Sorry for the service interruption for my non USA readers. There will be a new story that can be learned from stamp collecting tomorrow. Spoiler, it will involve the Dominican Republic, cows, and parsley.
South Korea in terms of the cold war in 1975 was on the same side as Japan, which now had only defensive military capabilities and whose only threat was economic. That does not mean there was not still resentment of the Japanese occupation up till 1945 so why not fondly remember a long ago Admiral who knew how to make Japan pay a price for attacking Korea. 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 sure doesn’t look like much. This was a bulk postage stamp for mainly commercial use. That in itself though was a sign of an advanced economy, and South Korea was then in it’s first decade of being described that way.
Todays stamp is issue A502 a 100 Won stamp issued by South Korea on October 10th, 1975. This stamp features 16th century Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the spelling seems to have changed in English since the seventies when his name was presented as Li. It was a four stamp bulk issue in various denominations whose subject matter did not relate to each other.
In the 1590s Japan under Toyotomi Hideyoshi had a ambition to conquer Korea, then united, and use it as a springboard to attack Ming Dynasty era China. The 1590s sound a lot like the 1890s. Korea was ruled by the Joseon Dynasty. The Japanese army and navy had a great numerical advantage over Korea and the invasion occurred in 1592. The Korean Army did not fare well in battle and the Koreans fell back to guerilla warfare against the Japanese who were able to take Seoul and Pyonyang.
One advantage the Koreans had was a small but well lead navy under Admiral Yi. The Korean ships were larger and carried more and better cannon. The Japanese had smaller ships that would pull alongside and attempt to board them. Admiral Yi had constructed a new type of ship called a turtle ship that had spikes on the top deck to make it difficult to board. It also had separate decks so the rowers could continue to row below and the gun deck with other sailors could fire. Korea was having a great deal of luck ambushing supply ships and The Japanese were having no luck using there overwhelming numbers to catch the Korean fleet in one place.
A ground force General wanted Admiral Yi to coordinate with a land attack on shore. The order came through the King. Admiral Yi refused, citing off shore rocks that would be dangerous for his precious ships. Admiral Yi was then stripped or his command, imprisoned and tortured near to death. He then became, a man of noble birth, a private in the army. The navy without Li was far less successful suffering its first defeats. Admiral Yi then had his command restored but the navy was down to 13 ships and 300 sailors. The King wrote him a letter suggesting he disband the navy and have his sailors join the army. Yi wrote back that he had 13 ships and while he was still alive the Japanese would not be safe in the Yellow Sea. At the Battle of Myeongnyang, he was able to ambush the Japanese fleet an inflict great losses. At a later battle, Admiral Yi was hit by a fatal wound and his last words that someone should continue to beat his war drum and the sailors should not be told of his death.
China later intervened on the Korean side turning the tide of the war. The Japanese withdrew from Korea after their own leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi died. The Joseon Dynasty lasted until 1897 when the Japanese again became ambitious toward Korea.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the admirals that had to face one of those scary turtle ships. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.
Sometimes Eastern European states are thought of as disloyal Nazi client states during the war. There is evidence for that, but a more nuanced look at situation Hungary was in shows what an intricate dance its aged Regent left over from the Hapsburgs was doing. He had to try to keep Hungary in the middle of the road. 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 design of this stamp resembles some fascist issues. One clue that this is something else though is that Regent Nicholas Horthy is referred to as Admiral. This is a title held by him most recently in 1918 in the service of the then Hapsburg Austria-Hungarian Navy. The peace treaty forced on Hungary after World War I did not allow for the return of the Hapsburgs, however Hungary was still an Empire and Horthy as Regent was head of state. He had opponents on the right and left but was trying to help Hungary recover despite the danger all around.
Todays stamp is issue A92, a 2 Pengo stamp issued by the Hungarian Empire on June 18th, 1941. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations displaying Head of State Regent Nicholas Horthy. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.
Hungary lost a great deal of land after World War I with Hungarian lands passing to Romania, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. This left Hungary small and landlocked. As the war ended a mainly Jewish uprising for a short while was able to establish a Hungarian Soviet Socialist Republic. Most Hungarians thought this another foreign incursion and rebelled. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/03/12/hungary-climbs-out-of-the-trenches-too-soon/ .The treaty ending the war did not allow for a return of the long ruling Hapsburgs but former Admiral Horthy was accepted as Regent. Overthrowing the Jewish communist government was violent and considered anti Semitic. Horthy replied that hell being let loose on earth cannot be repelled by the flapping of an angels wings.
Horthy stayed on as Regent for many years and was thought to be fairly democratic as he never allowed his Prime Ministers to dissolve Parliament or take on dictator powers. If he was rough with the Communists he was also rough with the local right wing Arrow Cross party, whose leader spent much time in jail.
The expansionism of Nazi Germany had opened the possibility of the return of Hungarian land with German help. Czech lands were annexed peacefully and a deal was struck with Romania for former Hungarian lands. A barrier was crossed with the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941. German troops were allowed passage through Hungary a price Prime Minister Teleki was so opposed to he killed himself when it happened. Old Hungarian land though was returned after the invasion was successful. Now however Hungary was a full ally of Germany and obliged to send troops for the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Hungarian army paid a terrible price at the battle of Stalingrad.
With Germany in retreat, Horthy looked to switch sides and sent out feelers to Stalin. Germany was not ready for that and in October 1944 overthrew Horthy in Operation Panzerfaust that put in power the Arrow Cross party. Horthy went into SS custody in a castle in Bavaria. Arrow Cross had their own Stalingrad planned for the Red Army at Budapest. Budapest had many German defenders plus the forces of the Arrow Cross who would have no future in a red Hungary. There was also a plan called Operation Conrad where German tank units counterattacked and hoped to surround the Red Army at Budapest. Other still German cities in Poland were holding out for something similar. Operation Conrad got within 20 miles of encirclement before Soviet resistance held. It was a long shot at best but then so was the Soviet counterattack at Stalingrad. In April 1945, the SS guards faded away as Americans approached. Horthy testified against Nazis at the Nuremburg trials and afterward was allowed to go into retirement in Portugal. From there he watched in horror as the uprising against the Soviets was put down violently in 1956. He died in 1957. Post war Hungary was shrunk back to circa 1920 borders.
Well my drink is empty and I am left to wait till tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.
These nanny state issues are ridiculous. Do people really need to be told not to burn down the forest. Will the crazies so inclined be prevented by the helpful government advise. I don’t know, when my daughter was young I was contantly telling her not to do this or that. I had the theory that if she did it anyway it wasn’t because I didn’t tell her otherwise. Should a government think of it’s citizens as unruly children? 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.
Here is a stamp where the cancelization helps the visuals a great deal. Nicely centered concentric circle to focus you on the subject, like a gunsight. You can see the issue facing the stamp designer. Showing actual flames would be too exciting and may draw in the pyromaniac. So instead we have bare tree trunks with an orange color to hint at fire rather than say winter. I wonder if the message in the center was added later to better drive home the point.
Todays stamp is issue A199, a 20 Pfennig stamp issued by West Germany on March 5th, 1958. It was a single stamp issue encouraging the prevention of forest fires. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents used.
Germany in it’s natural state contained large forests of beech trees. Human activity had reduced the forests to about 20 percent of the country. At about this time mining was becoming more important and was a great driver for increased demand for wood. This was to build shafts and the heat energy needed for smelting. The problem of how to manage this was met by the worlds first school of forestry at Ilsenburg in the Harz mountains in 1763. They hit upon quickly that wood cutting rates cannot exceed the natural rates of growth. However the new experts could not stop there. Instead efforts at reforestation would now involve planting pine and spruce that grew faster and were cheaper to plant.
On one hand the forestry work means that there are now more forest coverage in Germany than 200 years ago. One the other hand nature has changed and few would argue the aesthetics of the pine tree are better than the Beech trees given by God/nature. From an industry point of view the quick growing pines are well utilized in a sustainable fashion. Even wooded enclaves in urban areas. There is a large amount of politics infused with this stuff. This stamp for example fails to point out that naturally occurring forest fires from lightning are a natural part of forest renewal. Or the fact that pollution is mitigated by the presence of forests rather than just pollution being a destroyer of the forest.
Well my drink is empty. Between todays stamp and the one the other day about forestry in Gabon, I have learned a lot about forestry. When I picked out the two stamps to write about, I had no idea what I would learn. Stamp collecting is great. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.
Trying to make a far off colony break even economically was always a challenge. Slash and burn pillaging winds down quickly and there is always more that needs doing for your new subjects. Luckily sustainable operations are sometimes put in place by Frenchmen with enough of an adventurous spirit to see the possibilities. 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 mentioned the challenge of making a colony work economically. This can be seen in the overprints on this stamp. France was again trying to combine Congo, Gabon, Chad, and the Central African Republics area into one colony out of Brazzaville to save money. It didn’t work and the areas were separated again pre independence. It is worth noting that there has not been a coming together afterwards either. Tribes do not always get along and it was not always the fault of the French.
Todays stamp is issue A16, a 1936 overprint for French Equatorial Africa on a Gabon 1 Centime issue from 1932. The stamp shows a raft hauling lumber to market on the Ogowe, now Ogboue, River. The overprint was a 10 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents unused.
The first forestry was set up by the French in 1892. Over 70% of Gabon’s land is covered with forests. Operations got a lot more serious in 1913 when the Gabon wood Okounne was introduced by the French on to the world market. Luckily for Gabon the operations were set up to be sustainable. Okounne is a soft wood that is much prone to decay but its weakness makes it suitable as a component of plywood, another innovation that made forestry more sustainable. These days it is often sprayed with plastic to hold off rotting.
Since independence Gabon has struck oil and that has been the main economic driver. That was not the end of forestry. Gabon has stayed uniquely close to France see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/04/11/gabon-1910-the-french-like-the-fang-but-wish-they-would-lay-off-the-psychedelic-bark/ . Over 50 firms, most foreign have been granted concessions to keep forestry going in Gabon. The wood provides over 300 million dollars a year in export revenue. I am not sure you would still see a lumber raft as on the stamp. The river flows parallel to a newer Trans-Gabon railway built post independence with oil and forestry! money.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the early foresters of French Equatorial Africa. It would have been so much easier to just denude Gabon of it’s forest. Instead the hard work of sustainability has kept the dividends coming for over a century. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.
International meets have to be hosted somewhere. Rome had an Olympic stadium, so was a good a place as any. The nice thing is that when a country plays host, they make a special effort to send a competitive team. 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.
Thou perhaps a little cartoonish, Italy did a good job with todays stamp. Showing 3 competitors in close competition was done well considering the close confines of a postage stamp. The clever thing is that the fellow on the stamp that looks most Italian is winning. Yet they did not go overboard with flags emblems to make it so obvious.
Todays stamp is issue A737, a 300 Lira stamp issued by Italy on September 4th, 1981. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the opening of the World Cup in Rome that day. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.
I mentioned that Italy made a special effort at the games and that yielded a sixth place fining in both the male and female portions of the games. The individual country that came in first for both males and males pretending they are females was East Germany. Just Kidding, but East Germany really won. More modern championships generally have the USA win the medal count with it’s majority African American team followed by several countries in Africa. The most recent I found had united Germany in ninth and Italy not on the list.
One interesting thing about the 1981 event in Rome was that teams from East, West and South showed. Remember the USA boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, the Soviet Union skipped the 1984 Olympics, and Africa was just at the start of sending competitive teams. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/02/usa-olympic-stamp-1980-childhood-philatelist-dreams-of-getting-rich-from-the-boycot-dashed/. The East dominated in Rome.
One event the Italians medaled in was the hammer throw. The hammer is not a construction hammer but a 16 pound steel ball attached to a grip by a cable. The sport has recently opened to alleged women who throw a nine pound ball. Giampaulo Urlando won the Bronze for Italy. He later played/ was disqualified at the 1984 Olympics for being caught having injected testosterone. I would make a transsexual joke here but I have probably done enough of those in this article.
Well my drink is empty, just in time, and I have probably had enough. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.
Antigua was slow stepping toward independence in 1968 which was achieved in 1981. With the colonial authorities gone the wildness of Carnival is more scary. 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.
Carnival as it appears on the stamp started back in 1957 and was restarted in the hopes of attracting tourist. The inspiration of the carnival was the way former slaves took to the streets after the British Empire banned the practice of slavery in 1839. The locals thought this type of celebration might attract tourists. It worked in New Orleans and we can pretend French creole roots while being able to speak English. Cue the calypso band.
Todays stamp is issue A42 a half penny stamp issued by Antigua on July 1st, 1968 while Antigua was an Associated State of the United Kingdom. Post war the UN got the hebe-jebes when a place was still called a Crown Colony. This was a five stamp issue in various denominations promoting tourism. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used. Their currency was pegged to the US dollar so one half penny was really quite a low denomination. The USA base postage rate was 8 cents in 1968 but Antigua was a small island.
Antigua economy was once dominated by sugar cane plantations. The West African slaves brought in to work the plantations greatly outnumbered the British and native Indians were not a factor. The end of slavery was the beginning of the end of the sugar cane economy as most of the Africans were not interested in hard work in the fields for the meager wages on offer. The wildness of the end of slavery carnival was frightening to the British. They tried to channel that energy into an annual Christmas festival that featured Calypso music concerts, Scottish fling dancing, and being Christmas, more religion.
In 1957 the Christmas festival was replaced by the early August Carnival, though for a while some affectations of it remained. The Antiguans have been somewhat successful in attracting tourists, even though the island remains desperately poor and deeply resentful toward whites who as far as residents are long gone. Some safety is derived from all inclusive resorts guarded and directly on the beach. An airport had been built by Americans during World War II. This year there was an incident at one of the all inclusive resorts. An American family was staying and a hotel employee followed two young girls back to their room. He knocked on the door claiming to be there to fix the sink, which was not broken. When the employee found the girls father in the room he panicked and pulled a knife. The two men struggled and the father was cut and the employee was dead. What passes for authority on independent Antigua then gave in to the racist mob on the island and arrested the father for manslaughter. Luckily the ruling mob is corrupt as well as racist and the family was able to pay the shakedown bail and quickly fly out. The resort had moved the rest of the family to another resort in case the mob came for them while the father was held. Antigua might have 365 beaches but there are also thousands elsewhere. Leave them to their abandoned plantations they are too lazy to farm.
Well my drink is empty and I may have another while I look forward to my next vacation, no not Antigua, Australia. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.
Japan in the twentieth century got to work in advancing human knowledge. By 1966 they could display a machine that uses an isotope of cobalt to shoot gamma rays into the brain to destroy cancerous brain tumors. Better than Buck Rodgers, his ray guns were only for fun. 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 I spotted this stamp in an old stock book of mine, I thought this stamp would tell a different story about Japan. I assumed it was industrial equipment and the story would be about Japan exporting it’s way to prosperity by low wages, dumping product, undervalued yen and taking advantage of cold war “allies”. The fact that this stamp is semi postal should have clued me in to a more interesting story. Of a nation making a national priority of fighting a disease that was killing many and not just Japanese. The surcharge was to allow the Japanese postal patron be a part of it.
Todays stamp is issue SP9, a 7 +3 Yen semi postal stamp issued by Japan on October 21st, 1966. It was a two stamp issue displaying Japanese developed treatments for cancer in honor of an international convention in Tokyo that year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used. You would think Japanese collectors would have bid up the value of a stamp showing a gamma ray machine by the time it was 53 years old.
Japan first organized cancer medical research all the way back in 1908. They have never stopped the research and there are over 15,000 people employed in the field. Advancements made are not kept just for Japan as there is collaboration on a large scale internationally including annual conventions in Hawaii to share information with American researchers.
The machine displayed on the stamp is called a gamma knife. The patient suffering from brain tumors puts on a helmet with many tiny holes that can shoot gamma rays as directly as possible at the tumors. The more precise the direction limits the damage done to nearby non cancerous cells. The gamma rays are derived from an isotope of cobalt 60, a naturally occurring metal. Very advanced for 1966. There is now a newer machine called a linear accelerator that can deliver larger doses of the cobalt isotope for use against bigger tumors.
Unlike years ago, Japan has a lower rate of cancer than the USA. There used to be a very high incidence of stomach cancer in Japan that related to the Japanese diet, but after the connection the diet was changed relating to the shellfish behind it. One cancer that has gotten worse in Japan recently is breast cancer. It is thought that Japanese women waiting longer to have children is behind the rise. Japan is a nation with a long life expectancy, and since cancer usually hits later in life it would be expected to have higher numbers of victims. The fact that it does not and the mortality rate for cancer in Japan if relatively low shows the benefit of the research focus over the long term.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the gamma ray and the machines that fire them. Who knew it could be more than just for fun. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.
I was pretty sure this stamp was fake. It looked to modern and well done for the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of North Yemen which ended in 1962. But as with this Indonesian Republic stamp from when it was still Dutch, see https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/24/well-we-think-we-are-independant-we-have-a-constitution-a-flag-and-austrian-stamps/ , sometimes outsourcing can make for a high quality, interesting if fake stamp. 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 fake stamp was put together by the Royalist side of the North Yemen Civil War. The one from 1962-1970. Not the one from 2011-today. The 60s one saw Egypt sending thousands of troops, arms and aircraft to defend the Socialist Republic declared by the former head of the palace guard. The Royals escaped to the mountains were they received arms and money from Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The fact that the guy on the stamp is barefoot shows how backward this all was. Shame on the lot of them for handing out advanced weapons. It would probably be the 25th century before one of these tribesman could figure out how to build a bazooka. Let them settle their differences with spears.
This is not a real stamp as the Royalist forces did not control the capital or the postal system. The Yemen Arab Republic issues of the same period are considered real. The story of how the Royalist got stamps is interesting. An American stamp collecting boy named Bruce Conde wrote to King Ahmad asking for Yemeni stamps for his collection. He received a letter back from child Prince Badr. They became pen pals and eventually Conde was invited to Yemen. He converted to Islam and became a Yemeni citizen. He supervised the Royalist sides stamp issues and wrote articles for Linn’s stamp news. When the Royalists lost, Conde was left stateless in exile in Morocco. He had renounced the USA and Yemen had renounced him.
King Ahmad ruled North Yemen from 1948 through his death in 1962. He faced many coup attempts. Once in 1956 his palace was surrounded and he came charging out leading the palace guards while wearing a devils mask. He killed 2 rebels personally with his scimitar. He then went to the roof of the palace and shot rebels one by one till they surrendered. The rebel leader was beheaded. In 1961 he was severely injured in another coup attempt and his son Prince Badr took unofficial control. Soon after Ahmad’s death in 1962, the head of the palace guard with the support of Egypt shelled the palace and now King Badr fled. A socialist republic was declared and thousands of Egyptian soldiers deployed to Sana.
From 1962 through 1970 the Royalist forces held the mountainous north and the socialist government held the capital. In 1967, Egypt was defeated by Israel in the Sinai desert and decided to pull their troops out of Yemen. The Royalist made one last attempt to take the capital but when they failed, Saudi Arabia cut off support to the Royalist side. Saudi Arabia began paying the socialist government for influence and King Badr was left out in the cold. He moved to London and most of his troops were given amnesty.
Well my drink is empty and I am not predisposed to label the barefoot bazooka guy on the stamp a freedom fighter as this fake stamp suggests. His grandson is probably fighting the current civil war where Iran is playing Egypt’s old part. The weapons have gotten more advanced than bazookas, but there is still debate whether shoes have been acquired. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.
This series of stamps shows American progress over 200 years in celebration of the Bicentennial that year. In it though you can spot the hereditary Somoza regime’s plan to pacify the country. The plan was pretty fanciful, but lucky for the USA at the time Nicaragua was only exporting their rich people. The much more numerous poor would have to wait a few more generations. 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 multiple harvesters are not an accurate picture of agriculture in Nicaragua even over 40 years later. Then President Somoza’s son might argue it might had the Somozas not been forced to flee in 1979, who knows how much extra progress might have occurred. The wealthy landowner class would surely have been interested in automating the peasant function.
Todays stamp is issue A308, a 3 Centavo stamp issued by Nicaragua on May 25, 1976. It was a 16 stamp issue in various denominations the showed before and after views of American progress after 200 years in various fields. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.
Anastasio Somoza was the third member of his family to serve as President. It was a corrupt regime of the landowner class and as was common, a big percentage of the families lived overseas. Somoza’s mother was French and his wife Hope, though a cousin, was born and raised in the USA. Somoza took power in 1967 after his older brother had bowed out. Central America was starting to be the recipient of massive food aid from the USA that was reducing hunger and what soon followed was a great increase in population, mainly among the poor. These masses of peasants were not satisfied with the regime which seemed to be routing the American aid from them to the leaders pockets. Meantime Hope, now Madame Somoza, was appearing in worldwide best dressed lists.
One moneymaking scheme of the Somoza’s was especially offensive to the poor. He set up a company Plasimaferesis. Every day thousands of peasants lined up for 35 Cordobas in exchange for their blood. This was immediately exported. When this practice continued after a large earthquake in 1972 it was very damaging to the regime. Again there was an outpouring of aid that seemingly wasn’t getting through to the peasants. When Carter became President of the USA in 1977, he cut off aid to people like Somoza due to their stench. !977 was a rough year for Somoza has he also had a heart attack which saw his son as caretaker while he sought treatment in the civilized world. With the only military aid coming in from Isreal it was time to strike and the local leftists took up the cause of the peasants. It was the Somoza’s time to leave. The USA would not take President Somoza and he ended up in Paraguay with his mistress. Hope separated from him and moved to London. In 1986, the leftists came for Somoza in Paraguay as they had for his father in 1956. Operation Reptile, lead by a Argentine leftist code named Ramon assassinated Somoza by blowing up his Mercedes outside his estate. It took two RPG shots, the car was well armored. Former? Madame Hope Samoza found a rich Salvadoran to marry the next year.
The leftists of course were not any better for the peasants as they were not going to attract American aid and the East was only generous with out of date arms. Now Central America has learned to send their peasants to the USA directly to claim their aid. These peasants are lined up also outside American blood plasma centers to sell their blood every morning. Ironic isn’t it.
Well my drink is empty and I think I may reread my old piece on William Walker. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/27/costa-rica-remembers-the-the-drummer-boy-that-saved-central-america-from-an-american-manifest-destiny/ . Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.