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Napoleon III, from exile to prison to president to emperor and back to exile

Political heirs can sometimes capture the imagination. Imagining a return to the grandiosity of the past but hopefully without the missteps. Followers and the heirs themselves hold out the hope but it rarely works out. 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 a very early issue of France. It does a good job displaying the transformation of France back to Empire and Napoleon. The first French stamp issue featured Ceres the Roman Goddess of Agriculture. The Napoleon stamp very much resembled the Ceres stamp, with the details of the long stamp issue changing to reflect the details in the transformation of France’s longest serving head of state.

Todays stamp is issue A5 a 30 Centimes stamp issued by the French Empire in 1867. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $12.50. There is an imperforate version of this stamp that was solely for the use of the Rothschild banking empire that is worth $190.

Louis Napoleon was born to Napoleon’s younger brother and a daughter from Empress Josephine’s first marriage. The marriage was not happy and was only to produce heirs as by now Josephine was barren. After Napoleon’s defeat and death, Louis went with his mother into exile in Switzerland. He studied as a soldier and with German tutors. He tried as a young man to march back into France and claim the throne, but was stopped in Strasburg and forced into exile this time in London. He later tried again landing in Boulogne and immediately arrested by customs officers. He spent several years in French  jail writing widely read political manifestos. He was able to escape back to England. In the uprisings of 1848 King Louis-Philippe abdicated. Louis Napoleon was able to return from exile to Paris and win election to the Presidency of the new French 2nd Republic.

There were many achievements in France under Louis Napoleon. The education system was modernized and made to also educate women. The banking, agriculture and trade systems were modernized with much benefit to the economy. There was major public works including in Paris where the city center was first given its modern look and sewers, gas street lamps, boulevards and many parks were laid out. .

Louis Napoleon also ended the republic and became Emperor. The constitution did not allow him to run for another term and when he failed to get that changed there was a coup. A self coup that took much power from the Assembly and gave it to Emperor Napoleon III as he was now styled. Napoleon II had theoretically ruled for a few weeks in 1815. With Empire came a lot of attention to Empire and Napoleon III added colonies in Africa and Indo-China and sent troops to help keep the Vatican from being absorbed in a new Italy. He also sent many troops to Algeria and Mexico where he supported a pro French Emperor Maximillian. All these foreign adventures stretched the French Army thin. It was the period when conscription was being used to build large armies. France was late to this and as a result the small number of French troops in France were easy to defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Napoleon III was defeated, and again went into exile where he soon died.

Napoleon III did have time to find an Empress and produce an heir. After being rebuffed by two potential candidates, he married Eugenie of Montijo in 1849 when she was 23 and he 42. She became Empress Consort and produced an heir in 1856 Napoleon. Prince Imperial. He grew up in exile in London and died while serving in the British Army in South Africa during the war with the Zulus in 1878. After the death of her husband and son. Eugenie retired to the south of France to Villa Cyrnos that was built for her. She died in 1920 at age 94.

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

 

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Remembering Maejima confirming Japan’s decision to look west

Remembering the founder of the post office on a stamp seems pretty obvious. The decision to learn western ways was not an easy decision in Japan and the decision was hardly unanimous. 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 look of this stamp is quite western. Yes of course it contains Japanese style writing. In fact of two different styles. The first Japanese stamp from 1871 shows the early Chinese style lettering called Kanji and the later simplified Shinjitai style on the rest of the stamp. Nevertheless the style is quite western for a Japanese stamp issue. This was appropriate to honor the founder of the post office. He was an important voice of his day suggesting that the best way to preserve Japan was to adopt western ways and technology but within the Japanese system as a way to avoid foreign domination.

Todays stamp is issue A1860, a 80 Yen stamp issued by Japan on August 10th, 1994. It showed the father of the Japanese post office, Baron Maejima Hisoka and the first Japanese postage stamp of 1871. The stamp was part of a series that year that honored Japanese postal history. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used. In case you were wondering the first stamp from Japan displayed on this stamp is now worth $250 in the form shown on this stamp.

Maejima was born in 1835 when Japan was still ruled by the Shoguns that did their best to keep Japan closed off to the West. Westerners were considered barbarians and Japan eyed nervously what had happened in China giving in ever more to Western domination. There were however frequent intrusions of Western naval ships into Japanese waters. They possessed cannons that the Japanese had no defense against and no ability to build themselves. Treaties were pressed on Japan forcing open trading posts and allowing the presence of westerners.

The Shoguns were discredited by this and voices like Maejima arose suggesting the learning of Western ways in order that there be some defense against western encroachment. Maejima even proposed to the last Shogun ruler Kanji writing be removed from the Japanese writing system. That did not happen but the Meiji restoration occurred in 1868, Maejima was quickly hired and put in charge of arraigning for a postal service. He went to Great Britain to study their postal service and the first postal service linking Tokyo and Osaka was in operation within a year. When Maejima left the postal system 11 years later there were over 5000 post offices throughout Japan and the country was a member of the Universal postal union. The system was made self sufficient by offering banking services through the post office including savings accounts and money orders. This was the first option for this available in the countryside.

Maejima did much more beyond the postal service in later life. He cofounded a University and a newspaper and a political party. He invested in several of the early railroad concerns. He was even made a Baron under the then in place peerage system and served in the House of Peers in the 1910s. This was the upper house of the Japanese Diet. He died in 1919.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toast Japan’s entry into stamp issuing. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Belgium celebrates 100 years of independence by remembering their first German King

The nineteenth century European small country Kings are fun and invariably German. The German city states they were from were being absorbed at the same time new states were popping up seeking legitimacy. In Belgium’s case, the fact that it and the same Royal house was around 100 years later proves legitimacy is what they got. 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 remembers the first Belgian King Leopold I by using his official portrait painted by Belgian portrait painter Lievin de Winne. The stamp engraving was done by Jean De Bast who himself was later honored with a stamp we covered here. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/03/26/belgium-honors-a-stamp-engraver/. He always treated the Royals well and todays stamp is no exception.

Todays stamp is issue A67, a 60 Centimes stamp issued by the Kingdom of Belgium on July 1st, 1930. It was a three stamp issue on the occasion of the 100th anniversary  of Belgian independence from the Netherlands. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or in this case used.

Leopold was born Royal in Coburg Germany in a small German state in modern day Bavaria. When his home was overrun by Napoleon he traveled to Paris to seek an appointment in Napoleon’s Court. Unsatisfied with an offer of an adjunct position, Leopold was off to Russia to fight France as a part of the Czar’s Army. His service was distinguished and he was made a Lieutenant General by the age of 25 in 1815. Post war he moved to London and obtained British citizenship. There he married Princess Charlotte who would have been Queen of Great Britain had she lived. Leopold would then have been Prince Consort. It was not meant to be however as Charlotte died a year later a day after giving birth to a stillborn son. Leopold then had a long relationship with German actress Caroline Bauer. In her late in life memoirs she claims to have had a private religious marriage to Leopold but this is denied by his family.

Greece was breaking off from the Ottoman empire and offered it’s new throne to Leopold. He thought their situation was too precarious and refused. Greece found another German King. Belgium was in a long war to break away from the Netherlands. A series of French royals was considered and rejected but then Leopold was a compromise choice favored by Great Britain. Leopold accepted becoming King Leopold I of newly independent Belgium. There was a last short war with the Netherlands that was  beaten off with help from the French. Most Belgians were closer to France ethnically then Dutch. Leopold entered a second marriage to Louise of Orleans, the daughter of French King Louis Philippe. This resulted in four children. Leopold worked very hard to avoid European wars of the time by staying neutral. The economy however was not in good shape since ties with the Netherlands were cut.

Leopold managed to survive the insurrections of 1848. A group of Émigré alleged Belgians crossed from France to overturn the monarchy but Belgian troops managed to capture and disarm them. The political conflicts at the time were between conservative Catholics and secular liberals. As a Lutheran, liberals saw Leopold as one of them but he tried to keep an aura of being above politics. This worked as the liberals won most of the elections of the period.

Queen Louisa died of tuberculosis in 1850 at age 38. Her children were the Royal line. During this period Leopold fathered two sons via a mistress. At his request the sons and the mistress were given minor titles by the German city state of his birth. Leopold’s close connection to the British royal line is shown by the fact that both Queen Victoria and her husband Prince consort Albert were Leopold’s niece and nephew in different but close lines. Leopold died in 1865 and was succeeded as King of the Belgians by his son who served as Leopold II.

Well my drink is empty and I find the close interconnection of European Royals to almost like a prototype of modern Euro integration. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

 

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Sweden’s August Strindberg. He hates everything, except himself

This one is going to be a difficult one. Strindberg is well remembered in Sweden, but his life and work shows far more hypocrisy than what his works tend to lampoon. 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 aesthetics of todays stamp are terrible. The printing is bad and the paper is cheap. Sweden prospered in the years of this stamp issue so one can only deduce that postage stamp issuance was just not a priority.

Todays stamp is issue A93, a 20 Ore stamp issued by the kingdom of Sweden on January 22, 1949. It was part of a 4 stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the century of the birth of August Strindberg, the playwright and author. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

August Strindberg was born the son of a shipping executive and his wife who had been a maid before marriage. He resented his mother for her religious convictions and stupidity. He resented his father for not passing enough money to him, I am sure that also convinced Strindberg of his father’s stupidity. That his mother had been a maid allowed Strindberg to see himself as a working class invader in the world of the aristocrat. The fact that his father spent enough on his private education and university to give Strindberg entry into the aristocratic world where there are plays and literature seems not to have made any impression on him.

After university, Strindberg saw a play of his staged at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm while still in his early 20s. The King of Sweden thought enough of the young playwright to give him a monetary stipend. Strindberg did not like his play. His elaborate and expensive education had seen him exposed to the more modern form of play called naturalism that was the idea of the Frenchman Emile Zola. It sought more reality  in language and less plot and more characterization and politics. Strindberg sought to emulate this supposed ideal.

The first thing though was his affair with a married baroness. He eventually married her when she was 6 months pregnant. The affair and marriage led to his biggest success in a novel named “The Red Room” and a play named “Miss Julie”. Both were quite popular and satire the lives of the female aristocrat from the point of view of a seducing servant.

Strindberg thinking himself a nihilist wanted to go much further. He believed society was unreformable and needed to be burned down. To put him in the right frame of mind there were all the usual tropes. Dabbling in the occult. travel, psychedelic drug use, heavy alcohol consumption. repeated divorce and marrying ever younger wives. Sounds more like a narcissist. oh well….

As Strindberg aged he sought to become the national poet of Sweden and thought a return to his routes in historical works was the way to get there. The honor was not forthcoming and these works were not well received. What was working was many of his middle period works were redone and much seen worldwide giving him much fame. Perhaps in the way that Paul McCartney and Elton John perform their work from 40-50 years ago to much acclaim. The new stuff, not so much.

I have been somewhat harsh on Strindberg who was thought to be influential. Perhaps he was but personally I resent people spitting at a system they are living well off of. Feel free to correct me with facts in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Royal Castle Warsaw, Poles worldwide unite to restore after German destruction

After Germany invaded Poland, the Germans destroyed the old Royal Castle not as a fortune of war but as a direct attack on the nation. So even though the post war government was communist and therefore not much inclined to royalty or history, the decision was taken to rebuild. Something all Poles agreed with and many worldwide donated to. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Photobombing todays stamp is the also put back together Sigismund’s Column. Remember the 1920s Polish stamp featuring the column. Here is a link. https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/30/a-long-ago-symbol-of-a-great-poland-in-a-new-poland-before-germany-knocks-it-down/. Notice the quality of printing on the two stamps. Now the stamps are almost 50 years apart but still this was one area the communist regime was doing a good job.

The stamp today is issue A557, a 60 Groszy stamp issued by Poland on October 14, 1971. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the rebuilding of the castle and it being declared a heritage site. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

The Castle was built on the site of a previous royal residence by King Sigismund III coinciding with the move of the Polish capital from Cracow to Warsaw around 1600. The site was devastated by World War II. It partially burned in the initial attack and the castle staff stabilized the damage and began to hide artifacts. Hitler ordered the Castle dynamited and a historian team of Germans and Poles removed other artifacts. The building was not actually dynamited at this time but left a shell. After the Warsaw uprising was put down by the Nazis the dynamiting happened. The Germans planned to build a large Nazi center on the square but their time in Warsaw was almost over.

The new communist government put in place by the Red Army agreed to have the palace rebuilt and care was taken to recollect as many of the old artifacts as possible. A subscription was organized to pay for the restoration that occurred over many years and was still ongoing at the time of todays stamp. A majority of the funds for the work came from Poles in the United States.

A lot of Polish legends involve the castle. An interesting one involves King Sigismund Augustus who was mourning the death of his beloved wife Barbara. He sought out the services of mystic Pan Twardowski to conjure his departed wife in a séance. It was believed that Pan Twardowski had sold his soul to the devil in return for special powers. His wife appeared on a magic mirror that still exists in the castle. It was thought that this was achieved by the King’s mistress also named Barbara playing dress up with the assistance of the royal chamberlain. Pan Twardowski had a special codicil in his contract with the devil in that his soul could only be taken in Rome, a city he never intended to visit to cheat the devil. However the joke was on him when the devil came for him while staying at the Hotel Ryzm, Ryzm is Rome in Polish. When taken away, Pan Twardowski prayed to the Virgin Mary who had Pan Twardowski dropped on the moon with his friend that he turned into a spider. He still lives there today and his spider friend occasionally returns to earth on a string to bring him news of Poland.

Well my drink is empty and I will definitely have a few more pondering that legend. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Hungary swimming at the Helsinki Olympics

Hungary came in third in the medal count in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. The stories of their golden female swim team shows the struggles they faced to get their gold. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This is a big colorful stamp of the type so common in eastern Europe during the cold war. What to me makes it rise above the average is the pose of the swimmers mid dive. It shows the athleticism and strength required to compete with the best in the world. By showing as a generic athlete and without any national team markings, it hints at what the sorority of the best must be like.

Helsinki was awarded the 1952 summer games after their previous would be Olympics was cancelled in 1940. It marked the debut of the USSR, the PRC, Indonesia and the return of Germany and Japan to the Olympics. The medal count had the USA in first, the USSR in second, and Hungary in third. There was a funny bit of fake news out of Russia at the time when authorities announced that Russia won the games. When it was pointed out that USA had won the most medals, the Russians corrected kind of saying now that USSR and USA had tied under a point system that they invented.

The first Hungarian swimmer from 1952 we will talk about is Katalin Szoke. Author’s note: I have wrote the swimmers names in western style, in Hungarian, family name comes first. She won two golds in 100 meter freestyle events. She competed again without success in the 1956 games. Her father was a policeman and a member of the then right wing party. After the war the communist government sentenced him to death in absentia. He had run to Argentina. Katalin took her mother’s maiden name to sever ties to him and after divorcing a member of the water polo team married another teammate of her first husband and defected to the USA. She died in 2017.

Judit Temes won a bronze in the 100 meter freestle and a gold as part of the 100 meter relay team. She was Jewish and remained in Hungary. She died in 2012.

Valeria Gyenge won gold in the 400 meter freestyle event. She again competed in the 1956 games and afterword  defected to Canada with her future husband who was on the water polo team. Her father in law was a 1928 gold medal Olympian in Fencing that later died in a Nazi concentration camp. She is still alive at age 85 in Canada.

Eva Novac won four medals in freestyle and breaststroke. This includes a bronze from the 1948 games in London. She later defected to Belgium where she died in 2005.

Eva Szekely won a gold in 1952 and a silver in the 1956 games. She is also a Jew and credits her surviving the Holocaust because she already at a young age held the national speed swimming record. She also married and divorced a member of the water polo team. Her daughter competed and won in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics after being coached by her mother. Her daughter slightly broke with tradition by marrying and divorcing a member of the canoeing team. Eva is still alive in Hungary at age 91 and has authored 3 books about her experiences.

One can see that from war to Holocaust to the repression of 1956 the kind of  struggles faced  by the Hungarian athletes of the day. That they overcome to the extent of such a small country coming in 3rd in the medal count is extraordinary. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Saint Pierre and Miquelon, making the most expensive Frenchmen stop fishing

Explorers find an unoccupied group of islands in a rich area for fishing. Sounds promising even potentially lucrative. Or not. 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 am a little conflicted aesthetically about this stamp. I like the color palate and engraving that place it unmistakably in the French orbit. On the other hand a fairly ugly fish factory  on a prime piece of coast line seems not one should emphasize. I am going to come down on being in favor since catching fish is or at least was the whole point of the settlement.

Todays stamp is issue A36, a 30 Centimes stamps issued by the French overseas Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon on October 22, 1956. It displays a fish freezing plant and was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 95 cents used.

French and British settlement occurred in different periods up to the Napoleonic wars after which the French claim was recognized. The islands sit over 2000 miles from France but only 16 miles from Newfoundland. It was a tiny settlement that eked out a meager existence  from catching fish and occasionally alcohol and tobacco smuggling. During World War II, the islands went with Axis ally Vichy France. It was the closest Axis encroachment of North America. Fearing an Axis forward base, Canada readied a takeover. This was complicated by Quebecois concerns, see https://the-philatelist.com/2017/12/27/canada-supports-the-war-except-quebec-and-churchill-just-ignores/ , and neutral USA’s Monroe Doctrine. While Canada dithered, the Free French under De Gaulle sent a few ships that turned the islands to the Allies, much to the annoyance of Canada and England.

Even with the fishing, the islands require a great deal of subsidies from France to be viable economically. That is how the islands got the reputation of being the worlds most expensive Frenchmen. It also explains why the islands chose to stay with France when independence was offered in the 60s.

The economic situation as worsened with the banning of fishing. Canada from Ottawa and France from Paris agreed to ban deep sea fishing in both Newfoundland and Saint Pierre and Miquelon. The fish factory is now derelict, see below. A new round of French investment is going on to promote the still allowed tourism.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toast the hardy if expensive French of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. I have had the good fortune of visiting Newfoundland and I know the weather extremes in that part of the world. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Romania remembers a long ago artist while having a mini cultural revolution.

A series of local artists self portraits. A fitting complement to the self reflection that must go on during a period of heavy change. 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 large well printed stamp in bold colors is always a pleasure. Doubly so when the art being displayed is actually local to the place. The stamp designers in this case decided on a group of Romanian artists’ self portraits. This can be seen as a country looking in the mirror. How appropriate at a time of great change. There is always the fight over what to preserve and what to renew. A great time to look in the mirror.

Todays stamp is issue A608, a 6.5 Lei stamp issued by the Peoples Republic of Romania on August 10th, 1972. The stamp features Romanian artist Ion Andreescu’s self portrait ninety years after his death. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations featuring self portraits of local artists. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents in its cancelled to order state.

Romania in the 1960s had its communist government go through a period of maturation. Many of the Warsaw Pact allies found themselves with governments that were much more hardline than the Soviet Union itself as their leaders did not change when Khrushchev came to power in Russia. This left an opening for China that was much more doctrinally pure. Romania itself was coming out of a period of punishment for being on the wrong side in World War II. It was only just wrestling control of its industries that had been taken over by Russian entities as to guarantee payment of reparations due the Soviet Union.

In 1965, Nicolae Ceausescu took over as part boss. He was able to use some of the developments of the past government to his advantage. Romania had come a long way to transition from a peasant country to an industrial one with the concomitant move to the cities. The previous government had also managed to get Soviet troops out of Romania in 1958. This made it much more difficult to snap Romania back into line as was done with Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Ceausescu had more freedom to operate.

Operate he did. He opened relations both with Red China and with the west. Romania always had a closeness  with France and this rematerisalized. The  ties with the west led to an influx of consumer goods into the cities that was very popular. Also the contacts with China and North Korea inspired Ceausescu to embark on a plan to renew the cities in a Communist modern image. This lead to much construction of apartments and subways and large public edifices. This tended to wipe clean the vestiges of old Romania. The industrialization and urbanization led to a reduction in birth rates. This was addressed by banning abortion and a big push to more children that lead to the largest generation Romania as seen to date. Ceausescu was out to make Romania an important country.

Ion Andreescu the artist on todays stamp had a short life. He was allowed into a local art school and soon was staying on as a teacher of drawing and calligraphy. He was allowed to go on to Paris where he was able to refine his skills and take in the influence of the impressionist movement. He did both landscapes and portraits including a series of portraits of a Romanian peasant girl. At age 32 he returned to Romania sick with tuberculosis. He died of this the next year.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to celebrate introspection. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Saxony 1852, Standing next to Prussia but trying to lean toward Austria

For the German states to be governed separately made no sense. That does not mean it will be easy to convince their rulers to put Deutschland uber alles. 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 Saxon stamp shows the genius of the only slightly older originating Victoria stamps of Great Britain. Notice on this stamp how the leader is shown in profile as in a bust on a medal or coin . Notice the style of gummed paper that would be difficult to counterfeit. These are all directly copied from Great Britain and the fact that it became universal almost immediately shows it’s rightness.

Todays stamp is issue A3, a 3 Neu-Grochen stamp issued by the Empire of Saxony in 1851. It is part of a five stamp issue in various denominations displaying then Saxon King Fredrick Augustus II. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $25 used. This stamp had resided for years in an old album owned by my father. He looked it up in his catalog from circa 1980 that then listed the value again as $25. This stamp does seem to stagnate. Saxony being in the East, more copies may have arrived on the market when Germany reunited in 1990. There is a version of the one half Neu-Grochen stamp where they printed it on paper meant for a different value altering the color. It is worth $20,000 mint.

Saxony lies in Eastern Germany bordering Prussia. It experienced a great deal of growth during the period as this area became heavily industrialized. The King Fredrick Augustus II tried to act as a counterbalance for Prussia by often allying itself with Austria and even Napoleon’s France. Thus over time it’s territory shrunk by picking the loosing side of the many wars trying to bring Germany together under Prussia’s leadership.

At first Fredrick Augustus was a fairly liberal leader giving more self rule to Saxon cities and ending serfdom in the Empire. The uprising of 1848 still targeted the King. After making early concessions, Fredrick Augustus changed tact and came down hard. He dissolved Parliament and hid in a rural fortress while his soldiers put down the rebellion. This allowed Fredrick Augustus to survive. What he could not do was produce an heir, at least a legitimate one. His first marriage to Austrian Arch Duchess Maria Caroline was unhappy and childless due to his infidelity and her frequent bouts of epilepsy that killed her in 1832 at age 31. His second marriage to Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria was happier but also childless. He did father a prominent musician of the time illegitimately.

This lack of a heir proved disastrous. While traveling by horse in Tyrol, he fell off and was killed when the horse stepped on his head. The throne passed to his more militaristic younger brother John who shortly got entwined in a final war with Prussia that ended with Saxony forced to join the North German confederation dominated by Prussia. This ended Saxony’s stamp issuance. Now Dowager Queen Maria Anna had a chapel built at the site of Fredrick Augustus’ accident. The graveyard became the preferred resting place for later members of Saxony’s Royal House of Wettin. The House of Wettin is no longer ruling but is closely related to the current English and Belgian Royal lines.

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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Zambia 2000, How did we get here

I have done a fair number of 19th century stamps lately. So to change it up a little lets move forward to the 21st century. Some things change, but most stay the same. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This is an interesting stamp visually. It was part of a series depicting African legends on the creation of the earth. This is probably too sectarian and divisive a subject for a western stamp. The drawings though are well executed and aimed at children. One issue that crops up being in the modern time is that it is evident that the stamp is more of a curiosity rather than something to use for postage.

Todays stamp is issue A179, a 600 Kwacha stamp issued by the Republic of Zambia on November 10th 2000. It was part of a three stamp issue. The Scott catalog seems to only view the stamps as a sheet together. The three stamps together are worth $1.60 whether mint or canceled to order. I only possess the one stamp featured today so I will guestimate its value at 53 cents.

Zambia was granted independence from Britain in 1964 after a white led federation with Zimbabwe and Malawi could not be sustained. It was originally intended to be a democracy but the first President Kenneth Kaunda ruled for over a quarter of a century with no legal opposition. Originally whites were given a voice in the legislature but this was withdrawn and most left. At independence, Zambia only processed 100 black college graduates. It did have the revenue from all the newly nationalized industries but the educational system required massive investment. Kaunda became a leader in the non aligned movement and a major supporter  of majority rebel movements in the still white lead countries around Zambia. This lead to increased security risks and even clashes with Rhodesia and South Africa.

Kaunda sought and received aid from East and West but much was squandered on corruption and useless military equipment like MIG 21 fighters, that Zambia could not properly maintain or operate. The economy was heavily dependent on copper exports but when price levels of copper dropped the only replacement was debt. The economy contracted 30 percent in the last years of Kaunda’s rule. Eventually the economic distress lead to strikes and coup attempts and Kaunda allowed a real election with labor leader Fredrick Chiluba winning and becoming the second President of Zambia.

The styles of the two men were quite different. Kaunda was famous for his khaki safari suits. In Southern Africa the suit is known as a kaunda suit. President Chiluba was only 5 feet tall and wore high heeled shoes and fancy business suits. The two men were still rivals and sniped at each other. Chiluba tried to have Kaunda’s citizenship revoked for having parents from then federated Nyasaland. Kaunda in turn accused Chiluba of being a thieving, cross dressing, dwarf. Chiluba was accused of stealing 50 million dollars from the government by having the intelligence service wire it to London. Chiluba said it was for foreign missions and was cleared by a friendly local court. Over 60 million was recovered from him after he left office. Kaunda is still around in retirement in his 90s and Zambia still stagnates.

Well my drink is empty and I will now depressingly contemplate what a country is to do when there is no one competent to run it. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.