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Cook Islands 1968. remembering Captain Cook’s search for Terra Australis

The Cook Islands remember Captain Cook. Well I should hope so. 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.

Cook Islands are administered by New Zealand and the majority of people whose heritage is traced to Cook now live in New Zealand. These people are Maori. That does not mean the stamp issues are not full bore British Commonwealth. Collectors are taught to scoff at stamps made specially for collectors but check out the artwork and use of gold trim on todays stamp. The collector then got his penny worth and the collector today is still getting a visual treat for his 25 cents. Cook Islands have this decade experimented with stamp issues from Rarotonga, the biggest island. These are to have a more Maori flair, perfect for all the Maori stamp collectors.

Todays stamp is issue A39 a one penny stamp issued by the Cook Islands then an independent state in free association with New Zealand. The UN frowned on colonies and New Zealand could point to lots of costs that make the association far from free, but this is the words arraigned to please. The stamp was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations that recognized the 200th anniversary of Captain Cook’s first voyage of discovery on HMS Endeavor. This stamp shows a painting of Cook’s ship off Huahine Island in Tahiti by the painter John Clevely. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused.

As can be gathered from the stamp, Captain Cook set out on HMS Endeavor in 1768. The ship had been bought second hand to serve as a scientific vessel having been designed as a collier, a coal transport ship. Cook’s mission was to find the then hypothetical continent of terra Australis, Latin for south land. The area had been hypothesized as far back as Aristotle. The theory was that if the planet Earth was in balance with all the land mass near the North Pole, there must be a similar land mass near the South Pole. They were not talking about what is now known as Australia, it was known and referred to as New Holland. The idea to rename New Holland Australia came later from British Explorer Matthew Flinders proposed the renaming of New Holland as Australia. In doing so he was proposing giving up on the mythic 6th continent. Antarctica, the real terra Australis was spotted a few years later.

The voyage was the first to map the east coast of Australia and discovered New Zealand. HMS Endeavor had first restocked in Tahiti and took on Tupaia, a priest and star mapper from the Society Islands. He  brought native knowledge of distances between islands, spoke Maori and knew names of native chiefs. Interestingly the discoveries were not at first claimed for Great Britain. This was revised mid journey when Captain Cook learned that French explorer Louis de Bougainville was also exploring the Pacific at the same time and making claims for France. Cooks first journey of discovery was cut short when much of his crew, including Tupaia, died in Batavia of malaria. Batavia is modern day Jakarta, Indonesia. The journey did not make it far enough south to spot Terra Australis/Antartica.

In their lifetimes, Captain Cook had a much worse fate then French Captain de Bougainville. After both had distinguished service on opposite sides during the American Revolutionary war, de Bougainville had a long retirement in France where Napoleon made him a Count.  Cook had worse luck. He failed to find a northwest passage around North America he was looking for and then while passing through Hawaii again on the way back, he was murdered, disemboweled, baked to remove skin, and some say, partialy eaten. One too many bites at the apple of discovery?

The HMS Endeavor also came to a sad end. After again being on Captain Cook’s second journey, the ship changed hands and was employed as a cargo ship based out of the Falkland Islands. It was later lost when supporting a British naval blockade during the American Revolutionary War off Rhode Island. In 2018, undersea explorers  claim to have found the wreck.

Well my drink is empty and so I will wait patiently till tomorrow when I will discover and present another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Brazil 1960, Remembering the snakes that smoked

South America was not exactly a hotbed theater of World War II. On the other hand, what if the USA offered to build you a steel industry and buy whatever you make. That might be worth a meaningless war declaration. After all, as was said in Brazil at the time, snakes will start smoking before the Brazilian army will fight the Germans. Spoiler alert, the snakes smoked. So fill your own pipe and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The poor printing and cheap paper let this stamp a little. They were however printing the stamp themselves. Also doing for themselves, Brazil was repatriating their dead from Italy and re-interring them at home with a proper memorial. That should count for something, quite a bit in my book.

Todays stamp is airmail C104, a 3.30 Cruzeiro stamp issued by Brazil on December 22nd, 1960. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

There was a lot of pressure on Brazil to join the war against the axis. One thing against was the sentiment of the elites. They worried a fascist defeat would have the winning force coming for them postwar. USA then dangled the offer of a steel mill and to pay in full for the training and equipping of an expanded Brazil military. First the USA was allowed to station at Brazilian bases. Germany responded by allowing their U boat submarines to target Brazilian shipping. 36 Brazilian flagged merchant ships were sunk with a loss of life of 1691 Brazilian sailors. War was declared. The USA then supplied 3 destroyers and eight frigates to help Brazil combat the U boats. With much American training 6 U boats were sunk near Brazilian waters.

The Brazilian government then set a goal of recruiting, training and equipping 100,000 soldiers to fight in Europe. This became sort of a joke in Brazil. Similar to the American expression “when pigs fly” the expression “when snakes smoke” became common on the idea that Brazil could field a competent force overseas.

The Brazilian soldier turned the snake joke around and declared themselves Snakes that Smoke

The jokes failed to grasp the money and pressure behind the Brazil Expeditionary Force. Two years later, when the outcome of the war was no longer in doubt, 25,000 untrained and unequipped soldiers began landing in already Allied occupied Naples, Italy. At first they had to camp on the docks as no barracks were provided. Further months were required for training but eventually there were Brazilians present in some of the final Italian theater battles. There great success was in accepting German surrenders, over 90,000 including two complete divisions. Regular readers might remember the Trieste stamp from last week of the problems the Germans had surrendering in Italy. I can find no record of a similar double cross by Brazilians to what New Zealand did at Trieste.

The Expeditionary force in action in Italy in 1945.

There was a huge cost in lives in sending the expeditionary force to Italy. 948 deaths. So did the Allies come for the Brazilian leaders post war as was feared. Well no but ultimately yes. Unelected President Vargas had a 15 year run as dictator from 1930-1945. Elections were then forced on Brazil by the USA. In 1952, Vargas ran on his record of industrialization and being the self proclaimed father of the poor. He won office legitimately in 1952, but as in modern times, the advocates of democracy have a certain outcome in mind, and that wasn’t President Vargas. The USA paid for Brazilian Army forced President Vargas to resign. He signed the paper put before him but later in the day shot himself. Perhaps Brazil should not have accepted the candy and got in the white van with the tear stained mattress..

President Vargas

Well my pipe burned out. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Italy/Trieste 1952, Keeping an Italian city from Marshal Tito

Arraigning a German surrender at the end of World War II is a messy business. In the city of Trieste, it involved a dachsund dog in Switzerland, Allied Generals play acting as Irish businessmen, 40 days of terror, and an eight year post war military occupation to get the city back to Italy. 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 is sort of a dual issue of Italy and the then Free Territory of Trieste. It was issued in concert with a stamp show in Trieste to ruffle fewer feathers. The flag shows where things would be headed two years later.

Todays stamp is issue A337, a 25 Lira stamp issued by Italy, and sometimes overprinted for use in Trieste on June 28th, 1952. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.20. If this stamp had the Free Territory of Trieste overprint, the value goes to $4.00.

Trieste had been a gateway to the Adriatic for Austria Hungary. The city though contained even then many Italians. After the First World War it was given to Italy. After Mussolini fell from power, the area came under German occupation. As German fortunes declined, an attempt was made to lessen casualties and negotiate a separate surrender of German forces. Two allied generals, one British and one American traveled to Switzerland in the guise  of Irish businessmen. The purpose of the “Irish” trip was for one to acquire a dachshund dog named Fritzel. The actual purpose of Operation Fritzel was a four way meeting between the two Allied Generals, the American Secretary of State and Karl Wolf the Supreme SS and police commander in northern Italy to negotiate a separate surrender in the theater.

The problem was the Germans were very particular about who they surrendered to as they were dealing with many communist and Yugoslav partisans that didn’t take surrenders. This was the problem in Trieste.

On April 30th 1945 there was an uprising by the partisans in Trieste. The German occupiers withdrew to an old castle and announced they would only surrender to a nearby New Zealand force advancing toward Trieste. The New Zealand commander was summoned to the castle and accepted the German surrender, but then double crossed and turned the prisoners over to the Yugoslavs. The prisoners were never heard from again, and forty days of terror began in Trieste directed at mainly the Italian residents. The British Field Marshal Alexander was so shocked at what went on, how could our side’s occupation be worse than the Nazis, that he forced Tito’s forces to withdraw from at least the city of Trieste. A military occupation began of Trieste under the name of the Free Territory of Trieste. The military governor was British general Terrence Airey. He was the fellow that had pretended to be the Irish businessman in the market for dachshunds.

SENIOR BRITISH ARMY OFFICERS (MH 6823) Major General Sir Terence Sydney Airey KCMG CB CBE. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205065406

Trieste was allowed to return to Italy in 1954. It still remained somewhat isolated until the fall of communism allowed the the resumtions of trade ties to the usefully located port. Over 90 percent of the modern city are Italian speakers.

Crowds celebrate Trieste’s return to Italy in 1954.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Fritzel the dachshund. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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India 1957, is this girl really reading?

In the 20th century the population of India was rising fast. With it was the demand for education and the need to extend that opportunity to the half that were female. This stamp shows an Indian girl happily reading but it is easier to print a stamp than it is to educate a country. 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 from a country in it’s first decade of independence shows a lot of optimism. There is really a belief that without the shackles of colonialism, problems can be quickly dealt with. What is not realized was that the former colonial masters were dealing with the same problems and if they had not solved it with their ample resources, it was going to be a big challenge for the country on it’s own. 60 years after this stamp and 70 years after independence, Indian female literacy is still less than two thirds of the population.

Todays stamp is issue A121, a 15 Naye Paise (no more Annas for India) stamp issued on November 14th 1957. It was a 3 stamp issue in various denominations celebrating children’s day. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

Traditional precolonial education in India was carried out by a community funded gurukul system. One imagines much of what was taught was spiritual but the system was ineffective at achieving literacy. in 1872 the literacy rate was barely 3 percent. In the last 75 years of British rule over 100,000 English language schools were opened and over 10 million students were enrolled. Literacy was up to 16 percent though the numbers were much lower than that for girls and those outside the big cities.

In 1944, the British proposed an educational reform based on a commission of British experts, the Sargent Report. It proposed mandatory English education for children of both sexes from age 6-11. After that there would be a division of the students between academic and vocational training. The stated goal was for India to achieve full literacy by 1984. The plan was labled a scheme and scoffed at by India’s independence movement as taking far too long to achieve full literacy. After independence however the plan was modified to include mandatory education out to age fourteen, but otherwise implemented.

100 percent literacy is an elusive goal. At the time of this stamp in 1957, female literacy was less than 15 percent. This seemingly slow progress does not mean the government wasn’t trying. Population was rising fast and that means a young population that puts a big burden on the educational system. The colonial authority was adept at putting out grand future plans. There often however was not the resources allocated. Indian literacy is far higher than in Pakistan another part of former British India, but far lower than China, a country that faced similar issues.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the participants of the 1944 Sargent Commission. For both providing a roadmap and showing to lazy critics that it is easier to take easy swipes than it is to do things better. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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USA 1965, Getting inspired to have a strong mind in a sound body by a flocking of Slavic falcons performing gymnastics

This is a strange stamp. Wanting to do a stamp celebrating and perhaps suggesting more interest in physical fitness, the USA ties it to a 100 year old organization called Sokol (falcon). Sokol directly tied the self improvement to rising Czech nationalism and Slavic brotherhood. 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.

There is further weirdness in the visuals of this stamp. The Sokols route to fitness was group gymnastics, yet here we have a single discus thrower. Looking at the images of groups of Sokol gymnasts, see below. There is the pretty obvious problem of a row of men/boys with their face aligned to the neighboring rear end.

Todays stamp is issue A694, A five cent stamp issued by the USA on Febuary 15, 1965. It was the 100th anniversery of  the first group of Czech immigrants to the USA setting up a local Sokol chapter. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents mint or used.

Sokol was founded in Prague in 1862, during the time of Hapsburg rule from Austria. Sokol means falcon in the Czech language and the goal was for Slavs to use gymnastic excersize as a route to a strong mind in a sound body. The chapters were open to males of all ages. Every six years there would be a slet gymnastic festival with all the chapters invited. Slet means a flocking of birds in Czech, in this case falcons. The largest Slet ever was held in 1912. The Pan Slavic aspect of the organization bumped against some churches as it was open to Slavs whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Muslim. “A Slavic brother is dear regardless of his Faith” so says Sokol. The Slovene Catholic church went so far as advise against joining Sokol.

There were other issues. The socialists set up a rival workers gymnastics club, with affiliation to Eagles instead of Falcons. The more progressive Sokols flew away leaving the remaining organization more right wing and militaristic.

The interwar period which saw the long sought by Sokols Czech nation arrive. The support from the new state saw slets becoming official events. The last Slet was in 1938 before German occupation. The Nazis banned the Sokol organization and even jailed the leaders.

There was an attempt to bring the Sokol organization back post war but the lefties remember preferred the Eagle gymnasts and the Sokols were again banned by the communist Czech government. The Sokols were legalized in 1990 with the change of government but the Sokols left were many now older folks, who do not make the best gymnasts.

In the USA, the Sokul organization peaked in 1937 with 19,000 members. The American organization still exists and was even a slet in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2017. It is now open to and mainly girls.

A modern American Sokol gymnast.

Well my drink is empty. If I have any hope of a strong mind in a sound body, I should probably put the bottle down. Come again soon foe another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Bohemia and Moravia 1939, Showing off Bata’s skyscraper in Zlin’s urban utopia

Interwar modern architecture showed up in some strange places. Capitalist mass production had lead to the imagining of a new town in Austria-Hungary, I mean Czechoslovakia, I mean Bohemia and Moravia, I mean Czechoslovakia, I mean the Czech Republic, I mean Czechia. The building on the stamp is now the local tax authority, so it is important that you closely follow to whom it is you owe. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

One thinks of modern architecture as arising from thinking from the political left as to how to organize the movement toward the  cities as part of industrialization. Great mind though travel similar lanes and Zlin’s modernity resulted from capitalism only to be embraced by socialist, communists, and during this period even national socialists. For fans of architecture, it means the building still stands after the enabling shoe factory is long gone. One modern feature of Bata’s skyscraper that was not much copied is that the bosses’ office functioned as an elevator containing a phone, a sink, and air conditioning.

Todays stamp is issue A8, a 3 Koruna stamp issued by the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1939. It was part of a 22 stamp issue in various denominations showing items of architectural interest in the newly occupied territory. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Thomas Bata founded a shoe company in the small town of Zlin in modern day Czechia. Over time the shoes became ever more mass market. Canvas replaced leather and machines for mechanical sewing were used. This expanded the market and lead to the factory and surrounding area expansion. Czech architects influenced by trends in Germany and France, were contracted to design a modern industrial city in Zlin. For example, even residential housing used bricks and stressed concrete matching the factory. The factory benefited from World War I orders but then felt deeply the recession that followed. One aspect of the recession was that the new Czech currency was devalued. Bata sensed the opportunity and cut in half the price of his shoes. The workers took a pay cut in exchange for stock ownership in the company. The ploy was a big success and the skyscraper on this stamp was a result of the new prosperity. New Bata factories, also with matching surrounding urban utopias, sprang up as far away as India, the USA, and Canada.

With the German conquest of Czechoslovakia, the Bata family posted it’s Jewish workers overseas and left for the USA. Factory production continued at Zlin and benefited again for war time orders but some workers were then sourced from the Auschwitz concentration camp. When the USA entered the war against Germany, the Bata family further emigrated to Brazil to be seen as noncombatants.

The post war communist government of Czechoslovakia seized the Zlin assets using the excuse that the Bata family had not done enough to resist the Nazis. That was just an excuse, the Batas had supported the old Czech government in exile and tried to make places for Czech expatriates in the worldwide operations still owned. Thomas Bata was sentenced to 15 years in jail in absentia for collaboration. The remaining worldwide operations were now run from Canada.

The velvet revolution of 1989 gave the Bata family a chance to bid on the old factory complex in Zlin. The family chose not to as shoe production was leaving developed countries for the third world. The shoe factory in Zlin struggled on until the year 2000 and then closed. At it’s height, it had employed 14,560 people. Bata shoe factories have also closed in the USA, Canada, and the England but still continue in India. The organization is now based in Switzerland. Interesting, given that people still wear shoes, that the quest to maximize profit was eventually worse for this shoe business than either the communists or the Nazis. Well at least the Bata’s are still rich, I guess that is all that matters.

The city of Zlin bought Bata’s skyscraper from the bankruptcy and refurbished the building for local administration and the tax authority. I bet those two employ more people than the 30s equivalents, while still managing not to make anything. Wonder whose office rides the elevator?

Bata’s skyscraper in Zlin today

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Thomas Bata’s attempt to create an urban utopia around his factories. Who doesn’t love an urban utopia? Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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France 1982, Remembering when France got in on the space race

President Charles de Gaulle longed for a time when France itself was a major center of power. Thus when the USA and the USSR were busy going to space, it was a natural that France became the third country to start a space program. 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 celebrated the twentieth anniversary of CNES, the French space agency. The single issue crams a lot of space activity onto the stamp. However the reality was that de Gaulle’s vision of a proprietary space program was no longer operative. The facilities had been integrated into the wider European program and even the active French astronauts transferred.

Todays stamp is issue A938, a 2.60 Franc stamp issued by France on May 15th, 1982, a little late for the 20th anniversary being celebrated. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used.

Things went fast for the French space program under de Gaulle. The CNES was to manage the program and train astronauts. By 1963, a small payload unmanned rocket named Berenice was launched from a launch site in Algeria. As that site would not be available much longer, new space centers were built in Toulouse and in French Giana.

Berenice rocket on the launch pad.

They eventually built 12 Berenice rockets but they were small and could only get satellites into a low, 600 mile up orbit. It was a start though, and since France has been the spearhead behind the European Space Agency’s long line of ever bigger but unmanned Ariane rockets. French astronauts have been to space, but only as guests on American and Soviet/Russian space missions.

That is not to say there is nothing going on these days at the French CNES space agency, which has a near 3 billion Euro a year budget. In 2020 an unmanned solar orbiter was launched by a private company in the USA for a seven year mission to study the heliosphere of the sun. There is also a seven year program in collaboration with Germany to develop a reusable, cheaper, and more environmentally sensitive replacement for the Ariane one use rockets. They hope to have the new rocket flying by 2026. A program that takes over 10 years is not very likely to have any cost advantage short of some wild accounting.

An artist conception of the modern French solar orbiter

President de Gaulle was older by the 1960s so could not be around to keep the early momentum of the French space program going. I wonder if he realized what a do nothing Eurocrat boondoggle it would degenerate into, he would have skipped the whole thing?

Well my drink is empty. I notice on the quite fancy website of the CNES, there is a place for PhDs to apply for grants. I have a PhD, how about a grant for a stamp gasbagger? I bet you have funded stupider. Just kidding. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Czechoslovakia 1991, For by then 25 years, stamps bring the art collections to the people

An 1802 Japanese woodblock print of the Ukiyo-e style might seem a strange choice for a Czech stamp from 1991. Perhaps not if you think about it in terms of democratizing art from aristocratic collections and presenting them to a wider group of people. 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 did a double take in seeing the date on this stamp as 1991, As it looks like something from about 1970. Sure enough it was just the latest of a group of stamps in the style since 1966 showing off art in the collections of public galleries in Czechoslovakia. The later Czech Republic continued the set with a new group of issues in 1998.

Todays stamp is issue A565, a 7 Koruna stamp issued by Czechoslovakia on November 3rd, 1991. The set that year was five stamps of various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 used.

The National Museum in Prague got it’s start in 1818 when Prague was still part of the Hapsburg Kingdom. A group of aristocrats started a Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts. This was perhaps a stopgap as after the French Revolution it was thought that fine art was owned by the people rather than Royal or aristocratic collections. Thus the Society of Patriotic Friends opening displays in converted palaces was perhaps not ideal. Around 1890, the government got into it and built a much larger building to house and control the growing collection. Though this time was still under Hapsburg rule, the museum showed itself as a hotbed of anti Royal Czech nationalism by dropping German in favor of the Czech language.

The Czech National Museum as built in 1890
With the collection ever expanding, the National Museum took over this nearby building in a rather different style that dated from 1937 and once housed the stock market.

The woodblock print showed on the stamp dates from 1802 and is titled “Two Maidens” by then prominent Japanese artist Utamaro. He is most famous for prints of attractive Japanese women that he would display with long faces. He also illustrated Japanese books of insects and engaged in a style of erotica called shunga. Shunga literally means spring, but is a euphemism for sex.

Two years after this painting Utamaro got in trouble with the government of Japan. Not for the shunga stuff but rather a series of woodblock prints he did depicting 200 years before Japanese military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Utamaro depicted him cavorting with prostitutes and even handholding with one of his Samurai in a homosexual manner.

Utamaro was only briefly sent to jail, but by 1806 he died. His widow then married one of the students in his art school and they began putting out lower quality woodprints under the name Utamaro II.

Utamaro self portrait

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering who to toast. The art nationalizers seem like upstarts to me and this Utamaro fellow seems himself a guy trying to get fame and riches by turning an art form mass market with prints of sexy slurs aimed at fools. Feeling the thirst, I come back to the Patriotic Friends of the Arts with their art filled palaces. Come again soon for another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

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Memel 1920, the French worry about the Germans and forget to worry about the Lithuanians

To the victor go the spoils. Memel was Germany’s easternmost city and had a large Lithuanian minority. It’s position on the Baltic made it a revenue rich trading city that attracted the French. The Treaty of Versailles  gave far off Memel to them and it was valuable source of war reparations. This left out the view of the people, whose will then took a surprising turn. 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.

Who the heck are these French people and why are they here? How else to react to a standard French stamp issue just overprinted in German for use during the occupation. This might have told the Lithuanian minority something they needed to know. The French wouldn’t be there long, they would have made a definitive stamp issue. The German overprint further indicates that they are not thinking of the Lithuanians at all. Well as Gomer Pyle might say, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!”

Todays stamp is issue A18, an 80 Pfennig on 45 Centimes stamp issued by the French administration of Memel in 1920. It was a 43 stamp issue of overprints in various denominations on a French stamp issue that began in 1900 and lasted into the 1920s. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents unused. If this isn’t a big enough overprint for you there is also a version with an additional airmail overprint that ups the value to $13 used. Used Memel stamps tend to be more valuable. France was in Memel to raise revenue, so naturally their printing presses worked overtime.

Memel had been a part of Prussia for a long period and the old city fortified and converted to Lutheran. The Lithuanians in the area, about 40 percent of the population were mainly in the countryside. It was a port city and being a part of Prussia saw much development and industrialization. The Prussians also did much work foresting what was essentially a sand bar to make sure the Baltic Sea would not reclaim it.

After World War I the French arrived. It was thought that after war reparations were repaid the city would become a free state in the manner of Danzig. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/19/danzig-1923-a-very-early-airmail-stamp-from-a-german-city-that-suddenly-found-itself-outside-germany/   . This was not what the new neighboring state of Lithuania wanted. Poland also wanted Memel given to Lithuania but then the whole of Lithuania given to Poland. Ambitious but not realistic. Lithuania decided to act quickly. Non uniformed troops marched in with three goals, the main German border crossing the port and the old city. They pretended to be trying to throw off the slavery of the Germans but the reality was that it was coordinated with Germany and the still German police force did not resist. The French in Memel old city refused to surrender and there were skirmishes with the Lithuanians until the French retired to barracks. A French ship arrived offshore with reinforcements but stayed offshore and instead it was decided to evacuate the French Army. French protests went out to Lithuania but taking of Memel was recognized internationally in 1924. The German residents stayed.

Having a relivily prosperous German city in Lithuania was quite a boom for the much poorer Lithuania. Memel’s 5 percent of Lithuania’s territory accounted for a third of it’s industry and 75 percent of it’s trade. The 1939 nonaggression treaty between Hitler and Stalin saw Memel returned to Germany. However toward the end the war the approach of the Red Army saw ethnic Germans flee west never to return. Memel became Klaipeda and declined economically, although the Soviets built a large shipyard there. Today Klaipeda is 87 percent Lithuanian, 6 percent Russian, with hardly any Germans. The population is in decline but the city hopes to come back based to cruise ship tourists visiting the old city.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Lithuania. For the boldness to take the city and the smarts to let the Germans be to lay their golden eggs. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Australia 1970, Last call for seeing oil and gas exploration as economic development

One thing I like to point out when stamp collecting is when a new style of recognition in stamps emerges. As a traditionalist, sorry, I also like to point out when a style fades, perhaps a little wistfully. So with this in mind, we will tell the story of oil and gas exploration in Australia. 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.

1970 was late enough that the people putting together stamp issues were getting a little squeamish when told to cover the indeed growing energy industry. Here designer Brian Sadgrove puts a purple tint partially blocking the sun over the offshore oil rig and natural gas pipeline. No such tint shows up on more politically correct hydroelectric power or aluminum window frames that were other parts of this economic development issue. Lucky Mr. Sadgrove wasn’t asked to do a coal mine. I suspect the tint, or is it taint, would resemble the fires of hell.

Todays stamp is issue A194, a 10 cent stamp issued by Australia on August 31st, 1970. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations closely modeled on a new train line stamp done earlier in 1970 also by Brian Sadgrove. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Surveying for potential oil and gas reserves started early in the 20th century but got a lot more serious after World War II. The Australian Motorist Petrol Company, a chain of gas stations, set up an exploration operation in 1946, petitioning the government for surveying rights and subsidies to bring into production oil fields. To assist with this, a partnership was struck with Standard Oil of California. The first oil well started producing at Rough Range in 1953. More extensive oil reserves were found on then unoccupied Barrow Island the next year.

Old AMPOL, showcasing a truck donated by them to an Aboriginal artist and easy chair owner in front of one of their gas pumps

In 1966, the joint venture, now boringly acronymed WAPET found commercial quantities of liquidified natural gas at Dongara, and got a pipeline going to Perth for export by 1971.

Oil production peaked in 2000 and is not so important any more. Natural gas is much more promising with proven reserves stretching out 100 years. The fact that it was all for export has become problematic. It is thought that using dirty coal for electricity makes no sense with relatively clean burning natural gas being available locally. It was decided by the government that in future, natural gas developed must have at least 15 percent set aside for local use.

Being in on the ground flour of big subsidized economic development must have seen great wealth accrue to the Australian Motorist Petrol Company. Production now totals 16.7 billion dollars a year. However, as so often happens there have been a series of mergers that saw AMPOL being a minor subsidiary of American Texaco. Yes oil history nerds, the old Standard Oil of Texas, Rockefeller wherever you look, even down under. Texaco then in 2015 sold the subsidiary generously allowing them the use of their Caltex name. Five years later, Texaco wanted back into Australia, and as a first step took the Caltex name back. The old subsidiary, noticing they still owned the AMPOL name, is now rebranding again to the long ago name. While exhausting, imagine the efficiency wrought by all these machinations. No, I can’t either.

New Ampol. The architecture is comically hideous, but that little thing is a center of a large industry. Somewhere along the line, people got screwed.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering where all the wealth created by the economic development went. Yes, many people are employed, but where has the money gone. Even the Rockefellers don’t seem to have it. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.