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Barbados had an attractive seal, but somewhat unrepresentative

Sometimes colonial stamp issues can stay around a long time, in this case becoming completely anachronistic. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamp today features the then seal of the then British Crown Colony of Barbados. It looks dramatic and mythical, like something from the 17th century. Which it probably was. The World Wars changed markedly British attitudes on maintaining far off colonies. The shameful legacy of slavery also meant that the views of many on the island were not being represented in the countries administration. When a basic stamp issue lasts from 1916 all the way to 1948, the upshot can be a period piece. Great for the stamp collector. For commonwealth issues are a popular collector interest. Whether the collector longs for Pax Britannica or is revolted by the audacity of it all. One cannot deny the eye candy.

The stamp today is issue A19, a two and one half penny stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Barbados in 1925. This is from the middle period of this long issued stamp. The words postage and revenue mark it as from the middle period. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1 used. The one to look for in this issue is the 3 shilling version from 1918, which is worth $180 used.

Barbados was originally settled by Indians from Venezuela before Christ. The first British landed in 1625. At first the economy was tobacco based with the labor being handled by indentured servants from Britain. After a period of service they were usually given 10 acres. They did not fare well and many went on to the colonies of North and South Carolina. The few descendants of these indentured servants in Barbados today are known as red legs. Later sugar cane production took over with large plantations and Jewish leadership coming from Spain. The labor was performed by large numbers of African slaves imported from West Africa. The trade revenue from this period was quite high and Barbados was one of the most valuable British colonies in terms of trade. Bridgetown was then the third biggest British city in the Western Hemisphere after Boston and New York.

The freedom of slaves declared by Britain in 1834 changed Barbados dramatically. Sugar caine production dropped off. Many of the Jews left and the island was demographically dominated by Africans who were still not being represented in the administration of the colony. A wealth test was used to keep them out. This was done locally. The long period this stamp was issued was the period the right to vote was gradually extended to more of the people and Britain was becoming wary of maintaining such far off colonies.

There were two schools of thought of how to proceed. One was a federation of the British West Indies with Canada. This was tried in the 50s still within the empire but under a black Barbun Premier. The majority on most of the islands involved favored independence individually for the various islands. Independence was realized in 1966 and Barbados remained in the British Commonwealth. The main industries now are tourism and offshore banking.

Well my drink is empty so I will toast the period seal of Barbados. Briain managed quite a large realm from such a small island. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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China, the late Qing Dynasty, do we reform and if so, how much?

An elite lives an out of another era life, but one that is not working for the people. Can this be fixed? 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.

At first glance this stamp is impressive. A dragon is an ancient symbol of Chinese power and much needed and feared water. At the time in the late nineteenth century, the image of the dragon was tied to the Emperor. Here is the rub though. The Emperor was quite weak and being controlled behind the scenes by Empress Dowager Cixi. The stamp coincided with major humiliating concessions of sovereignty to foreign powers. Even on a postage stamp, the Emperors complicity can be seen in the fact of the English lettering and that the stamp was printed in London. Modern Chinese stamps also have China written in English on them. Today is a different time with world travel and often multi lingual peoples. At the turn of the 20th century, it was a reflection of subservience.

Todays stamp is issue A 17 a two cent stamp issued by Imperial China in 1898. It was part of a 12 stamp in various denominations honoring the Qing Dynasty. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2.75 used. A mint version of the $5 stamp in this issue is worth $600.

The late Qing Dynasty was a string of weak often child Emperors with regencies speaking for them. The real power was wielded by the Empress Dowager Cixi. She faced an antiquated and apart elite and a vast and very populous realm. Western powers were sniffing around and pealing off ever greater pieces of China for there trading posts. There were even Christian missionaries coming to try to modify the Chinese peoples most basic beliefs. These missionaries were really just a way to get the camels nose under the tent. When the inevitable incidents happened to them, the westerners had their excuse to grab ever more from China.

It seems logical to use the numerical advantage of China to build a modern army capable of defending China. Remember that the elite is apart and old fashioned. For that reason, the average Chinese won’t fight for them and any army they organize will be hopelessly outdated. So there is a string of tough talk from the Empress Dowager and then an acquiescence to the west in return for the Emperor’s rule being allowed to continue.

On the domestic front, there was some push toward educational improvement but little in the way of land reform that might have gone some way to relieving the frequent famines. Of course there were no famines within the Forbidden City. The few reforms attempted were fought vigorously by the beaurocracy and indeed most of the reformers such as Kang Youwei proved to be just out for themselves. Kang went in twenty years from being thought of as a radical reformer to scheming with a warlord to put the last boy Emperor back on the thrown. He did however propose that the Emperor rule over a more socialistic system and has such his memory was somewhat rehabilitated by Mao. The Dowager Cixi died in 1908 by arsenic poisoning and her elaborate tomb was pillaged by a warlord in 1928. Supposedly some of her jewels with which she was buried were later in the hands of Madame Chiang Kei-shek.

Well my dink is empty. One wonders if instead of reforming and giving in to never ending demands if the Dowager had just fought to the death she might have been better remembered. Dragons after all breath fire. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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1968 Cambodia, The human rights flame burns bright, at least on the stamp

A newspaper editor who opposes the government is stripped naked and beaten in the street by police in front of the central police station. The head of the police is asked by the national assembly if government opponents have the right to police protection. Indeed they do, he said, and by the way, here is a list of national assembly men we consider opponents. The censure measure is tabled and the ruling Prince later remarks that the national assembly should be nicer to the police. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamp today is from the important years of the UN. The UN was especially important in Cambodia. It was in UN conferences in the mid 50s that attempted to set the parameters of post colonial Cambodia. The stamps like this were issued all over the world by newly independent countries. In a way, it is sort of a rival to the British Commonwealth stamp issues. The UN issues are far more political and perhaps as a result have not developed the  same number of specialty collectors.

Todays stamp is issue A53. a 5 Reil stamp issued by the Kingdom of Cambodia on December 16th, 1968. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating Prince Sihanouk and the UN national human rights year in 1968. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

The UN conferences specified the local King as ceremonial head of state of Cambodia and provided for the removal of French and Viet Minh communist foreign soldiers from the country. The machinations of King Sihanouk to consolidate power were interesting. He first abdicated in favor of his elderly father thereby becoming Prince. As Prince, Sihanouk then felt free to engage in politics. He set up the Sangkum as his political party that had the state behind it. The party included both left and right wing figures as a way to coopt both the left and the right. Sihanouk believed that if either the left or the right was allowed to rule, the first thing they would do is remove him as King, er Prince.

His rule was surprisingly socialist with the government taking over most business. This was done allegedly to insure the profits accrued to Cambodians rather than foreign exploiters. The reality was more of a spoils system rather like the Ferdinand Marcos regime in the Philippines. In foreign policy, there was much collaboration with Communists in North Vietnam and China.

Sihanouk was overthrown by a right wing former Prime Minister Lon Nol in 1970 and Sihanouk went into exile in China and later North Korea where Kim Il Sung built him a 40 room palace. When the Khmer Rouge overthrew Lon Nol, Sihanouk returned as head of state but was quickly put allegedly under house arrest in the palace. If this happened, it would seem to absolve him of his government’s genocide. He again was on his throne for a short while in the early 2000s as a ceremonial King.

His rule was not all political maneuverings. He directed over 50 films, some from his North Korean Palace in exile. He started a film festival in Phenom Penh where his films were the only nominees and winners. He also composed music and often traveled Cambodia with a full orchestra and local pop singers. He died in 2012 at age 90 and was given a full state funeral.

Well my drink is empty and so I will open up the conversation in the below comment section. The idea of one political party that coopts left and right to keep in charge an increasingly hereditary oligarchy sounds both ominous and plausible for the future. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Trying to get out of Cameroon

Setting a colony up for independence is difficult. When a colony was taken from the Germans and divided between Britain and France doubly so. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

To look at the stamp, it appears to be that of an independent country celebrating the first anniversary of independence. This completely airbrushes out the struggles of putting together a new country. This perhaps is appropriate. The French were going and so were the British. They were just trying to leave the locals in the best hands they could find. Pretending the French were still making the decisions was foolhardy.

The stamp today is issue A32, a 20 African Franc stamp that was issued by the French Colony of Cameroon on May 10th 1958. It is the first stamp issue since French Cameroon was granted autonomy. It showed a mother lifting a baby to the Cameroon flag. The stamp is worth 80 cents used.

Cameroon had been a German colony through World War I. In taking it, the territory was divided into French and British sectors. The people spoke different languages and had different colonial systems. The northern part of the territory was mainly Muslim, and the southern area mainly Christian. Building a cohesive country was going to be difficult.

At the time of the stamp, the first African prime minister Andre-Marie Mbida was in charge. He was a southern Christian socialist who favored a 10 year process toward independence while Cameroonians were trained to take charge. This was not quick enough for the French. they were in favor of being out as quickly as possible with Cameroon staying on in the French African community of nations. Mbida considered this false independence. A French Governor General replaced Mbida with Ahmadou Ahidjo, a northern Muslim rival who was in favor of quicker independence but wanted to maintain close relations with France.

There was also the problem of British Cameroon. An election was held on short notice giving the British area the choice of joining independent Cameroon or joining Nigeria. Independence or continued colonial status was not an option. The northern part went to Nigeria and the southern part to Cameroon. Initially the British part had some self rule but this was done away with and there have since been attacks on English language speakers.

Ahidjo sent Mbida into exile as Ahidjo’s successor did to him. There have only been two presidents of independent Cameroon in the 58 years since independence and such relative stability has offered some benefit to the economy. The country is by no means free and the now aged President spends most of his time in Switzerland.

The articles I have written have shown me how difficult it is to leave a colony or to stay. The few countries that avoided colony status do not seem much better off either. Some questions only have least bad answers. What happened in Cameroon was probably that.

Well, my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast ex leaders in exile, and in Cameroons case the current leaders “working vacations in Switzerland”. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Through Russian GranDukes, Polish Marshals, Nazi Henchmen, Communist Secretary Generals, and Lech Walesa, Belvedere Palace is still standing.

There is an Elton John song titled “I’m still standing” As you get older that feels more like a real accomplishment. With each new twist in the life of the palace on this stamp reminds of that song. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of a certain brand of vodka, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This is a stamp from the 1930s depicting a then 120 year old palace. His most prominent resident, Marshal Josef Pilsudski, the father of modern Poland, had just died in it. The stamp makers intention was probably document the palace as it passed into the historical. Dig a little deeper and we find that much of the history of the place was yet to be written.

The stamp today is issue A65. a 25 Groszy stamp issued by Poland in 1935. It displayed Belvedere Palace in metropolitan Warsaw. It was part of an 11 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

Belvedere Palace was built in 1819 on the site of what was originally a porcelain factory. Russian Grand Duke Constantine took up residence there in 1818. He abandoned it during an uprising in 1830. The tendency of the residents of Belvedere to abandon the premises when the mob arrives at the gate would see the palace through many a crisis. After World War I, Poland was an independent country again and hero of the wars with Russia Marshal Josef Pilsudski took up residence. He left after his 4 year term  but then returned in a coup in 1926. The previous president abandoned the palace as Pilsudski’s troops approached the gates. Pilsudski’s years there, he died there in 1935 are thought of as the best years. The history was still being written.

During World War II Germany and Russia invaded Poland and Warsaw ended up in the German zone. The cruel rule of the Nazi occupiers was lead by Hitler crony Hans Frank who set himself up in Belvedere Palace. He once sadisticly joked that if a new poster was printed for every Pole he ordered shot the Polish forests would have to be cleared. Things did not go well on the home front for him as well. He sought a divorce from his wife Brigitte but she fought it based on her love for being “Queen of the Poles”, self proclaimed of course. Even the Nazis didn’t recognize that one, but they stayed married with Brigitte insisting she would rather be a widow. Frank also abandoned the palace as the Russians approached in 1944 and later was captured by the Americans in Bavaria. He was tried, convicted, and hung in the Nuremburg trials, leaving Brigitte a widow. The memoirs he wrote in jail were the source for the claim that Adolf Hitler had a Jewish grandfather who grandfathered him through his maternal grandmother who worked for him as a maid. The claim is unsubstantiated.

The Communists General Secretaries then took up residence at Belvedere. When Lech Walesa became President after the end of the cold war he also took up residence. The Presidential Palace in the city center of Warsaw became gradually to be more used while Belvedere became more ceremonial. It is still used today by visiting heads of state. I hope they are given a tour that goes into the significance of where they are staying. There is talk of turning the palace into a museum in honor of Marshal Pilsudski. It they do, I hope there will be a new stamp to honor it. Or maybe just a reprinting of the 1935 issue. The Polish vodka brand Belvedere is named after the palace and there is a likeness of the palace on the bottles. It is not made on the grounds.

Well my drink is empty and so I will open up the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Remembering Gustave Eiffel’s work in Peru during the French Exposition Lima 1957

An exhibition of a rich country in a poor country can be awkward, but less so if a legend of the rich country had done earlier work in the host country. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

When I first spotted this stamp, I reacted badly to it. Poor Peru has nothing to compare to the Eiffel Tower except a long ago Cathedral built by the Church not the state and likely inherited from the Spanish colonial period. This is where digging in deeper as I do on this site helps. It turns out that Gustave Eiffel did a fair amount of work in Peru and indeed the exposition was held in a building designed by Mr. Eiffel. This changes my whole outlook on the stamp. Now the Exposition takes on the spirit of two countries that have had a friendly collaboration for years. Eiffel’s work in Peru was after independence and included work for the State as well as the Church. This was a great bit of history to recognize during the Exposition as it was probably new to the French. Peru even had the confidence to have this stamp look vaguely French. Good Job Peru!

The stamp today is issue AP57, a 50 Centavo airmail stamp issued by the Republic of Peru on September 16th, 1957. It was part of a four stamp issue celebrating the French Exhibition in Lima that year. According to the Scot Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents. There is a version of the stamp with an overprint from being issued directly at the exhibition. This ups the value five times, however still to a modest $1.25.

It is a regret that a young person who might have waited in line to get his commemorative stamp overprinted. He carefully saved the stamp now for over 60 years and yet is only rewarded with a value of a little over a dollar. Being rewarded with a decent valuation might help get his grandchildren collecting. At the current valuation, it is at best a curiosity to the young and even the now grandfather must wonder why he bothered.

The Exposition was a big deal. It was attended by Peruvian President Prado and French President Coty. The French Navy made a port visit to coincide with the Exposition and the French had elaborate trade goods on offer. The two Presidents were similar. Both were older conservative presidents that are not well remembered today. Both were elected by small majorities and served out their terms but beset by agitation from the young left who were dissatisfied but could not win at the ballot box.

Gustave Eiffel did work in many countries during a long career that is forever memorialized by the Eiffel Tower in Paris. He did bridges, aqueducts, churches, train stations and even a few hotels. He was an engineer by training and the aesthetics of his work gave a sense of the industrial revolution going on around him. He also worked on the Statue of Liberty and was part of a failed counter proposal for the Panama Canal. He also did some groundbreaking work in aerodynamics in the early days of manned flight.

My drink is empty so I will toast Peru for far exceeding my expectations with this stamp. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Russia 1977 Should be recruiting for the KGB

A beautiful girl dressed like a stewardess, a big creepy black car, an elicit phone call and a patriotic medal. What is this stamp selling? 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 gave a partial run down on what is going on on this large stamp. Our Russian readers can read what it is really selling and there are even a few clues on the stamp if you look closely. We know that is really a smokescreen. The communist Soviet system of the time assigned workers where they were needed. Would the system really be so foolish to assign a girl that looks like that to do what the stamp claims? Of course not.

The stamp today is issue A2181, a 4 kopec stamp issued by the Soviet Union on September 16th, 1977. The stamp is alleged to be showing aspects of a certain system in the Soviet Union. I will stick to my argument that this is a smokescreen. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents mint. A stamp that is such a great period piece in China would be worth 100 times that. I know that more stamps were printed for the Soviet Union and that most went straight into the collections of young people. It is past time for Russian collectors to get a hold of this stamp while it is still cheap.

The catalog says the car on the stamp is a Moskvitch 430. I think it is actually a 427. The car does have the version of the grill that was export only. Just the thing to slip across the Finnish border to meet up with your warm and lovely contact. They sold a lot there where it was known as the elite 1500. The engine was hotted up and resembled BMW’s famous four that it predated.

Apropos of nothing, in 1977 Vladimir Putin was a KGB operative and his future wife was a stewardess on Aeroflot where she was awarded the honor of serving on international flights. Putin is known to own period Soviet vintage cars. Neither him nor his then wife had any connection to the Soviet postal service.

Here is the rub. The stamp is really celebrating the postal service. We are to believe that she is a postal supervisor and our dapper young hero in emptying a mail bin into the sack which he will then load into the postal delivery vehicle. If this really is what the stamp is about, I am disappointed. The stamp could have been so much better. That’s right John, believe the smokescreen.

Well my drink is empty and I have probably had enough so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be imagined from stamp collecting.

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Rebuilding Dresden, East German style

In the aftermath of a war that concluded with a devastating firebombing, this stamp displayed what a new government did to renew the city. 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 must say that I like this stamp. East Germany farmed out it’s stamp issues. As a result there are some oversized, overdone issues that were printed in too much quantity. Not this issue. This issue celebrated the 20th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic by showing clean modern architecture in 12 cities. Many of the cities were heavily bombed in the war and so the new construction was sort of a rebirth. This is how the GDR must have seemed to it’s leaders.

The stamp today is issue A357, a 10 pfennig stamp issued by the German Democratic Republic on September 23rd, 1969. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. Central Europe was full of stamp collectors and if there are still collectors of communist era memorabilia, this issue of stamps may yet be discovered.

Dresden was firebombed by British Lancaster bombers in February 1945. German resistance in the west was fading and the eastern city was crowded with refugees from the advancing Russians from the East. 75 percent of the city center was destroyed and 25,000 people perished. Post war, some consider this a war crime but  British Air Marshal Harris interviewed many years later stated that the bombing was justified and reduced the German ability to keep fighting.

Dresden had been a cultural and royal center of the Prussian Empire with a long history. As such there were many historically significant sites damaged in the bombing. The East German decided to concentrate on German Cultural sites such as the opera house for reconstruction. The Prussian and church heritage was judged of less importance. The East Germans were out to construct a new modern scientific Germany, and with that came new modern architecture. It should be noted that there were more of the old buildings repaired in East Germany than in West Germany.

Interestingly at the time both East and West Germany considered themselves the legitimate government of all of Germany. Each viewed the other government as the lackey government of an occupied country. Since both East and West Germany were inundated with over a million foreign soldiers, there was some point to this critique, on both sides.

We all know the reunification that occurred in 1990 was a victory for the West and a defeat for the East. The west had delivered more economic opportunity and freedom to it’s people. It should be remembered though what a bold undertaking the East German government attempted. There was war devastation, no Marshall Plan of USA aid as in the west, and crippling war reparations that had to be paid to the Soviets. Through these challenges, East Germany built the most dynamic economy in the communist world. A fair appraisal of East German leadership should include consideration of this. It was not considered in the immediate aftermath as East German leaders had charges filed and long time leader Erich Honecker had to run to Russia and later Chile to avoid prosecution while Egon Krenz, his short term successor, spent time in German jail.

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to honor the citizens of Dresden and their recovery efforts after the war. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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China celebrates the post office anniversary as the final period of the long civil war heats up.

After the Japanese defeat in World War II China had a choice to make. The old regime, the Kuomintang, the Communists, or a coalition of the two. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

A westerner like myself who cannot read Chinese characters gets a very different impression of the stamp than what was intended. At fist glance it appears to be a homeless person with all his possestions on his back hitchhiking a ride to town on the truck. An every day scene at the time probably all over the world. Agriculture requires ever fewer workers and so they go to the cities to hopefully make their future. This is something that is almost never shown on a stamp. It is too fraught with uncertaintity. To see it instantly attracted me.

Instead on further investigation, it was celebrating the anniversary of the postal service. Perhaps the rural postman depicted on the stamp should wear more of a uniform. Getting mail organized and delivered in rural areas in complicated and expensive to set up. I can see why a government would want to celebrate the achievement. There are plenty of stamps from all over saying how great the post office is. I would have rather put myself with the man moving to town.

The stamp today is issue A87 a $200 yuan Chinese stamp issued by the KMT government on December 16th 1947. It displays rural mail delivery and is part of a 5 stamp issue celebrating the 50th anniversary of the postal service. You may notice the high denomination. Inflation was out of control at the time. An issue from 18 months later had no denomination on it at all, it was sold at the rate of the day. The first forever stamp? According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents mint.

The final period of the civil war in China began in 1947 as the KMT launched a large offensive toward the CPC capital. The CPC had much strength in the countryside and had taken control of many Japanese arms. The KMT received much aid from the USA and they tried to leave surrendered Japanese troops in place to prevent CPC advances. This was very discrediting as one thing uniting all Chinese was the desire to be rid of the Japanese. The Russians had accepted the Japanese surrender in Manchuria and turned over that area to the CPC.

Large campaigns were fought by the two huge armies with the KMT gradually giving way. In late 1949, the remnants of the KMT fled to Formosa. Communist Chairman Mao renamed Peiping as Peking and the new capital of the Peoples Republic of China. Both KMT and the CPC claim to be the legitimate government of all of China. This suits both sides as if Taiwan sought recognition as a separate country, it would mean China gives up sovereignty of Formosa. That is not acceptable to the Peoples Republic.

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast the man on the stamp carrying the heavy sack. Whether postman or a tramp, or CPC or KMT, may your rounds be successful. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Skylab, NASA falling back to earth

How to follow up going to the moon, how about a space station? Okay until it comes back down.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.

60s and 70s space program stamps were a great staple. They were often oversized and brightly colored, something new at the time. The stamps were not just from the USA and the USSR. The third world often got into the act. you could even tell whose cold war team the country currently routed for based on whether they were touting the American or Soviet program. In 1975, Laos had an issue honoring American astronauts. In 1977, following the communist takeover, there was another stamp honoring Soviet cosmonauts.

Todays stamp is issue A932, a 10 cent stamp issued by the USA on  May 14th, 1974. The stamp featured the Skylab space station on the one year anniversary of its launch. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

The idea for a space station was first proposed by German rocket scientist Wernher von Braum in the early fifties. The science fiction writer Author C Clark was also an early proponent. A space based telescope and a venue for extended periods in space would be invaluable for research. At the time, there was also a competing United States Air Force program for a manned reconnaissance satellite. This program was cancelled when it was realized that unmanned satellites were much more cost effective.

Work on Skylab intensified in 1969 when Dr. von Braum looked for ways to keep NASA employed after the moon landings. The large Saturn 5 rocket that handled the lunar landing could be launched unmanned to get Skylab into orbit and leftover smaller Saturn Ib could be used to bring crews to the station. Several Saturn Ib launches had been cancelled during this period  allowing for their recycling economically into the Skylab program.

The launch of Skylab was mostly successful but part of it’s solar panel power array broke off and left the station with less power. Some repairs were successfully made on the first manned mission to it. Three of four scheduled missions were carried out. The last one left astronauts Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Progue in space for a then record 84 days. The space station had an airlock allowing occupancy in normal clothing and the astronauts had private beds and access to a shower and toilet. Human waste was not spewed out into space but tanked and returned to earth for analysis. No doubt a less glamorous job at NASA.

Although the space station was left with enough supplies on board for future missions that could have also regenerated the orbit, the last mission was cancelled. It was hoped that the then in development space shuttle could provide a more economical way to visit the station  but the space shuttle program was very late and quite the budget buster.

With no further missions Skylab’s orbit slowly deteriorated until it reentered the atmosphere and crashed to earth in Australia in 1979. A Soviet satellite had crashed to Earth in 1978 leaving much radioactive debris in Canada. Skylab did not contain anything radioactive but still created much hysteria about where it would land. No one was hurt but there was a widely seen light show has it gradually broke apart on its last orbit. NASA was surprised how long it held together during re-entry. The program cost $11 billion in todays money. The Chinese space station Tiangong 1 reentered the atmosphere yesterday near Tahiti. That station went up in 2011 and ceased functioning in 2016.

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast the 9 astronauts that spent time on Skylab. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.