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Tannu Tuva 1934, The Russian Commissars Extraordinary have arrived, and brought stamps

Tuva is a small region bordering Siberia and Mongolia in the geographic center of Asia. The people are Buddhist Mongols, and to this day their affiliation is to Russia. The Commissars Extraordinary did their job. 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.

Since the stamps were designed to sell far away to collectors, care was taken to draw in the collector. The Mongol language was included on the stamps, but also English, so young collectors knew what they were looking at. The subject matter was also views of local life, at least how it was viewed by the printers in Moscow. However compared to many topical third world offerings of the recent past, it seems to me quite quaint. There is some question as to whether the offerings were legitimate. Most catalogs recognize them as the stamps were legal for postage in Tuva, and there are examples used as such.

Todays stamp is issue A20, a one Kopek stamp issued by the Tuvan Peoples Republic in April 1934. The stamp displays a horse mounted hunter. The stamp includes the inscription “registered” in English, but was for regular postage. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.50 mint.

Tannu Tuva was an semi independent country from 1921 through 1944. The Mongol people are of the Tuva tribe and the area lies in the Tannu mountains. During the 19th century, the place changed it’s affiliation to Imperial Russia after previously being affiliated with Mongolia. Mongolia itself at the time was a vassal state of Chinese Manchuria.

In the chaos after the 1917 revolutions in Russia, Tannu Tuva declared itself independent. Since the independence leaders were Bolshevik, there was Russian support. Only the Soviet Union and Mongolia recognized Tannu Tuva’s independence, but this has more to do with remoteness than illegitimacy. Tannu Tuva did begin appearing on world maps.

There was then some intrigue. The first Prime Minister, Donduk Kuular, changed political parties and declared the widely practiced Buddhism the state religion and sought closer ties to Mongolia. This angered Soviet leader Stalin who declared 5 Russian educated Tuvans, “Commissars Extraordinary” and had then return home. Quickly there was a coup and Kuular was removed from office, arrested, and executed. The new commissars purged the government but the country remained itinerant Buddhists and not industrialized. In 1944 at the extraordinary commissar’s request, the country was annexed by the Soviet Union as the Tuvan Autonomous Oblast.

Tannu Tuva Leader Donduk Kuular

The idea for issuing stamps came from Hungarian Bela Szekula. He approached the Soviet Union with the idea. He had previously been involved with a fraudulent stamp issue from Ethiopia. The stamps were printed in Moscow and generated foreign exchange for the Soviet Union. The stamp issues stopped in 1944 and they now use the Russian postal system. In the 1990s and 2000s there were fraudulent Tannu Tuva stamps featuring such topicals as Bart Simpson and the band Led Zeppelin. No catalog recognizes these issues.

Hungarian, later American, stamp dealer Bela Szekula

Tuvan people are fairly unique by being Turkic but also Buddhist. There share this trait only with the “yellow Uyghurs” of China. The country has been about a third Russian but over the last 20 years Russian numbers have declined. The current leader appointed by President Putin is a former wrestler.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another and salute the 4 Extraordinary Commissars, for coming in and fixing everything. Who knew things could be that simple. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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East Germany 1950, Now that we are Red, look who is back and on top

As the Red Army swarmed westward, they had a cadre of exiled Communists ready to take over. 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 not the best, A generic old man. President Pieck had been in exile for more than a dozen years when he returned to Germany with the Red Army. That was not his first period in exile. One must wonder than even to communists in East Germany, if he was a stranger.

Todays stamp is issue A10, a 2 Deutsche Mark (East) put out by the German Democratic Republic in 1951. It was part of a 5 stamp issue in various denominations honoring East German President Wilhelm Pieck. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $4.75 used.

Wilhelm Pieck was born in what is now Poland in modest circumstances. He first worked as a logger and became active in the trade union and later joined the socialist SPD party in Germany. He was self taught. Him being a Red was difficult because his bride to be’s family was opposed. Since she was with child they consented but demanded a church wedding. Pieck showed up late and handed out communist leaflets as he walked down the aisle to the ceremony. He was part of the militant wing of the SPD that opposed the German World War I involvement. This saw Pieck exiled to Amsterdam during the War. After the war he returned but was one of the leaders of the SPD arrested by the Freikorps. Two other leaders were killed in custody but Pieck escaped into exile in Paris and became a member of the Communist International. It is understandable that with so many personal exiles, Pieck became concerned with the plight of fellow lefty exiles from nations that they had yet to take power. He was a founding partner of the International Red Aid. A red cross for political prisoners involved in class struggle.

The International Red Aid Emblem. The letters refer to the Acronym in Russian. Before Stalin purged it, it had 62 national chapters.

Hitler coming to power saw Pieck and his family again going into exile for 12 years in Moscow. During the later part of these years he helped organize a group of German exiles ready to govern a new communist Germany. He was instrumental in merging two older left parties into the Unity Socialist Party of East Germany. He was named the first and only President of East Germany. By then he was quite old, even older than Adenauer, the West German leader.

Pieck served into his death in 1960 at age 84. By then he had outlived his wife by 50 years and suffered from two strokes and cirrhosis of the liver. In his last years he maintained a summer home on the grounds of Carinhall, Hermann Goering’s infamous hunting lodge. Both a world away and back home for the one time logger.

Well my drink is empty and Pieck has probably emptied the bottle. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Canada 1938, Go west young Francophone

If French speakers were going to have a large voice in the affairs of Canada, they needed to move beyond Quebec. 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 shows the front gate of an historic fort. In showing it as Manitoba’s representative in a series of historic place stamps, Canada tips it’s hand as to which side it was on in the conflict the fort represents. The Quebec issue of this series buttresses that point by showing a governor’s mansion built for French governors but the used by mainly British ones.

The stamp today is issue A91, a 20 cent stamp issued by Canada in 1938. The stamp displays the gatehouse of Upper Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Manitoba. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents used. An imperforate pair of this stamp is worth $500 mint.

Fort Garry was built by the Hudson Bay Company as part of it’s network of fur trading posts in the northern and western parts of Canada. The areas were thinly populated and much of the population was first nation Indians. In the mid 19th century Hudson Bay Company was transitioning itself to retail stores and no longer wished to maintain it’s large land holdings. After rejecting a higher offer from the USA, the land was sold to Britain which passed it on to the new Dominion of Canada.

Quebec could sense the Francophones were needed out west if Quebec was to retain any political power in the new nation. They had not yet come upon the near foolproof method of having a Quebecois represent the left party.  Louis Riel presented himself as speaking for his fellow French, Catholic, and First Nation residents of Manitoba and petitioned to form the province of Manitoba. English speakers felt the area was being stolen from them  and their leader was quickly put to death by Riel’s provisional government. The central government of Canada thought Riel had overstepped his authority and tried him in absentia on charges of treason. Riel went into exile in Montana.

10 years later a similar coalition in Saskatchewan sought Riel’s help to present their grievances to the Canadian government. Instead he organized a military rebellion that was quickly put down by the Canadian Army. Riel fell into Canadian hands and the death warrant he faced from his earlier treason conviction was carried out. This aroused much bitterness in Quebec because it meant that the development of the west would be in English and not French hands.

Political fortunes can change over time. By 1970 under a left Quebec Prime Minister, Louis Riel, the man executed for treason against Canada, got honoured with a stamp from them. It will be a long wait before the English speaking political rival he executed is so honoured. I guess bringing a little French Revolution to the wild west sounds romantic to the hippys of 1970.

Some view Riel as a rebel against Canada and a religious fanatic, while others view him as a unique for his time multicultural figure that worked for inclusion. Both views have much basis in fact and the latter is probably more held today. Admittedly not by me. The disdain for the Hudson Bay history of the area is shown by how the gatehouse on the stamp looks today. The encroachment of modern development shows the lack of respect for the past. Another large apartment building was recently very nearly built inside the fort walls.

How it looks now

 

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast the traders of the Hudson Bay Company that did so much for Canada taming the wild west. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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India 1967, A Gnat sting slays a Sabre over Bangladesh

Teddy Petter CBE. the man who designed the supersonic missile armed British Lightning fighter thought something simpler still had a place and his last design proved it’s worth in India. 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 printing on this stamp is not the best but the subject matter is great. A  plane virtually synonymous with India rises in the sky. This was a bulk postage stamp, so young Indian philatelists and plane fans would have been excited to get a frequent letter decorated with this stamp.

Todays stamp is issue A203, a 20 Paise stamp issued by India in 1967. The stamp features the Folland Gnat aircraft that was manufactured in India. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. The mint version is up at $8 so most of this stamp must have been mailed.

The Folland Gnat was conceived as a simple to manufacture and maintain day fighter that would be useful to small countries and it was hoped by Britain in smaller wars. Britain in the 50s still operated large numbers of Vampire and Vemon fighters and there was also a NATO requirement for a light ground attack fighter. The RAF at the time was emphasizing quality over quantity and ended up buying the larger Hawker Hunter fighter. The NATO competition was won by an Italian development of the American F86 Sabre jet called the Fiat G91. The RAF did end up buying a 2 seat unarmed training version of the Gnat which most famously was used it in it’s “Red Arrow” acrobatic display team.

A British Red Arrow Gnat

 

The simple design and ability to manufacture it locally appealed much to India. The Indian air force was dividing it’s purchases between Britain and the Soviet Union but aircraft from both sources required much foreign exchange and expertise. Over time India desired to be more self sufficient and the Gnat was a great way to build expertise.

In the 1965 and the 1971 wars with Pakistan, Indian Gnat fighters faced off against Pakistani F86 Sabres. The F86 had proved a formidable dogfighter over Korea in the 50s with a 10 to 1 kill ratio verses the Russian made Mig 15. The Pakistanis flew a later Canadian improved version of this aircraft. The Gnat however was smaller, more maneuverable, and better flown and achieved a better than 3 to 1 kill ratio against the Sabre, earning the nickname the Sabre slayer.

A Sabre in Canadian markings

 

The program of the Gnat had such momentum after the combat success that a new locally developed version called the Ajeet, (invincible), was built. It was more aimed at ground attack and was less successful as the changes added weight. Without outside assistense, the government owned HAL was not able to give the Ajeet the stability it needed in low altitude combat. By now India was building the twin engine supersonic British Jaguar fighter/bomber and also importing/assembling the similar Soviet MIG 27 so the service life of both the Gnat and Ajeet were at an end. Pakistan had retired the Sabres in favor of French supersonic Mirage III and Chinese copies of the slightly supersonic Russian MIG 19.

The British Folland company was later absorbed by Hawker which made the Hawk trainer and light fighter that is used by both Britain, including the Red Arrow team, and India today. Teddy Petter was not able to help with the later Indian development of his Gnat design. In 1959 he retired from Folland. His wife had come down with Parkinson’s disease and hoping for a cure they moved to a commune in Switzerland run by a defrocked former French clergyman now going by the name Father Forget. Strange but true. His wife was not cured but ended up still outliving her husband who died of ulsers.

Teddy Petter, CBE, designer of the Gnat

India tried to do an indigenous light fighter recently but the program failed due to delays and the constant pull to add complexity.

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast Nimal Jit Singh Sekhon who took on 6 Pakistani F86 planes solo in his Gnat. He achieved 3 hits before being shot down. He was awarded the Piram Vir Chakra medal for gallantry posthumously. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Andorra 1932, we already have 2 foreign Princes, How about a Russian King?

European microstates attract their fair share of adventurers. But some want to do more than mountain climb. 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 looks like a stamp from 1930s’ France. as well it should. It was printed there. Andorra maintains a coadministration of France and of a Spanish Catholic Bishop. Both administrations put out stamps. The Spanish issues are much more church centered than Spain’s non Franco era issues.

Todays stamp is issue A50 a 1 Centime stamp issued by the French administration of Andorra in 1932. It was part of 56 stamp issue in various denominations that were the first stamps of the French administration that were not merely overprints of French issues. The stamp features the Church of Our Lady of Meritxell. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents mint. The violet 1.75 Franc stamp from this issue is worth $120.

Andorra was formed by Holy Roman Emporer Charlemagne as a border buffer state in the Pyrenees mountains to guard against Moor penetration into France. Through inheritences the adninistation became divided between The Spanish Catholic Bishop of Urgell and the President of France. It is a small landlocked country that was fairly impoverished until recently as improved transportation  allowed for more integration with Europe and tourism.

In 1931, a White, (Czar supporter) Russian from Vilneas named Boris Skossyreff was arrested in London for passing bad checks. After being released he made his way to Andorra and obtained citizenship in 1933. He put forth a plan for political reform and requested to be employed to implement them. When this was refused he showed up in Urgell, Spain and declared himself Boris I King of Andorra and Regent to the King of France. He then declared war on the Bishop of Urgell. Remember in 1934, France had not had a King in many years. The  claimed Bourbon Royal connection must have carried some weight as the government began drafting a new constitution. This wildness only lasted a week with King Boris being arrested by the Spanish Guardia Civil. Interestingly his trial was delayed when as a Royal he refused to be transferred to Madrid on a third class train ticket. The Spanish claimed he was really a Dutch Jew who had been in Spain for quite a while. This does not seem to be the case.  He was deported first to Portugal and was later to show up in the civilian employ of the World War II German army on the Russian front. He died in Germany in 1989.

Boris I sans crown
Boris, during his later German Eastern Front service

 

There seems to be a genre of fan fiction in Russia that has King Boris ruling Andorra for several years until being deposed by the German puppet Vichy French. They have him dying in a Vichy prison camp in 1944.

The church on the stamp burned in 1972. Lost in the fire was the statue of Mary with Child that dated from the 12th century. The legend was that villagers on the way to church kept finding an out of season rose with the statue at its base. They would place the statue in churches only to find it the next day back by the rose. Eventually they took it as a suggestion to build a church in Meritxell where the statue of Our Lady of Meritxell then sat. The church was rebuilt after the fire and replica of the statue was recast. Meritxell is still a common first name for Andorran females.

The pre fire icon of Our Lady of Meritxell

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toaste Andorra. It is a small country though so I think two Princes is enough. Sorry Boris. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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British East India Company 1953, Mission Creep at the East India Company

The East processes exotic spices quite valuable in the West and the West processes amazing technology much needed in the East. Sounds like a win-win until the inevitable mission creep sets in. 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 nice inspiring portrait of Queen Victoria from the 1850s. Look closely though and you realize it is not British. It is not even a colony nor dominion. The stamp is actually the product of a trading company. I don’t think a modern company of any size would be granted permission to issue what is after all essentially currency in so official a form. The British East India Company was no ordinary company. At it’s height, it controlled over half of the worlds trade. Edit, the pandemic reaction shows that big companies can do anything they want, so I stand corrected.

The stamp today is issue A7, a one half Anna stamp issued by the British East India Company in 1855. It was part of a 10 stamp issue in various denominations featuring a profile portrait of Queen Victoria of Great Britain. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $4.50 used. The green 4 Anna stamp is worth $1750 mint. There is also a version of the 8 Anna stamp  cut in half to be used on post covers for 4 Annas that is worth $60,000 used.

The British East India company received a charter from Queen Elizabeth I, and raised money to set up trading with the East. By then, the Portuguese, the Dutch and the French had there own trading companies doing the same thing. The values of spices being such that if a journey was survived a return of 1000% could be realized. A relationship was developed with the Mughal Empire in India that allowed virtually unlimited trading. The riches poured in to the investors of the Company.

This could not last. The rivalries with the other countries over trading posts had come to wars and the company expanded it security force into a full private army with British officers trained to British Army standards in Britain and enlisted men from India that were also trained to British standards. The army grew to more than twice the size of the British army and was the most capable force in Asia.

The Redcoats are coming, well they look like Redcoats but it is a fake, private army.

English pirates raided a Mughal naval vessel returning from the Haj in Mecca. Large amounts of gold and silver were looted and although the East India Company disclaimed responsibility, war broke out with the Mughal empire that resulted in a defeat for the Mughals. Just as spice revenues were falling, administration cost rose. There was a failed attempt to raise tea prices in the American colonies, remember the Boston Tea Party. The smuggling of opium to China increased. Stories in Britain of the frequent plagues and famines in India lead to calls to do more about it. All this lead to a rampant increase in administrative cost that ate up all the profits.

In retrospect the institutions set up to administer India were set up modeled on the British System. The whole education system basically still in use today was set up by a British administrator named Thomas Macaulay. The system  taught English and passed on Western ideals. It did nothing to promote local culture or history and therefore Macaulayism  is a controversial subject in India today. Two areas that were not interfered with by the company were imposing Christianity and there was British respect for the Indian caste system.

With the profits having turned to losses, the rebellion in the East India Company Army in 1857 was the last straw. The Company was nationalized by Britain, liquidated and the institutions established by the company were taken over by Britain. India would now be a Crown Colony, the beginning of the British Raj. The name and logos of the British East India company were recently acquired in Britain for a chain of clothing stores.

The headquarters of the British East India Company in London.

Well my drink is empty and I think I will have a few more while I consider the pros and cons. A point to start was what was the true condition and in what numbers were the the Indian people pre company under the Mughals, who remember were themselves Persian outsiders. At liquidation in 1858, the British bankruptcy judge stated that nothing like this company will ever happen again. Not sure I believe that. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Natal, Boers to the left, Zulus to the right and stuck in the middle with the Indians

An adventurer faces many challenges. In todays case, a large and growing colony was established, but only after he paid with his life. 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.

Natal was really surrounded. Three quarters of the people were Zulus and their off shoot, the Matebilli. They had killed the founder of the British Colony. There were about ten percent Boers, whites of Dutch decent, that had eventually lost a bloody war with the English. Another 10 percent were Indians brought in as indentured servants. That left the British the smallest minority. The British must have liked to see the portrait of Edward VII on todays stamp as a sign they had some support when trouble came. It is probably for this reason that every postage stamp issued by the colony was a portrait of the British monarch.

Todays stamp is issue A23, a half penny stamp issued by the British Crown Colony of Natal in 1902. It was part of a 16 stamp issue of various denominations showing the portrait of British King Edward VII. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents used. The 20 pound revenue stamp from this issue is worth $27,500 mint. Not many people would buy an expensive revenue stamp and then not use it to pay their taxes apparently.

Francis Farewell was a Captain in the British Merchant Marine. He married the daughter of a Cape Town merchant and scouted out a place to set up a trade post. His idea was to get into the ivory trade. Finding Port Natal, he returned with thirty settlers, 10 British and 20 Boers. He made a deal with the Zulu leader Shaka  for the land. after several petitions and further migration from Britain, Natal was accepted as a British Colony.

Zulu King Shaka. This image is European from 1824 of the actual man. Many modern statues of him are modeled after later actor portrayals.

It was found that sugar cane production was most suited to the local climate. This is very labour intensive, and the Zulus were unwilling to do the work. Indians were then brought in as indentured servants but many stayed and formed a local community that was at one point the largest Indian community outside of India. Gandhi even visited in 1898 to raise money for the struggle at home and helped found an association to prevent discrimination.

A modern museum diorama of Gandhi’s Natal visit. It is strange to see Gandhi with hair and dressed western instead of how he is remembered today. Wonder which image was the real him?

Farewell did not do so well. He travelled to the Zulu capital to trade beads. He was killed by Zulu warriors while asleep in his tent. Shaka had been deposed by his brother Dingane and things were no longer friendly. A war between the British and the Zulus was fought with the British winning and adding much Zulu territory to Natal. The Boer war later added much Boer territory to Natal. In 1910 Natal was merged to form the Union of South Africa.

Natal Colony founder Francis Farewell

Interestingly, in 1980 the apartheid South African government set up a separate state of KwaZulu as a homeland for the Zulus. It was under the former royal family of Zululand. KwaZulu was not recognized by any other country and was reintegrated by now majority ruled South Africa in 1994. The province is now called KwaZulu-Natal. Francis Farewell still has a  square named after him in Durban.

Well my drink is empty. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Laos 1959, the last Royal succession

An ancient royal house lasted 800 years even through the colonial period only to die of “malaria” in a communist reeducation camp. 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.

Post war Laotian stamps from the Royal period are really quite well executed artistically. The first years of communism in the late seventies show typical scenes of Soviet style soldiers and by the 80s the stamp issues were farm outs. The late forties through the early 70s were the golden age for Laotian philatelists.

The stamp today is issue A19, a 12 and a half Kip stamp issued by Laos on November 2nd 1959. It shows the gilded Stupa of Wat Chom on the summit of Phou Si in the then Royal capital of Luang Prabang. It was part of a 6 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents used.

The French were able to come back in 1946 and put back on the throne Sisavang Vong. He had been briefly deposed when the Japanese invaded Laos in February 1945. This time his realm was not just Luang Prabang but the entirety of Laos. The French withdrew again in 1954. The North Vietnamese invaded Eastern Laos in order to build the Ho Chi Min trail to supply the Vietcong in the south of Vietnam.

Sisavang Vong was a bit of a playboy King. He fathered 50 children and had 15 wives. Two of his wives were his half sisters and one was his niece. And you thought European royal family trees did not have enough branches.

King of Laos Sisavang Vong . Question.
Your Majesty, can you spare a wife?
Answer. Stay away from my sister!

Sisavang Vong died in 1959 and was succeeded by King Sisavang Vatthana. He only had one wife and five children. He decided against a formal coronation as the country was in a state of war with North Vietnam and their allies, the Pathet Lao. The King tried to stay neutral in the conflict but the Vietnamese refused to abandon the occupation. The Ho Chi Min trail was subjected to heavy American bombing. A peace treaty was signed in 1973 creating a coalition government with the Communists but again the Vietnamese did not leave. In late 1975 the Pathet Lao moved into the administrative capital Vientiane and forced the King to abdicate.

More modern one wife King. Dear Western friends, we have enough of your bombs, please send bug spray.

Although 10 % of the country left for Thailand the King thought it his duty to stay, His personal situation gradually deteriorated. At first he remained in the palace but then volunteered to leave it so the new government could make it a museum. Soon he was under house arrest. Then the government feared he might escape house arrest and try to lead a resistance movement. His family was arrested and moved to a reeducation camp that was for high officials of the former regime. In 1978 the government announced that the King, his Queen and the Crown Prince had died of malaria at the camp. The youngest son escaped when the regime fell to Thailand and on to Paris. There he worked for the carmaker Renault and lobbied for Laos to return to a constitutional monarchy. He died in 2018.

The winds of change. Bet they came directly from the camp with all the malaria and lead poisoning.

Well my drink is empty. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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South Africa 1977, Then a time to remember but now a time to forget Totius in South Africa

A learned and pious man makes it his life’s work to translate the bible into his native tongue. The place he is from honors him with a statue sculpted by a local. Now that statue is vandalized and taken down, more than once. Why, because of the color of his skin, in the name of “justice”. 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 stamp today is an issue of the apartheid regime of South Africa. As such, it is understandable to dig deeper at what the South African regime was honoring. A man who translated the bible, wrote poetry, and was the chancellor of a religious university. Sounds like uncontroversial  good work. Well not in todays world.

The stamp today is issue A189, a four cent stamp issued by the Republic of South Africa on February 21, 1977. It was a single stamp issue that honored the 100th anniversary of the birth of  Jacob de Toit, who wrote under the pen name Totius. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Totius was born in South Africa of Afrikaner decent. He was trained at home and in Holland and earned a Doctor of Theology in the Dutch Reform church. He was a army chaplain for the Boers in the second Boer War. He continued his fathers work in translating the Bible into Afrikaner. He also wrote poetry including lyrics based on the Psalms in Afrikaner. He was a conservative man who lost his young son to an infection and his daughter to a lightning strike, she fell dead into his arms as she ran to him. His poem on this, “Oh the pain thoughts” is one of his most famous works. He finished his translation of the Bible in 1932 and died in 1954.

South Africa did a lot to remember Totius in 1977 upon the 100th anniversary of his birth. In addition to the postage stamp, there was a bronze statue by Jo Roos to him commissioned. The statue as not faired well since the change in government. After being repeatedly vandalized it was removed from the park in his home town. The University where he was Chancellor then took it in 2010 and had it restored by Jo Roos and his sons. It lasted just 5 years at the university until it was removed again in a vandalized state in 2015. The church may still have it, hopefully they keep it hidden perhaps for some future time when all people’s history is respected in South Africa.

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast Totius. South Africa was a rough place in the 19th century and apparently still is. Work to bring the Word of God and a little culture should be respected and one day it might be, not just forgotten. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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China Famine stamps in the 1920s, signal your virtue by decorating your letters

If there was a benefit to China opening up to western countries, it was when there was a crisis, help would come from far away. Probably too late and with a lot of hucksters involved. 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 not useful for postage. The idea was that people would buy the stamp, mostly in the USA, to decorate their letters. The proceeds would go to famine relief in China. It was not to be used for postage either in the USA nor China.

Since todays stamp is not an official issue of a government, it is not in any catalog. I did find one identical to mine on Ebay for $5.00. This stamp was issued after the famine by the China International Famine Relief Commission.

The famine of 1920 centered in Northern China in the area south of Beijing. The previous year had been very dry and so the harvest was small. The area had been heavily denuded of trees and it is thought that that contributed to the drought as tree roots tend to hold moisture longer. The area had been hit by a much deadlier famine in 1879. The famine in 1920 was believed to have killed 500,000 people.

China was in it’s warlord period. That does not mean the government did not do things to help. The tax on shipping grain between provinces was dispensed with in order that grain could pass more easily and cheaply from less affected areas. The distilling of grains into alcohol was also banned in Beijing to lessen this demand for grain. 1921 was a wetter year and so the harvest was better and that ended the famine.

During the famine, a different aid agency sold a 3 cent stamp raising over 4 million dollars. The three cents was supposed to equate to feeding one Chinese person for one day. This group wrapped up  with the 1921 harvest that was the end of the famine.

This bunch of sad sacks reports to be victims of the 1920 drought in Shaanxi

Todays stamp was the issue of a later group, the China International Famine Relief Organization. It issued relief stamps in several denominations from 1923-1929, both in the USA and China. They usually sold in the period of Christmas through to Chinese New Year. These were much less successful in raising money. The famine being over the overage was spent on making the area less drought prone. Most years however the stamp sales did not cover expenses.

Here is a much later fake stamp from yet another fake? relief committee. By then perhaps we should of stopped sending money and just sent mirrors

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast those who bought these stamps in order to help people they didn’t know so far away.  Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.