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Italy 1937. Lets make sure the kids can go to camp this summer

Italy’s government was pretty notorious in 1937. That does not mean that life didn’t go on for Italians. Such as for example, the kids going to summer 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.

1930s stamp engraving wont be the prime medium for capturing a 500 year old piece of Florence renascance skulpture. It was nice that they included it with the modern images of children on the other stamps in the issue to show the importance of children to society over time and to make the whole issue less political.

Todays stamp is issue A207, a 75 Centesimi stamp issued by Italy on June 28th, 1937. It was a 10 stamp issue in various denominations that promoted the Summer Exhibition for Child Welfare. The higher denominations were semi postal issues that included a surcharge to help fund the camp trips for disadvantaged kids. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $17.50 used. The 2.75 +1.25 Lira denomination also used this image but colored blue green, It’s value used is up at $275.

The image on this stamp is “il Bambino”. It was created by sculptor Luca della Robbia in Florence during the 1440s. Della Robbia also worked in stone, bronze, and wood, but he is best known for his work in terra cota. Happy, Holy Spirit filled children were usually his subjects and decorated the alter of many Italian churches of his day. Della Robbia  produced one offs for individual commissions and also more mass market versions.that came from molds. He was successful enough to acquire a great house that contained a workshop that also employed many  of his family members. Indeed the workshop was able to continue in the house for over 40 years after della Robbia’s death.

A reader might be put off a little by the Fascist government coopting della Robbia’s work. The fact is though that the work is now long in the public domain and if you look below you will see a modern poster image of the same work available at Walmart. Interestingly they admit it is a work by della Robbia but date the work to 1912.

The Walmart poster. Walmart assures thick poster paper

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Walmart for out coopting even the Fascists. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Afghanistan 1984, Antonov An-2, the ultimate bush plane

A sign that an aircraft model is not replaceable is a long production run. Turboprop versions of the An-2 are still in limited production in Ukraine and China having first entered production in 1947. The continued existence of the two factories allows many more older airframes to be refurbished and modernized. What has proved more challenging is designing a replacement. 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 from Afghanistan points to the usefulness of bush aircraft in so many places around the world. Due to where industrial capabilities lie, most bush airplane designs came from Russia and Canada. Most operators though have small fleets and so there is not a clear economic case for a replacement model. Luckily there still is the ability to refurbish, but it will be interesting to watch how long the old airframes can go on.

Todays stamp is issue A441, a one Rupee stamp issued by the Soviet puppet government of Afghanistan on June 29th, 1984. It was a seven stamp issue in various denominations celebrating 40 years of aviation in the country. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused or cancelled to order.

In the early days after World War II, the Soviet Union drew up plans for a a 12 seat utility airplane to be built by Antonov in the Ukraine. It would use a license made Wright Cyclone piston engine. The plane was a biplane to give strong lift and allow for takeoff and landing runs under 700 feet. The An-2, Russian nickname Annie, NATO code name Colt had a very low 30 mph stall speed. It thus in a 35 mile an hour headwind, not uncommon at altitude,  the plane could fly backwards relative to the ground. The plane was useful for supplying distant outposts, crop spraying and skydiving.

In 1960 production of the AN-2 moved to Poland and got going in China. Over 18,000 airplanes have been built. Poland stopped making the An-2 in 1991 and for a while some production moved to Russia. During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese AN 2s attacked an American spy base in Laos and were chased off by Huey helicopters where the fighting was guys shooting out of open doors with automatic rifles. In the Yugoslav Civil War of the early 1990s, Croatian crop duster AN-2s were dropping improvised barrel bombs out of the open door at Serbian/Yugoslav targets. In todays war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Azeri unmanned An-2s are being used as drones for surveillance and bombing. Armenia claims to have so far shot down seven of them.

There was a fairly notorious 1976 crash of a An-2 in Novosibisk, Siberia. A recently divorced pilot attempted murder suicide by trying to crash the plane into the apartment of his exes in-laws where his ex wife and toddler son were staying. He instead hit the buildings stairwell and the plane’s 200 gallons of fuel started a large fire. Despite quick work by the fire department, four small children died from burns. None of the pilot’s targets were hurt.

Antonov no longer provides type certification for the An-2, so the for the many examples in the west, it is illegal to use the An-2 for business purposes. I mentioned above there are modernized versions with turboprop engines, cabin air conditioning, and GPS based navigation. There is of course the issue of how many improvements you can make before the plane is no longer simple enough to operate in the bush.

The currently offered, again from Ukraine, An-2-100. These can be built new or converted from old airframes

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

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Brazil 1960, Recognizing a bit late the birth century of L. L. Zamenhoff

There has long been an ideal that if there was a common language that all spoke, it would go a long way toward different people solving disputes. Already as a schoolboy L. L. Zamenhof developed what he hoped could be an international language based on his native Yiddish but with a Latin script. He promoted his idea under the pseudonym Dr. Esperanto, which is Russian for doctor who hopes. 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.

It is a little surprising that Brazil decided to honor Dr. Zamenhof with a stamp. The practice of Esperanto in Brazil is centered around an off chute of Catholics called spiritism. This is a little off track from the task of improving the situation of Jewish minorities in eastern Europe. A stamp honoring Esperanto in the Brazil context might be better served by a spiritist such as Chico Xavier.

Todays stamp is issue A434, a 6.5 Cruzeiro stamp isued by Brazil on March 10th, 1960. It was a single stamp issue that came out a year late to properly celebrate the birth century of Dr. Zamenhof. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents unused.

Levi Zamenhoff was born in a mainly Jewish city in what was then Russia but is now eastern Poland. In his town were also Russians, Poles, Germans, and Lithuanians that all spoke different languages. Levi saw how many petty disputes escalated because people couldn’t communicate. Levi already as a school boy was a ready scholar of languages and thought he could solve it by making a simplified Yiddish but with a Latin script could be taught to all. This of course would be advantageous to Jews who were usually a minority but were well represented among merchants and professionals who deal with all. They couldn’t be all expected to learn the multiple native tongues. It also, he believed, fit with his pacifist politics. Amazingly, Levi finished his proposal for a common language at age 17.

Levi being too young to get his work published studied to become an eye doctor. He practiced his profession in Lithuania, Austria, and Russia and that reminded him of the common language need. When he married a well off girl named Wanda, Levi was able to convince his new father in law to back the publishing and promotion of his common language. He published under the pseudonym Dr. Esperanto that was quickly taken up as the name for the language. The language quickly found favor with utopian pacifist worldwide that had more than their share of  Yiddish speakers. This fit with Levi'[s political views. He even rebelled against Zionism as he believed nationalism was a disease to be avoided even among oppressed minorities.

The first Esperanto Congress in 1905

One might have expected the language of Esperanto to thrive among international political movements that so dominated the 20th century such as Communism and Fascism. Instead Nazi era Germany banned the teaching of Esperanto despite the many linguistic connections of German and Yiddish. In fact the Nazis executed Levi’s Warsaw based eye doctor son Adam during the Palmiri massacre of prominent Jews and Poles. Soviet leader Stalin decreed a more complete banning of Esperanto declaring it the language of spies and traitors.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Levi Zamenhof and all those who did their best work in high school. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

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East Germany 1983, Keeping time at the Dresden Salon

Collections build off each other. A collection of armor and weapons grew to include thousands of clocks and sundials. Luckily when a royal house is the collector, it is not just hoarding but the makings of a national treasure. 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 Philatelists.

You may wonder why the East Germans were showing off some of the old treasures of the Dresden Mathematics and Physics Salon. They had earned the right to. In February 1945, the Zwinger palace complex was mostly destroyed in the Allied fire bombing of the city. The collection mostly survived as it previously been moved for safe keeping mostly into rural castles. The city fell to the Soviet Army soon after and one might have expected that to be the end of it, as lets face it, putting back together palace complexes and Royal collections is not their wheel house. Sometimes people outperform and the complex reopened in 1953. One thing that did go away was the observatory that had offered an exact official time for Saxony for the previous 150+ years.

Todays stamp is issue A710, a 20 Pfennig stamp issued by East Germany on June 7th, 1983, the 30th anniversary of the Salon’s reopening. It was a six stamp issue in various denominations. This stamp shows a horizotal sundial created by Christopher Trechsler in 1611 on the commission for the Salon. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The first known sundials have been found in Egypt and date from 1500 BC. Depending on how good the model is for the suns movement in relation to the season and the location, a sundial can give a very accurate time.

In 1570, Italian Astronomer Giovanni Padovani, who operated out of Verona published a widely read work explaining sundials including details of how to make them. He included tables for the different latitudes.

August the Strong, Elector of Saxony, collector of sundials and builder of the Zwinger

In the 15th Century Albert the Bold was Duke of Saxony and established a chamber in his Dresden residence to house his collection of armor and weapons. It became one of the largest collections in the world. Later Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland expanded the chamber and the collection expanded to include time pieces. Augustus was building in Dresden an elaborate complex called the Zwinger. The added space allowed the collection to be broken up and thus came about the Salon of Physics and mathematics.

Salon of Math and Physics in the Zwinger complex

There was a further reconstruction of the Zwinger that reopened in 2013. The current collection contains over 3000 clocks and scientific instruments and still includes Christopher Trechsler’s sundial from 1613.

Another view of the 1611 sundial on the stamp

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting and don’t forget to vote.

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Algeria 1952, French Algeria remembers Cherchell when it was a Roman Mauretanian Empire under Juba II and Cleopatra

The period French would tell you they were dragged into the Magreb to be done with Barberry pirates. What they found and cataloged were remnants of previous civilizations dating to Pheonicians, Carthage, Berbers and especially Romans in Cherchell. 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 shows a statue of a bird resembling an eagle taking off with a male baby. The statue is from Roman times and is in the collection or the archeology museum in Cherchell. The best I can figure it relates to the ancient Hebrew Demoness Lilith, she has Greek, Roman, and Arabic equivalents. Lilith is thought to be the the first wife of Adam, who lost her first son. Her grief turns her into a flying demoness, who swoops in to steal male babies so she can suck their blood. In the Greek-Roman version Lamia, she can’t stop seeing her dead baby and Zues takes pity and gives her the ability to remove her eyes from their sockets.

A Babylon version of Lilith. Notice the eagle wings, claws, and feet

Todays stamp is issue A35, a 15 Franc stamp issued by the then French colony of Algeria in 1954. It was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations showing Roman era statues in Cherchell, the one time capital of the Roman Mauretania Empire. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The Mauretania Empire was centered on Cherchell but extended west to the Atlantic ocean. It was occupied by Moors, Berbers, Jews, and Phonecians and was an important trading post in the western Mediterranian. Cherchell was well known for it’s high quality silver coins, but also exported grapes, fish, and furniture. It was also the sole source of a purple dye that was important to the adornments of Roman ceremonies. Mauritania had originally allied with Carthage but was soon annexed by Rome.

The man who became their great King Juba II was a Berber who travelled to Rome where he was educated and made a Roman citizen. Octavian crowned him King of Mauretania and he married Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of Cleopatra of Egypt and Marc Anthony. This was the golden era for Cherchell, then called Ceasaria. Trade grew, the arts and the study of history were renewed and the fortified city was reorganized into a Roman style grid plan. Juba II was a learned man who wrote books on history, geography, grammar. He also discovered through his doctor that the local succulent flower euphorbia was a powerful laxative.

Juba II and Cleopatra’s tomb in Algeria

Mauretania was eventually conquered by the Vandals and later the Visigoths. The areas importance greatly reduced. As Cherchell there was another boom as a completely French city with a large army presence. Over time Arabs entered seeking employment in the fields and the city but remained fiery but mostly peaceful during the 1950s Algerian war. The Europeans left in mass at the time of independence and again the city lost  importance. It still gets water from an expanded cistern system first put in by Juba II.

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

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Tanzania 1993-94, Checking out the rhinos at the original place to hear more cowbell

Ngorongoro Crater is a large grassy plateau in the crater of a long dormant volcano. This provided a food rich home for thousands of animals. As long ago as 1921, laws have been passed to protect the animals habitat, but getting the Maasai tribe to listen is ever the challenge. 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 celebrated the national parks of Tanzania. For Ngorongoro Crater, we get a fun view of a rhinoceros. The rhino has been particularly hard hit since Tanzanian independence with numbers down 95 percent to just a few dozen. The international community declared the area a world heritage site, but getting poor, desperate natives to value their heritage is not easy. Money is handed to the government for protection and none gets passed to the tribe who are the ones that actually have to leave the animals alone.

Todays stamp is issue A187, a twenty Shilling stamp issued allegedly by Tanzania on October 29th, 1993. The stamps of this issue were not actually available until late 1994. This was a seven stamp issue in various denominations that was also available as a souvenir sheet. According to the Scott catalog, the full set of the seven stamps is worth $4 whether unused or cancelled to order. No value is given for the stamps individually but simple division gets you 57 cents each. There is also no value specified for an actual postal cancelation. Do any exist?

The grassy plateau of the crater is thought to have formed about 2 million years ago over a pool of dried lava. The crater floor is two thousand feet deep and covers an area of 100 square miles. Still the crater floor is 6000 feet above sea level. The name Ngorongoro comes from the Maasai and describes what a cowbell sounds like in the crater with the echo.

Tanzania was first in the area of German East Africa. The first European to visit the crater was Austrian explorer and cartographer Oscar Baumann. Baumann had had a rough time in Tanzania where he was exploring his theory of the source of the Nile River. Baumann and his assistant were taken by Arab traders that were unhappy that the Sultan of Zanzibar had sold the area to Germany. They were beaten, robbed and even stripped and held till Austria Hungary paid a ransom. Despite the setback, Bauman continued to explore the area until Austria Hungary named him consul to Zanzibar. The Zanzibar of the day was quite an unhealthy place to live and Baumann died a few years later of a bacterial infection at only 35.

Oscar Baumann trying to fit in wearing a fez in Zanzibar

With the natives being nomadic, it was two German brothers, Adolf and Friedrich, that first set up a farm in the crater in 1898. They hosted hunting parties and tried unsuccessfully to drive the herd of wildebeests out of the crater. The wildebeest is the most common animal in the crater. In 1921 all hunting was banned in the crater except on the former German farm.

Wildebeests and zebras in a herd in the crater

The next challenge came in 1951 when the then British colonials set aside the Serengeti Wildlife Park. This meant moving the Maasai nomads out and them going in large numbers to the crater. In 1959 Britain tried to limit the damage being done to the crater  by also making  Ngorongoro crater a national park. Soon enough Tanganyika was independent and in 1979 it was the UN coming in to try to save a few of the animals by declaring it a world heritage site. The area is considered by them to be endangered by human intrusion.

Well my drink is empty and hears hoping the UN is successful in saving the wildlife of the Ngorongoro Crater. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Israel 1954, Keeping the mail going through all the transitions

This stamp shows a modern postal truck and the General Post Office in Jerusalem. This stamp implies correctly that the then new state of Israel had a modern functioning postal service. It doesn’t show the effort involved in getting 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.

As is so often the case with an early post colonial/mandate state, an impressive piece of infrastructure was shown without the useful piece of information that it was a gift of the former mandate British government. This lack of thanks should be an important influence on the decision to build something for someone else instead of remembering your own people first.

Todays stamp is issue A40, a 2 pound stamp issued by Israel on October 14th, 1954. It was a two stamp issue, the other showing the old post office in Jerusalem and horse bound mail delivery. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used or unused.

Postal history goes far back in the territory occupied by Israel. During the Mamluk period that predated the Ottomans, there was a regular mail run between Cairo and Damascus that made several stops in what is now Israel. Already in 1901, a Jewish National Fund was established with the purpose of buying up land for the use of Jews moving to Ottoman era Palestine. Their largest project was the city of Tel Aviv and an important fund raising tool was the issuance of fake stamps.

Jewish National Fund land buying fund raising stamp from 1915

The post World War I mandate for Britain was to run Palestine and attempt to treat the various peoples there equally. In terms of the postal service, the effort included a large new general post office in Jerusalem. It was designed by British architect Austen Harrison to be both modern and fit in with the traditional architecture of the Middle East. Austen Harrison was a McGill University graduate and a descendant of authoress Jane Austen, for whom he is named. Harrison lived in Jerusalem for 15 years and had friends among all the religious and racial groups. He enjoyed hikes to Amman and Cairo, which then was possible. The new building was to house the post office, the telephone and telegraph service, and the then Palestine Post newspaper. Hand cut stone from the quarry Beit Safafa was chosen with a stripe of black basalt at street level to camouflage street grime. Inside the stamp buying room the counter facing the customers was cool durable marble, but facing the employees was warm polished oak. In the basement is a large secure vault for the stamps.

Austen Harrison after the move to Cyprus.

Half way through construction Austen Harrison abandoned the project and left Jerusalem for Cyprus. He felt the British mandate authority was overly favoring the recently arrived Jewish residents at the expense of the others. The building was finished by a replacement in 1938 and is still in use today.

The transition from mandate to an Israeli postal system was not smooth. In 1948 the British discontinued their postal service. The Israelis took over the infrastructure left behind and tried to get it back in operation. They first overstampted fake stamp issues of the Jewish National Fund to make them real stamps. That doesn’t happen often. The first newly printed stamps of Israel printed a few months later were labeled Hebrew Post, as the final name was not yet decided. Israeli Post soon bowed to the British Mandate tradition of being trilingual with Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Some of our Turkish friends are no doubt saying what about us? Don’t you remember the Ottoman Empire? There is only so much room on a stamp.

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

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Greece 1938. Maybe the ancient Minoans on Crete had it right. Why not display your skill and bravery by jumping over the bull instead of fighting him

The ancient people on the island of Crete were from the same strand of ancients as those in Greece. Thus it is understandable the Greeks in modern times look to the practices of Minoans as part of their own heritage. 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 image on this stamp is taken from an old fresco in a Minoan era palace on Crete. That combined with 1930s poor country printing makes it less than clear what is happening. An acrobat has grabbed an angry bull by the horns who then by reflex jerks his head up violently. Using that force as leverage, the acrobat summersaults over the bull. The bull is not hurt by this.

Todays stamp is issue A69, a five Lepta stamp issued by Greece on November 1st, 1937. It was a 13 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used.

We talk a lot here of trading posts with an international flavor to them. Using postage stamps as a jumping off point usually puts us in the colonial or post colonial era. Here we get to go back to the Minoan culture on Crete as it existed circa 2000 BC. The trading going on was with the different peoples throughout the eastern Mediterranean Sea including Egypt and the Levant. The trading and mixing influenced both sides and left the Minoans well off. Elaborate palaces have been uncovered by archeologists over the last 200 years.

The name Minoan comes from a mythic King Minos on Crete. He was a concoction of nineteenth century British archeologists. As presented by the archeologists, the Minoans raised vegetables and ate lots of seafood. This healthy diet resulted in much longer life spans and thus contributed to the elaborate bronze age art the island is known for.

Bronze bulls head Minoan rhyton found in Zakros. A rhyton is drank from.

It is believed that Minoan culture came to a sudden end after an eruption of the Thera volcano around 1450 BC. There were also a string of earthquakes. By the beginning of the iron age around 1200BC, there was nothing left of the old culture on Crete. The language of the Minoans has not yet been able to be translated, so we do not know what kind of government they had. The high number of stone palaces is thought to mean the society had a hierarchy.

The Minoans were believed the first to practice bull fighting. There’s of course was much less violent than the now more famous Spanish style. It was practiced on Crete by both males and females. There was a second way where the the performer dives over the horns and then bounces off the bulls back. It is thought that the sport wasn’t dangerous for bull or jumper but that probably depends how the jumper lands and how quickly the bull comes for him. In modern times, bull jumping is still sometimes performed in France except they now use cows.

An ivory bull leaper figure found in Knossos. The bull it is believed he was pinned to was never found.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Minoan bull leaper. Showing strength, bravery, and graceful movement, it must have been a crowd pleaser. It also showed respect for the bull, who was often revered in ancient cultures for his raw power. Come again on Monday when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Ecuador 1930, Talking up ancient national cacao while fighting the witches’ broom and dreading the appearance of Frankenstien

Ecuador broke away from Gran Columbia 100 years before this stamp. They hadn’t exactly set the world on fire with their success. Nature had provided to Ecuador a unique “national” cacao that was best in the world and readily exported. Well having such a national treasure perhaps justifies a country, too bad they couldn’t protect it. 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 do like the old style formal martial style of the older Latin American stamp. When they add the portrait of somebody no one has heard of  and have him dressed up like Napoleon, it adds a fun comic appeal. When The Philatelist started, I thought these stamps would be a staple, as we could research the trials and tribulations of the fake Napoleons. It didn’t work out that way, there really isn’t much info about them beyond a portrait and dates. The countries were largely illiterate and remembering the people that kept them that way was not a priority. I have had better luck when the country featured a crop or industry, because people getting something done is more worth remembering.

Todays stamp is issue A115, a five centavo stamp issued by Ecuador on August 1st, 1930. It was a 13 stamp issue in various denominations on the occasion of the country’s centennial. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Only 11 percent of the land area of Ecuador was arable. That perhaps was not considered adequately when deciding to break away from Gran Columbia, but circa 1830 the population was small and the indigenous didn’t truly count. The modern world works around issues like that by providing grains free or heavily subsidized. I wonder how often Ecuador says thank you to the USA or Japan for insuring such a program.

That does leave the arable land for export crops. The local variety of cacao pod produced the best in the world. It had a floweriness that was unmatched. The government named it ancient national and recognized it as a renewable and exportable national treasure. Unfortunately disaster struck. In 1916 the crop was hit with two crop diseases. They were called frozen pod and witches’ broom. Crop yields dropped to almost nothing. In desperation planters brought in outside varieties of cacao that seemed to have greater resistance to the diseases. The government tried to save the national variety by having it combined with the  newly added varieties to make a hybrid they named heirloom national cacao. The result was still high quality but now was instead fruity instead of flowery. Yields at least went back up.

This is where Frankenstein enters the story. A new hybrid was developed that was only one percent related to the ancient national cacao that was the national treasure. There was no longer any taste advantage or market price premium for this cacao from Ecuador. However Frankenstein upped crop yields eight fold. This has fueled a low quality export boom that mainly goes to the USA. In modern times, 70% of the land is given over to the Frankenstein hybrid and  a little less than 30 percent heirloom national. True Ancient National is less than 1 percent of todays crop. It still commands a market price eight times as much. So everybody gets cheap lousy cacao instead of just noticing that cacao from Ecuador is extra special.

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if is possible to get real ancient national sent to you? Fall is here and that means winter is coming. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Trinidad and Tobago 1938, Cooking and eating the sacred hummingbird leads to the Coronation of the Asphalt King

Who could have imagined that a naturally  occurring tar pit could lead to robber baron trusts and government make work. Well perhaps if the warnings from the Indians had been heeded. 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 King George VI standard design has one of those marvelous little windows into the specific colony. Here we see the white man’s discovery of a lake of asphalt by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595. Soon Raleigh was using it as calk on his ships and comparing and contrasting Trinidad’s lake to a tar pit he had previously seen in Norway. With the knowledge he added, we should remember to refer to him as Sir as the honour was much deserved.

Todays stamp is issue A13, a 6 Pence stamp issued by the British Crown Colony of Trinidad and Tobago in 1938. It was a 14 stamp issue in various denomination with different windows into the colony. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents with it’s nice G. P.  O. Port of Spain postage cancelation.

The asphalt lake had of course been discovered by Indians long before Sir Walter Raleigh. The legend they used to explain it was that long ago a tribe was celebrating a defeat in battle of a neighboring rival. In their exuberance the tribe got the munchies and cooked and ate a sacred hummingbird that they believed contained the eternal souls of their ancestors. Out of revenge, their winged god caused the earth to open up and swallow their village with the black hell lava. The lava/asphalt then stained the earth permanently as a warning to future munchy Indians. Scientists now boringly claim that the location is where two tectonic plates meet forcing to the surface a deep deposit of asphalt.

In Washington DC, a white Philosophy Professor at Howard University named Amzi Barber was branching out into upscale residential neighborhood development. He developed Ledroit Park adjacent to traditionally black Howard University as a gated, tree lined, all white community. In the course of his work, he came upon a government report recommending asphalt as the best material for paving roadways. Barber chartered a stock company in London that acquired the monopoly on mining asphalt at the lake in Trinidad. He made over 35 million in 1890s American dollars doing paving work in 70 American cities with asphalt from Trinidad. His company was later labeled an overcharging illegal trust and broken up. Howard University also rose up against Barber’s way of doing things and in 1888 students from Howard tore down the gates to the Ledroit neighborhood. After that the quite handsome neighborhood gradually became home for Washington DC’s black elite including Ralph Bunche, Duke Ellington, and Jesse Jackson.

Asphalt King, Professor and developer Amzi Barber.

In the early 1970s the asphalt from the mine was mainly going to the UK. However they decided to switch to coal tar for road paving. In 1978 the Trinidad & Tobago government took over the mine so it could continue despite loses. The area has grown in recent years as a tourist attraction.

A drone view of the Asphalt Lake showing the mining operation.

Well my drink is empty and today we are not supposed to celebrate mythical winged gods, colonial explorers, or redlining developers. I want to celebrate them all. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.