academy accepts les than 10 percent of applicants and most subjective lists rank it high nationally on the education provided. There is no tuition and midshipmen are further given a small stipend. The US Navy is now very much in the Royal Navy tradition with worldwide deployments and quality at the highest level. The Chinese Navy now has more ships.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another of Gin to toast the US Navy, Royal Navy style. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Hungary pretends local Marxist rule

When a place has been conquered, there comes the question of how much of a local face do you put on your rule. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

I like the visuals of todays stamp. A political leader pleasantly listening to the concerns of country people. Where it falls down is how different the style of dress of leader and follower. Notice also that the little girl has flowers to present to the leader. As a young girl in Germany, my Grandmother was chosen to present the bouguet of flowers to Kaiser Wilhelm when he visited her school. The picture would have looked a lot like this. She remembered it the rest of her life. Yet should a Marxist leader in a classless society be duplicating pictures of Royals. Perhaps its time to reread “Animal Farm”.

Todays stamp is issue A213, a 60 Filler stamp issued by Hungary on March 9th, 1952. It celebrated the 60th anniversary of the birth of Hungarian General Secretary Matyas Rakosi. It was part of a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Matyas Rakosi was born in present day Serbia to a not practicing Jewish family. His ancestors had played a part in the insurrections of 1848. He was well educated including time in London and Hamburg. During World War I, he served in the Austro-Hungarian army until captured by Russia in 1915. He escaped prisoner of war status and joined the Bolshevik insurrections in Saint Petersburg. There was a short lived Communist government in Hungary circa 1920 that he was an official in but soon he was back in exile in the Soviet Union. He married there a divorced lady from Irkutsk, an Asian part of Russia. In January 1945, in preparation for taking Hungary from Germany, the Soviets selected Rakosi to lead and put together a new government. The takeover was somewhat in the system with other parties forced to merge with the communists and then purged of those deemed untrustworthy or disloyal. Rakosi called the mergers and purges salami tactics. You cut then off like you slice a salami.

Hungary was in a predicament when it came to recovering from World War II. Much of the wealth of the country had been destroyed and yet as a former Axis ally, there was also much reparations to pay mainly to Russia. The payments totaled 23 percent of GNP a year. It also had to pay for the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary. West Germany faced similar challenges and pulled off an economic miracle of recovery. Unfortunately Rakosi was no Adenauer.

Rakosi was however a close ally/front man for Stalin. His purges rid the government of Marxist reformers like Imre Nagy. Nagy could sense the discontent and rose up trying to turn Hungary into a neutral but still Communist country. By that time Khrushchev  was in power in Russia and Stalin’s stooges were out of favor. Nagy was put down and tried and executed. Rakosi himself was not allowed to stay in power either. He traveled to Russia under the guise of medical treatment but then spent the rest of his life there in out of the way Kirgikistan. Russia offered to let him retire to Hungary if he stayed out of politics but Rakosi refused. His remains were returned to Budapest but his grave is marked only with his initials to prevent vandalism.

No doubt the Axis government that preceded the Communist government did not allow left wing types to mature locally. As was the same with right of center types in Communist times. That makes the awkwardness  of being lead by stranger exiles when the pendulum swings. Not a recipe for success. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Trinidad and Tobago allowing oil revenue to power independance

Post war Britain wanted colonies to move toward independence. To that end, a new group of local leaders were trained, in this case at Oxford. That the result was such a rebuke of the UK deserves study. 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 will be fairly familiar to British Commonwealth collectors. Not so much in the particulars but in the theme. The sun was setting on the empire and the new young Queen wanted to show what Britain had done for the colonies. In this case it was the admittedly impressive treasury building built in 1936-1938 on the site of the former treasury office that had burned. It was also the site that the British Governor had declared slavery over in 1831.

The building was built in the art deco style and originally also contained the central post office. After independence in 1962 the building was renovated to house the new central bank of Trinidad and Tobago. Both the original construction and the 60s renovation were paid for by the UK and done by local architect Anthony C. Lewis. In 1986, the building began to house offices of the government finance ministry. It is now listed as a Trinidad heritage site.

How the building looks now.

The stamp today is issue A28, a 6 cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Trinidad and Tobago on September 24th, 1960. It was part of a 14 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The plan for the British West Indies was to form a independent federation of islands that would have Dominion status. Canada was to take over for Britain somewhat in looking after the islands. This fell apart when Jamaica withdrew. 10-1=naught was the quote from one of the local leaders of the time.

The independence movement was being lead by an Oxford trained history PhD named Eric Williams. His education was paid by Britain and he chose not to serve in World War II. He felt himself much persecuted and espoused the discredited idea that Britain had abolished slavery not out of doing what was right but instead because it had become unprofitable. He was allowed still to run for Prime Minister and ruled uninterrupted for 19 years until his death. His term was characterized by much corruption and racial agitating. Or perhaps he was just persecuted by those horrible British.

In any case a black power movement arose against Williams and students struck and the army mutinied. He restored order by arrests and police killings and resolved to remove from government those not black. Whites of course were already out but long present Indians and Chinese were still working in government. Well not for long. The black power movement, however was understandable. Expectations were high with independence and much oil revenue. When things got worse not better it must have been a big disappointment. Williams agreed to resign but then reneged and stayed in power another 10 years till his death. I bet his rivals felt a little persecuted themselves.

Well my drink is empty and so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Germany 1920, if we are still a Reich, what happened at Weimar?

Germany after World War I was a place of much suffering and soul searching. On how to move forward, people had different ideas, and indeed different stamp offerings. 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 in a 1920 printing of a stamp that first appeared in 1902. The statement at the bottom of the stamp translates into always united. The symbols of the stamp relate to symbols of German unification in 1870 under the Prussian King. Germany had just lost a little over 2 million soldiers plus over 800 thousand civilians to the Allied blockade and the Spanish flu. The economy was devastated and the last Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated both his German and his Prussian title and was in exile in Holland. A new constitution had been ratified making a much smaller, not united German Republic.

So how could this stamp still be in use in 1920. Without even a Spanish style overprint to track the flip flopping. There were other stamps out at the time that reflect more the situation. There was a much less grandly printed stamp showing a live tree stump with a little new growth. It was to show Germany surviving the difficulties. Reich does not appear on it. It might have been too much for everyone to just suddenly fall into line. While acknowledging the defeat not all were ready to abandon the ideal of all German people united under one government. For a while at least people could display their future hopes on their letters. An austere but freer and less aggressive Germany or a return to the vision of a strong united Germany.

One should also contrast the visuals of the stamp with the later issues of the Nazis.Those stamp offerings came from a very different tradition that was more in tune with populism. This 1920 stamp is just not that. It appeals more to the old aristocracy, trying to inspire a new Bismarck to put the old system back together.

Todays stamp is issue A21, a 2.5 Mark stamp issued by Germany in 1920. The obvious difference between it and the 1902 version is the higher denomination. This reflects to inflation gripping Germany as money was printed to meet obligations both foreign and domestic. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents mint. The prewar version of the stamp with a lower denomination and a different color is worth $120 mint. Collectors seem to side with the early believers rather than the somewhat pathetic holdouts of 1920. Remember one thing the Weimar Republic was great about was keeping the printing presses humming.

There still are a few holdouts. Huis Doom, Kaiser Wilhelm II’s home in exile in Holland still hosts 25,000 Germans annually on his birthday celebrating German Royalty. Kaiser Wilhelm is buried at this home as he refused Hitler’s offer to be buried in Germany until the House of Hohenzollern is back on the throne, at least of Prussia.

Well my drink is empty and this stamp has me wondering which stamp my maternal German ancestors would have used. I expect the Reich stamp but my German cousins today would prefer the live tree stump stamp, or more likely just a Euroland stamp offering. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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North Korea 1991, Our Communist Royal House will survive because we have Juche

North Korea’s regime survived the fall of communism. Perhaps because they modified Marxism to become self reliant and therefore less influenced by life outside. 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 big, well printed and aimed at the international collector. Sure Giant Pandas are more to do with China than North Korea, but they are cute. Note also that the date on the stamp uses the Gregorian calendar rather than the Juche calendar used in North Korea. This easy source of foreign exchange for the Eastern Bloc did much to help specialized stamp collectors.

Todays stamp is issue A1379, a 50 Chon stamp issued by the Peoples Democratic Republic of Korea(North) on January 10th, 1991.It was part of a 6 stamp souvenir sheet displaying giant pandas. According to the Scott Catalog, the souvenir sheet is worth $1.75 cancelled to order. I only possess one stamp of the six on the sheet so that puts its value at 30 cents.

The Korean peninsula was divided between North and South in 1953 at the conclusion of the hostilities of the Korean war. There was still a technical state of war with the south and a large compliment of American military there. North Korea was thus required to stay on a war footing  and invest the bulk of the recourses on it’s military. It was still the case that much development occurred in the North with the help of substantial Soviet and Chinese aid. Agricultural reform went more smoothly in the North than in China or the Soviet Union. Through the late seventies, the North at least matched the South in output although with much less emphasis on consumer goods.

Kim Il-sung realized that the North could not rely indefinitely on aid and needed to become self sufficient. He developed a political ideology that built on Marxism but more emphasized the individual in achieving self reliance. The system was called Juche and was credited to Kim Il-sung and exported to open minds throughout the third world. The idea of not having to be reliant on foreigners had much appeal to newly independent former colonies. Achieving the ideal was not however in those countries reach

The development that went on was much in the old Soviet model with things like steel mills and mining at the forefront of the planned industrialization. There was a drive to boost exports by bringing in capitalist technology but this required debt and the monies realized in the market were below what was hoped. When the plan did not work out the debt was quickly defaulted on.

One aspect unique in the communist world was the personal aggrandizement of Kim Il-sung. This allowed him to introduce his son into politics as his heir so that the family could act as a royal house with hereditary succession. The country even introduced a Juche calendar timing dates based on the number of years since Kim Il-sung’s birth. It is definitely a cult of personality but does not extend to North Korea’s leaders having any Godlike powers as is suggested in some African countries.

Kim Il-sung died in 1994 having escaped the tumult that befell other communist countries in the 90s. That in itself does bolster his ideas of self reliance. His son and now his grandson have remained in power and although economic development has not kept pace with the South in recent years there must be some respect for the ability of the North to go it alone.

The giant panda is only native to China. At the current time there is no zoo in North Korea in the program to lease pandas for 10 year periods as exist in many parts of the world. The lease program has been successful in raising money and awareness of the need to preserve and increase numbers of the endangered pandas.

Well my drink is empty and so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. The country of North Korea shows for bad and good what a country is like when it takes complete control of itself. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.