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

Coming up on the 400th anniversary of the voyage of Christopher Columbus, America thought it a great time to celebrate it with a World’s Fair. They further decided to hold it in the west in Chicago to display how far things had come on the “frontier”. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

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

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

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

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

The Reflecting pool and the temporary buildings of the Fair

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

Dancer known as Little Egypt doing the Hokie Pockey

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

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

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

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

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

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Argentina 1947, Seeking World Peace with children, race car drivers and rainbows

Staying out of a world war is a good way to avoid domestic suffering and even make a little money because both sides will be buying whatever you are selling. What happens after the war when the winning side thinks you a shirker. Time to start a charm offensive. 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 celebrates a Crusade for world peace organized by Peronist Argentina through the schools. There have been stamps like this from east and west and north and south for decades. Look at the iconography of this one. You can almost understand American feelings that there was something off about the Argentines.

Todays stamp is issue A209, a 20 Centavo stamp issued by Argentina in 1947. It was a two stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. There is an imperforate version that is worth $10.

Juan Peron was elected President of Argentina defeating a political party called the radical civic union. The radical civic union were nicknamed the oxi-morons of should have been. He faced a severe foreign policy challenge. The USA was angry at Argentina for sitting out the war. How to punish Argentina was the question as there were large American investments in Argentina and the country bought a lot of the USA’s manufactured good exports. The Americans decided on a three prong strategy against Argentina. The would form a security pact with the rest of Latin America that excluded Argentina. They excluded Argentina from the international debt market. Argentine agricultural products were also excluded from the Marshal aid plan, which was how Europe was paying  for the food they were importing.

What was Peron to do? His Foreign Minister Juan Bramulgia favored giving in to American domination. Evita Peron had earlier asked for and was refused Bramulgia’s legal help earlier when Peron had been arrested. Now with him preaching subservience, Evita got her revenge and convinced Peron to fire him. To replace the agricultural exports lost, Peron opened relations and trade with the USSR. The closed foreign financial markets proved a boon. Peron was able to sell bonds on the domestic market that kept the money in the country.

This still left Peron isolated. He decided on a charm offensive. He funded the hosting of international sports competitions in Argentina. Where he found athletic talent, they were funded so they be at their best on the international stage. This included the race car driver Juan Manuel Fangio who won 5 world championships, and boxer Jose Atlio Gatica. Both paid a price later. Gatica was arrested and forced to retire after dedicating a victory to Peron after he was overthrown. Fangio was kidnapped by Castro in Cuba in 1957.

Race driver Fangio in his Mercedes W196 race car

He then decided on a charm offensive in Europe. Evita would go on an elaborate European tour that emphasized her glamour. Time magazine in the USA dubbed it the Rainbow Tour. The USA pressured Europe not to receive her and when that was only partially successful, the USA arraigned some dirty tricks for her in Switzerland. While waving to friendly crowds from her car, suddenly the windshield was broken by thrown rocks. Later while meeting with the Swiss Foreign Minister three tomatoes came her way. They connected more with the Foreign Minister, but Evita was humiliated and flew home early. At least the time in Paris enhanced her sense of style.

A last dance with the Swiss Minister before the tomatoes flew

Peron was not completely able to break out of American isolation but neither was the USA able to starve off the Argentine economy which grew by leaps and bounds in this period. Sometimes kicking the can is all that can be achieved.

Well my drink is empty and I probably should toast the fresh faced kids for peace on the stamps. I won’t, kids like this are being used as tools because they cannot be argued with. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Great Britain 1984, The College of Arms, grants and occasionally takes away a Coat of Arms

The College of Arms is something that many want not to exist. In Britain it receives no government funds. Before you say why should it, think of some on the long list that do receive government funds. In Australia the government recognized that many Australians sought British Heraldic recognition of their families, but said the College of Arms had no more authority than a graphic art studio to grant one. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of an adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Though I liked that Britain still thought to do a stamp issue on heraldry in 1984, I don’t agree with how they did it. They seem to be trying to imply the College’s work is a function of the government, such as including the Arms of the City of London. If the government is doing something, it implies inherently that it could decide to stop. The College’s future might be more secure the more the government thought it not their concern. For this issue, why not instead show some of the wild things that get into Coats of Arms, it might inspire young and old to research the process.

Todays stamp is issue A326, a 16 Pence stamp issued by Great Britain on January 17th, 1984. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

In the 15th century, even before he was King, Richard III kept roles of arms and had ideas of a more formal organization. In 1484, he issued a Royal Warrant creating the College of Arms to grant and protect coats of arms. At first the King supported the operations directly with his funds. The Charter read in part, in perpetuity, for the time being, the college will keep a list of Arms. He was right to perceive that forever should be tempered for the time being.

King Richard III was killed at the end of the War of the Roses and the Tutor line of Kings began with Henry VII. The College of Arms naturally wondered where this left them. Parliament declared the grants of Richard III to be null and void. The headquarters of the College of Arms was taken away and given to Henry VII’s mother. Henry turned out to be a great fan of pomp and circumstance and the Heralds were given much to do in the new King’s Court. After a few years the College had the courage to petition Henry VII for the return of the headquarters. The request was denied.

The headquarters became an issue again in the 20th Century. The building was heavily damaged in the Blitz, and there was no recourse to government funds to fix it. The land itself had become very valuable and there was a tempting push to sell the land, divide up the money and be done with it. Instead tradition was followed and a public subscription funded repairs. Recently Queen Elizabeth required an office in the department of Justice to maintain accurate records of arms and to keep the list up to date in case the College fails.

Sometimes the College of Arms is asked to settle a dispute. In 1954 the Manchester City Council took issue with the emblem of a theatre in town that resembled theirs and thus implied the city was involved with the theatre. After several court hearings to decide if it still existed and had jurisdiction the College of Arms convened a High Court of Chivalry for the first time in 200 years to decide the matter. It ruled in favor of the City Council of Manchester.

Well my drink is empty. Below is the Coat of Arms of my family. We found it for sale in plaque form at an English gift shop in the 1970s. I hope the High Court of Chivalry doesn’t convene to take it away from me, though I recognize their jurisdiction. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

Not complete without the motto.
Virtue lies beneath oppression
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Bolivia 1938, The vicuna, provider of the golden sweaters of Inca Royalty

So hear we have an animal that lives 10,000 feet up in the Andes. It’s golden fur is specially adopted to allow the animal to live in freezing conditions. Sounds perfect for royalty in need of sweaters and socks. 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.

Many collectors, including this one, delight in a far off place showing off the exotic, which perhaps was not so exotic there. This issue does that not just with the vicuna, but llamas, toucans and even the vicuna’s natural predator, the jaguar.

Todays stamp is issue A91, a 20 Centavo stamp issued by Bolivia on January 21st, 1939. It was an eighteen stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 used. There are imperforate fakes of this stamp and later overstamps to reflect devalued currency that are all too real.

The vicuna is an ancestor of the more common and domesticated alpaca. That the wool is so unique is an adoption to live in such high altitudes. The fur traps warm air close to the animals skin which allows the animal to survive when the furs outer layer freezes. It eats a variety of tall grass that breaks through the snow cap and has adopted to be able to drink water with high salt content. Indeed it likes to lick mountain rocks for their salt content. The animals travel in family herds of one male, 10-15 females, and young.

Local tradition is that the vicuna was much prized by the Inca. Only Royalty was allowed to wear the products of the fur. They believed the vicuna were the reincarnation of young maidens  that had received coats of golden fleece after having consented to the advances of the ugly old king. Every four years the vicuna were shepherded into a lockup where they could be shorn and then released to provide the Royal wool.

I wonder which King the model maiden abandoned her virtue for? In her case, it only earned her a vicuna blend golden coat from Burberry. I won’t sneer too much, I don’t own a $4000 coat.

The story then follows that the Spanish period did not honor the vicuna in the same way and they were heavily poached for their valuable wool. By the 1960s, the wild herd was down to 6000 vicunas. The USA Peace Corps then stepped in. They trained and paid a group of local game wardens and banned internationally the trade of vicuna wool. The vicuna was declared endangered by the World Wildlife Fund. Herd numbers began to recover.

In 1993, the old traditions of the Incas regarding the vicunas were remembered, or was it invented. The rules on trading the wool were relaxed and now wild vicunas are gathered every three years, shorn and released. The proceeds are used to support the habitat areas. So far it is claimed that the trade has not again endangered the animal. They don’t explain of course how the wild animal is to survive the next winter shorn of it’s special, and slow growing fur.

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

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France 1938, Trying to show off Vincennes between notorious prisoners

London has it’s Tower of and France has it’s Vincennes Fortress. Now of course just for the tourists, it is fun to think of people like the Marquis de Sade and Mata Hari who paid for their crimes there. 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.

France post war does such a great job showing off their historic sights with tiny brightly colored, impressionistic images on the stamps. In the pre war, they were still showing the sights but with somber shading. When the subject is an old stone fortress used as a prison, it kind of works.

Todays stamp is issue A86, a 10 Franc stamp issued by France in 1938.It was a six stamp issue showing off various tourist sites. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 1.90. There is a version overstamped with a fifty percent denomination cut, put out during the German occupation. That stamp has the same value. It makes sense the defeat would be deflationary.

The site started has a hunting lodge for French Royalty around 1150 AD. Between the 14th and the 17th century it was expanded into what is shown on the stamp. By the 18th century, the area was becoming an eastern suburb of Paris and the structure was repurposed first for porcelain manufacturing and later as a prison. The first notorious prisoner was Jean Henri Latude. He would send a package filled with poison to aristocratic ladies anonymously and then warn them. This was in hopes of rewards. This worked but often got him arrested. Latute had a remarkable ability to escape both from Vincennes and the Bastille and wrote pamphlets of his exploits and prison life that made him sort of a folk hero at the time of the French revolution.

Mr. Latude about to make his escape

The next notorious inmate was the Marquis de Sade. He was an author of erotic stories and like Latude lived a desicated life. Prostitutes in Paris complained to the police of rough treatment and the police put him under surveillance. Soon he was under arrest and a death sentence but like Latude he escaped Vincennes. It would be years later that he would be punished by Napoleon, this time for the crime of writing his dirty books.

A period depiction of de Sade

The last notorious resident against her will was in 1917 and known as Mata Hari. Her real name was Margaretha Zelle and was born into a well off Dutch family. When her father went bankrupt, her parents divorced and her situation darkened. She ended up in Paris as a cortesan and exotic dancer. Her native Holland was neutral leaning German and she was arrested for spying for the Germans during the war. She admitted taking money to spy but claimed she didn’t actually do it. She was convicted and blew kisses at her firing squad as she was executed. There is a group of mainly Dutch fans of hers that believe she was made a scapegoat.

Margaretha Zelle alias Mata Hari

In the late 1960s, a more urban Vincennes tried to rebrand by opening a large open admission university called University of Paris 8. It was a time of campus radicalism and it did not go well. In 1972, the janitors went on strike and invaded classrooms calling the Instructors scabs and demanding solidarity. A few years later the University lost accreditation when a philosophy professor was caught handing out course credit to random people she met on the city bus. She explained herself by announcing that she was a Maoist and that the University was a capitalist institution and so it was her job to make it function poorly. In the early 1980s France moved the University out of Vincennes.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till tomorrow  when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

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Ethiopia 2003, The Kebra Nagast tells of Menelik I and the Ark of the Covenant

Finding out where a people come from goes a good distance to providing a national identity. Many areas of the world were not writing down history. Ethiopia has such a history, the Kebra Nagast, that ties the history of Ethiopia to ancient Israel and the Old Testament. 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.

No this stamp doesn’t show Emperor Menelik. It instead shows Menelik’s Bushback, a variety of cape antelope native to Ethiopian highlands. It’s fur is darker than other antelopes and is not endangered. Ethiopia was coming out of a long period of troubles in 2003 and their stamps were taking a recognizable style with a certain font and simple but effective renderings of local subjects. This continuity continues on Ethiopia’s present day issues and much of the credit goes to local stamp designer Bogale Belachew.

Todays stamp is issue A351, a 45 cent stamp issued by Ethiopia on December 12th, 2002. It was a 25 stamp issue in various denominations that showed this rendering of Menelik’s Bushback with different color framing. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents with a postal cancelation.

Ethiopian tradition believes that the country was ruled by the Solomonic Dynasty for  3000 years up until the fall of last Emperor Hailie Selassie in 1974. To back this up, there are many old copies of the  Kebra Nagast written in ancient Ethiopian. The book begins with a debate question for the Fathers of the Ethiopian Orthadox Christian Church. The question is, Of what doth the Glory of Kings consist? The book then retells many stories of the Old Testament but then a new twist that brings Ethiopia into the picture.

It states there was a Royal visit of the Queen of Sheba to ancient Israel at the time of King Solomon and that he tricked her into sleeping with him. She returned to Ethiopia and raised the resulting son Menelik alone. When Menelik was in his twenties, he traveled to Israel to meet his father. King Solomon was overjoyed to meet his prodigal son and begged him to take over and rule Israel. Menelik refused as his true love was Ethiopia. To insure his son’s success, Solomon sent him home with a group of Israelite advisors and the original Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant is thought to contain the stone tablets with the 10 Commandments as given to Moses by God. The book goes on to chronical Ethiopian Emperors through time. The book ends with a prophesy that the power of Ethiopia would eventually eclipse that of Europe.

Solomonite Emperor Menelik I

At the Church of our Lady Mary of Zion in the ancient Ethiopian capital of Axum, they claim to process the Ark of the Covenant. During the reign of Haile Selassie in the 1950s,  Empress Menen had a new Chapel built next to the ancient one to safely house the Ark. She stated that heat giving off from the Ark was cracking the stones under it. The new chapel also allowed in females to pray. The old church by tradition only allowed males in with the exception of Mary herself. They don’t allow anyone to see the Ark but a British soldier claims to have seen it in 1941 when the area was being retaken from the Italians. He claimed it was an empty wooden box that appeared to be of middle ages construction.

The newer Chapel in Axum. I wonder what they have in there

Well my drink is empty and the Indiana Jones movies suggest it would be better to leave the Ark alone, whether in Ethiopia or not. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Patiala Indian Feudal State 1940. The Prince is wondering where the Prince of Nabha got his harem

Patiala was a Sikh state in the Punjab. It was one of the  Phiulkian sardars that had made peace with the British and so were allowed to continue. What to do when the Prince notices his states best girls being kidnapped and his neighboring cousin Prince rapidly expanding his harem. Call in Sherlock Holmes. 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 for official use in Patiala. The low denomination, 1/2 Anna = .004 of an American penny in todays money, implies local mail. Wonder what the ratio of bills to commendations directed at his people from the Prince?

Todays stamp is issue O8 an official stamp issued by the Sikh feudal state of Patiala. It was a 14 stamp overprint of a British India issue featuring King George VI. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

What became Patiala started as a village formed by a Sikh family castout. He was cast out for following another Guru. Thus the states in the area were separate though the ruling family were branches of the same family. The town took the name Patiala while under Baba Ala Singh who expanded his territory and rejuvenated the ancient Mubarak Fort. He was having constant battles with Afghans and Marathas and made a self defense treaty with the British East India Company.

Fort Mubarak’s main gate that is from Baba Ala Singh’s time.

In the 1920s Patiala’s Prince was having a problem with his cousin ruling Nabha. His police officers were being harassed in Nabha and more importantly young women were disappearing only to reappear in the Nabha Prince’s harem.  Things were getting quite hostile between them and that was quite dangerous for their continued existence. The British had a rule regarding the feudal states called the Doctrine of Lapse. If an area lacked a direct heir or the ruler was deemed manifestly incompetent, the state would revert to British India. Gosh, that is a doctrine that needs to make a comeback.

Patiala petitioned to a Sikh council called the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak. They got no satisfaction there so it was referred to the British Indian courts. Their enquiry found that Patiala’s accusations were true. They forced the Prince of Nabha to abdicate and took over the states administration. There are some that thought that Patiala had more popularity with the British as a Patiala polo star was playing in Britain and winning championships.

Patiala Prince Singh. In addition to his huge harem he was also an accomplished cricketer.

In 1947 Patiala was the first feudal Prince to sign the Instrument of Accession to the new independent Union of India. In return, he was named the areas first governor.

Well my drink is empty. I checked and Patiala Prince Singh had 10 wives, numerous consorts and a a whopping 88 children. Wonder where he got his harem? Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Uruguay 1962, Remembering first President Fructuoso Rivera, who with 33 Orientals embraced the monsoon

The first President of Uruguay was in and out of office and exile and is in some peoples thinking guilty for the massacre of the Charrua Indians. Not quite the legacy one might hope of a county’s founding father. Then you should remember that the people decided actively to embrace the monsoon to end Brazilian rule. Well they did that. 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.

When a country is formed by embracing the monsoon, you might expect the leader to have some anarchist flair. Yet here we have Uruguay showing President Rivera in the standard fake Napoleon get up so common to Latin America. Our founders must be founding fathers in the USA sense?

Todays stamp is issue A190, a 20 Centesimos stamp issued by Uruguay on May 29th, 1962. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

In colonial times, it was agreed between Spain and Portugal to divide what was known as the Oriental Province between the two Empires. The area of modern Uruguay was the part given to Spain. The area was sparsely populated but the nomadic Charrua Indians who thought the colonials white, not oriental. After Spanish abandonment, the area became known as the independent Banda Oriental under a General Artigas. Cattle rancher Fructuoso Rivera joined Artigas’s army, himself rising to general. In 1820 the by now independent Brazilian Empire invaded and much or Artigas’s army went into Argentine exile. Rivera returned to his ranch.

Argentine cattle ranchers were very much threatened by Brazil’s move and funded a rejuvenation of the Banda Oriental army. Rivera met with his former comrades and agreed to be a part of it if they made a comeback. In 1825 33 “Orientals” landed at Arenal Grande beach and picked up additional figures from the countryside on a march to Montevideo. Those landed were not all from Oriental Province, some were Argentine and one was even from Mozambique. In Montevideo, the group declared independence from Brazil and allegiance to Argentina.

An imagination of the 33 embracing the monsoon and taking the oath to the Uruguay flag. The guy with the big afro giving the future Nazi salute looks fun

Brazil then declared war on Argentina. The war lasted 3 years and was eventually mediated by British diplomat Viscount Ponsonby. It was decided that Uruguay would be independent and affiliate with neither Brazil nor Argentina.

Viscount Ponsonby. He wouldn’t do as a Uruguay founding father, would he?

Rivera served three times as President although he was often at odds with many of his former comrades. Relations with the Charrua Indians declined as they felt their land was being intruded on by cattle ranches. In 1831 Rivera lead the army to attack the Indians in what was an antihalation. In 1834, Uruguay sent four Charrua Indians to Paris to be part of a circus freak show of a died out race. None of the four ever made it back to Uruguay alive. The race may not have totally died out. In 1989, a group was formed that self identified themselves as members of the Charrua nation. Uruguay allows Charrua identification on their census, and 700 claim it. Wonder if they are lobbying to start a casino.

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Great Britain 1996, Remembering the first tv star, a puppet mule

“We want Muffin. Muffin the Mule. Dear old Muffin, Always playing the Fool”. Television was a new medium in 1946, but a new medium needs a breakout star. Even if it was a puppet. 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.

Children’s television had a fifty year history at the time of this stamp. So the stamp shows a black and white image of the BBC presenter Annette Mills and the Muffin puppet. Imagine someone today conceiving a show of a mature and accomplished lady performs original music while a mule puppet is made to dance on the piano by puppetiers who concieved the puppet, voice it and wrote the script.It would have never happened that way now and the Muffin reboots since never stuck to the formula. The formula would have looked familiar to 1940s Britain. There were still traveling kids shows such as Punch and Judy that were similar.

A photo showing how it was done on live TV.

Todays stamp is issue A469, a 20P stamp issued by Great Britain on September 3rd, 1996. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations also available as a prestige booklet that displayed Britain’s children’s tv over time. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents used. The prestige booklet is worth $16.

The original puppet mule was made by puppet maker Fred Tickner on commission from the husband and wife puppeteer team of Jan Busell and Ann Hogarth. It was part of the puppet circus of the traveling Hogarth Puppet Theatre. The in person show went on hiatus during the war. The Hogarth team was hired by the BBC to work with presenter Annette Mills, a talented singer, pianist, and in her earlier days a dancer. She was also the sister of actor Sir John Mills and aunt to later child star Haley Mills. On TV they were able to recreate the live old style live performance but had the added challenge of debuting new material every week.

The show was very successful and ran until 1955 when Annette Mills died of a heart attack. A few years later the show was reimagined with Muffin the mule getting a lot of friends such as Sally the sea lion and Perguene the penguin. On the new ITV show Muffin lived in Muffinham village and was put upon by the hijinks of his new compatriots. You can sense the modernity creeping in.

The stardom of the puppet was such that in 1959 Lesney Products, then makers of Matchbox cars, made a die cast metal Muffin the mule toy. It was the only tv character they ever did that for. The character was even brought to the Soviet Union with a series of Soviet made episodes. They did however convert Muffin to a donkey.

Well my drink is empty and though there are people here worthy of a toast, it seems wrong in relation to a kids show. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Guinea 1967, 20 years of the Democratic Party of Guinea, 20 down and 17 to go

Guinea in this period was a one party state with the leader Touré reelected unanimously every 5 years. Such success must have put Guinea on top of the world. Well that is what this stamp issue expresses and was early enough that some still might have believed. 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 issue celebrates 20 years of the Democratic political party  and also the opening of the “People’s Palace” in the capital Conakry. The Democratic party had been the only legal party since 1960 so was hardly democratic. The peoples palace was of course for the use of President Touré. The Palace was built with eastern bloc aid, it must have been strange for them to be in the palace building game.

A large sign covering the central part of the entrance hall to the Peoples Palace in Conakry. Three values are represented : that of work, symbolized by a woman holding a sickle, cultural tradition by a drum player and the struggle for national independence by a man armed with a torch and rifle. 

Todays stamp is issue A63, a 30 Franc stamp issued by Guinea on September 28th, 1967. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations the top value being airmail. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents canceled to order.

Sekou Touré was born a peasant farmer in a small village in then French Guinea. He claimed to be the great grandson of King Touré of the precolonial Wassoulou Empire. The claim was enough to get him enrolled in French schools in Guinea until he was expelled at age 15 for protesting the quality of the food the French were providing. Apparently we are to believe  before he left school he made a deep study of Marx and Lenin. After school he pursued his true calling as a labor organizer. Getting somebody to get people working would be quite the novelty in an African country, but no he was a strike guy. Strikes are probably hard to pull off in Africa as who could tell the difference. That stuff doesn’t pay the bills so Touré was also a postal clerk. He had to take a test for that job so that probably proves he could read. He was a founding member of the Democratic Party that wanted complete independence from France.

In 1958, Touré had his shot and took it. The new French 5th Republic allowed a fairly sudden vote in the colonies whether to remain in the French community or get snap independence. Guinea was the only African colony to chose independence and got it in 1958 with Touré as President. Telling the French to go away was very popular throughout Black Africa and the Black community in the USA. Seeing his in depth study of Communism, the Soviets and the Chinese were very forthcoming with aid. As was more lefty forces in the west like the Peace Corps.

They say image is everything but not always. Askari soldiers in the service of Portuguese Guinea raided Guinea finding no opposition but also not finding Touré. They had hoped to instill a national uprising but found the radio station inoperative so they couldn’t get the word out. After they left, Touré portrayed it as a great victory and had the Soviets cast him another statue. The truth showed as the new High Command executed much of the Army and government officials as traitors.

Nice of the Soviet sculptors to remember to put African features on the brave Red soldier defending home and hearth

In 1977, it became impossible to claim that communism was working economically. Female merchants in Conakry’s main Medena Market rioted saying that the government set prices were too low. The government stopped trying to enforce those rules. Finally in 1984 Touré died of a heart attack at the Cleveland Clinic in the USA when he did not trust the hospitals in Guinea.

So what was the results of Touré and the Democratic Party’s 26 year rule with ample foreign aid. The worker’s average income was $140 a year, literacy was below 10 percent, and life expectancy in Guinea was 41 years.

The sun will come out tomorrow

Well my drink is empty and no I will leave the toasting of Touré to his still many fans. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.