Tag: Belgium stamp

A young Queen dies while on holiday away from her children and so avoids the tarnish of her husbands treason. 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 interesting to compare Queen Astrid’s mourning stamps with the many for Princess Diana. Both stamps showed the glamourous young royals at the height of their beauty. What in my mind makes the early stamp superior was the back background and the surcharge of the semi-postal issue. I like the tradition of the mourning period and that the occasion is used to raise money for causes important to the Queen. In this case tuberculosis.

Todays stamp is issue B174, a 70 +5 Centimes stamp issued by Belgium in 1935. It displays a mourning portrait of Queen Astrid after her death in a car accident near their vacation villa in Switzerland. It was part of a 8 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents in it’s used state.

Queen Astrid was born a Princess in Sweden. She married Belgian crown Prince Leopold in what her mother in law Belgian Queen Elisabeth insisted was a marriage of love. They quickly had 3 Children including future Belgian King Baudouin and a daughter who became a Grand Duchess Consort of Luxemburg. She converted to Catholicism from being a Lutheran. In 1933 they became King and Queen when Leopold’s father King Albert died mountain climbing.The couple were vacationing in Switzerland with the King driving, Queen Astrid holding a map and the chauffer in back of the convertible Packard which went off the road. Queen Astrid died at the scene but King Leopold was only lightly injured.

Leopold III actions when Belgium was invaded by Germany forever tarnished him. He assumed command of the Belgian Army and refused to evacuate with the rest of Belgium government to London. He claimed it was his duty to be with his men but the government thought it a way to fall into the hands of the Germans and thereby remain King of the German puppet government of Belgium. He did indeed come into German hands and Churchill believed him quick to surrender when Belgium’s troops were still helping keep the Dunkirk evacuation going.

King Leopold III met with Hitler and indeed asked to form a government. Hitler refused and decided to keep Belgium under a military occupation government. Leopold was allegedly confined to palace but managed enough freedom to remarry and have a new set of children. When Belgium was liberated by the Allies in 1944, Leopold and his new wife were not there but had left with the Germans. He left behind a treatise where he stated that he did not consider the Allied arrival a liberation but rather an occupation.

When the war ended there was a real question as to whether  Leopold could return as King. He argued that since Hitler had not allowed him to form a government there was no treason. In his absence the Belgian government  declared Leopold’s brother Charles regent while Leopold stayed in Switzerland.

In 1950 a new more right wing government in Belgium was elected and allowed Leopold to return. It did not go well as the government  was hit by general strikes and a few weeks later Leopold abdicated in favor of his  20 year old son, by Queen Astrid,  Baudouin. He lived on in Belgium living a jet set lifestyle until his death in 1983. He lays in the royal tomb between his two wives.

Well my drink is empty and as I have another I will toast those that went on strike upon Leopold’s return. Many were just anti monarchy communists, but they were right that a country should be able to expect more from their King. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

The Benelux have reasons to not get along. There are different languages and religions. They were once united in a way that saw the Netherlands dominate. Perhaps not the best memory for Belgium and Luxemburg. Still there might be some advantages in some standardizing, how much is the question. 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 Belgium recognized the twentieth anniversary of the Benelux countries governments in exile  signing the London Customs Convention. Interesting that the stamp chose to show the three countries seperate Royal Heads of State. A King/Queen/and Grand Dutchess might naturally be suspicious that integration with other realms might be limiting. Perhaps this is to hint that the integration won’t go too far.

Todays stamp is issue A185, a 3 Franc stamp issued by Belgium on October 12th, 1964. This was a single stamp issue that actually missed the signing anniversary by a month. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. A similar stamp was also issued by the other Benelux countries and share this ones low value.

The first step toward reintegrating the Benelux countries economically was when Luxemburg and Belgium signed a customs union in 1921. One feature of the agreement that was not successful was the two countries setting their respective Francs at a fixed exchange rate. This exchange rate had to be changed twice during the 27 years it was in effect.

In 1944, when the governments of all three countries were in exile in London and thus were more under the will of the British than their own voters, a London Customs Convention was signed. The countries did not again try to fix currencies and did wait till 1947 to ratify the agreement. It took effect in 1948.

The most important thing about the customs union was that it provided a model on how countries could integrate. Soon there was a new Benelux Parliament based out of Brussels that did not replace legislatures in the three countries. An integrated Secretariat had figure heads from the three countries in turn on one year terms. The decisions of the integrated system in some cases are to be ratified by the counties separate governments. The customs union expanded into a full economic union in 1955. Of course this is all sold on the promise of greater economic efficiency. To what extent the expense of two governments where there was one counteracts this is not fully explored.

If this sounds a lot like what later happened with European integration you are correct. The process was directly the model for the 1970s and 1980s Schengen negotiations.

Today the EU requires members to adopt their rules on issues beyond economics. This can lead to troubles when for example Eastern European nations prefer to stick with more traditional rules on things like abortion or homosexual rights. I could find no record of similar arguments between the Benelux countries in this time frame. Whether that was the result of more similar people agreeing or the three Royals on todays stamp preventing overstepping is fun to consider.

Well my drink is empty. All my American readers have a nice Thanksgiving and come again on Friday when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Belgium now spends much time rankling over how to get rid of its nuclear plants that give the country over half of it’s electricity. The plants are aging and it is not realistic to build new ones. Yet the emission free generation is vital to meeting pollution goals. However going back to 1961 allows us to go back to a more optimistic time when the first electricity began to flow. 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 BR3 nuclear reactor was to the the first that would provide electricity to the people of Belgium. The original idea was to build it in Brussels and have it open to the public as part of the 1958 Brussels Worlds Fair. That it was even seriously considered is pretty bizarre. Eventually it opened a few years later located in the existing nuclear research center at Mol. The delayed opening was still important enough to warrant an issue of stamps that attacked the issue of how to show the plant in a good light with mediocre design and poor printing.

Todays stamp is issue A159, a three Franc stamp issued by Belgium on November 8th 1961. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the opening of the BR3 reactor at Mol. The plant didn’t actually start generating electricity until the next year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

The Belgian mining operation in the Katanga region of Belgian Congo discovered uranium ore in 1911. An atomic research unit was set up back in Belgium that worked closely with Marie Curie. During World War II and the Manhattan project a deal was struck that gave the USA access to Katanga uranium  and Belgium access to American nuclear technology. The BR3 reactor followed  the earlier BR1 and BR2 research only reactors at Mol. All were American designs.

The BR3 produced electricity until 1987. The early 1980s had seen 7 new nuclear reactors and there was no need to try to extend beyond it’s intended 25 year life span. It was the first plant of its type to be decommissioned. The site still hosts the nuclear research reactors. Studies from the early 2000s long after BR3 indicate that children with 15 kilometers of the Mol complex have 3 times the risk of developing leukemia and higher rates of thyroid cancer.

The nuclear research in Belgium had an unfortunate consequence in their former colony. In 1959 the Belgians constructed a nuclear research reactor nearby Kinshasa in a town now called Mama Mobutu. It opened in 1959 and was the first reactor in Africa. After independence the dictators of the country thought the site gave them much prestige. President Mobutu even managed to buy and get operating a second reactor that supplied electricity. This troubled Belgium and they assisted with maintenance and annual inspections. As the country gradually fell apart so did the plant’s output until it stopped completely in 2004. The more recent governments have ambitions to get the plant working again but are being told it is not possible to source parts for the now quite old design. Pieces like fuel rods traced from the plant regularly show up on the black market. Climate change and soil erosion are now threatening the entire site with collapse. There are worries that when it does the old nuclear fuel might leak into the water supply of Kinshasa. I know, reason 37 for not drinking the water in Kinshasa.

Well my drink is empty and I wonder if there is a place to get another on in the Atomium. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Yesterday we did a fake stamp from the then Trucial State of Ajman. A stamp huckster thought to designing stamps not related to where they allegedly from but subjects kids might better relate to. Here we have a stamp to bring kids into the hobby from a different perspective. 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.

If you scroll down below this article, you can take a look at the stamp we did yesterday from Ajman. It is hard to believe the two stamps are from the same century, never mind the same decade. Yet what a great way to show graphically the two methods to get kids interested in stamp collecting. Notice on todays stamp and the thankfully still present tag, (not many left those attached for mailing), all the little hints at the great tradition. The Crown representing the blessing of the King, the old fashioned horn emblem of the post entwined with the patriotic adventure promised by the Belgian lion. Notice that the children look more intelligent than cool. Also notice the presence of the globe, showing the promise of what can be learned in terms of geography and peoples and different time periods. It is what drew me into the hobby at age 10. Stamp huckster Finbar Kenny might however respond that those kids are just scouring that globe looking for Ajman. Today I will admit a bias toward adult collectors as perhaps they can bring their experience and memories of far of places and different times into the hobby so suited to it.

Todays stamp is issue A152, a 40 Centimes stamp issued by Belgium on October 1st, 1960. It was a single stamp issue. The engraver of this stamp was a man I wrote about here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/03/26/belgium-honors-a-stamp-engraver/ . According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused. The catalog makes a point that the tag should still be attached for that only token value to apply. To me this is a little disrespectful of a nice stamp that has now made it 60 years with that tag still attached.

You can gather from this stamp issue that the Belgium of the day had a traditional, conservative government. This is perhaps a little misleading. The country was divided by language and tradition with the Walloons being much more Socialist, anti religion, and a good deal poorer than the Flemish area that was more Dutch. The King of the day Baudouin tried his best to be King of all the people but his sympathies were with the Flemish. This came to a head in 1990 when the lefty government passed a law making abortion more available. A new law has to be signed by the King but this is usually a rubber stamp. The King announced that his Catholic religious principles would simply not allow him to sign it. It was suggested that he do what many religious left center politicians do. Vote for the law as public policy but then openly state that his personal convictions are opposed. That was not going to work and the Cabinet voted instead that the King was unfit to serve as of that date and the cabinet would have to sign off on the new law in his absence. There must have been a lot of wondering if the left wing government would then declare the King again fit to serve. They did the next day. The King of Spain was asked later if he would sign a left wing piece of legislation making it’s way through the legislature. He answered of course, I am the King of Spain not the King of Belgium.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast King Baudouin I of Belgium. The different people of Belgium are now so divided with a federal system that keeps the two groups in their own bubbles with ever less holding them together. King Philippe and perhaps the European Union is all that is keeping them together. They probably wouldn’t have King Phillippe were it not for the long successful rule of Baudouin. Come again tomorrow  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Wallonia is the mainly French speaking part of southern Belgium. The river corridor of the Meuse River became one of the first industrialized areas of Europe. The wealth created and lifestyle changes greatly influenced a Belgium breaking away from the Netherlands. 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.

Notice the grey colors used on this modern stamp. The stamp honors an engineering association in Mons left over from the time of the area being the “Sillon Industriel” of Belgium. A nice way to remember the former industries of the area in a way to say we still have something to show for it.

Todays stamp is issue A838. a 49 Euro cents stamp issued by Belgium on March 17th, 1973. It was issued with another stamp honoring a business association in Solvay. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

The area was industrialized in the nineteenth century. In the area near Mons that mainly meant coal and steel mills. This brought jobs and some wealth to the French speaking area. It was a time remember where fewer workers were required on farms and the concomitant move to cities. Not surprisingly based on what was happening, the area became a hotbed of quite left politics as the workers fought for more pay and better conditions. The changing nature of the city could be seen not just in the new industrial concerns. The walls and fortifications left over from the Dutch period were removed.

After the war, the industry of the area gradually shut down. Out of I guess right field, the areas economic decline was cushioned by France’s decision to leave NATO in 1967. The Supreme Headquarters Allied Forces Europe, (SHAPE) moved to the outskirts of Mons from outside Paris. Strange that after the French slight, a French speaking area of Belgium was chosen.

The NATO headquarters was not enough to restore Mons. The EU classifies the former industrial furrow of Belgium as an objective 1 area. This means that the area has low GNP per capita and there are incentives in place to encourage growth. It is quite unusual for a region of western Europe to have such a designation. Maybe the lefty politicians are actually working for their constituents. Perhaps if they had worked harder to keep the factories open?

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the engineers of Mons. I hope there are opportunities to practice their profession without having to pick up roots and move. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

The industrial revolution began in Britain and spread throughout Europe. Textile were a big part, first clothes and later carpets. A key skill in big European cities is hosting conventions. Thus the big exhibition in textiles was this year in Barcelona, not Dacca or Abbes Ababa where the employment has gone. 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 1950s were a great time for industry. Unions were seeing to it that workers were getting ahead and societies wealth was rising fast enough that costs could be passed on to the consumer and thus the industrialist were also prospering. In 1951, it was Paris’s turn to get the ball rolling on large post war international textile exhibition and four years later it was the turn of Brussels. The majesty of this stamp shows how serious the country took the exhibition. The facilities of the Free University of Brussels were used and 12 academic papers on field advancements from around the West were presented.

Todays stamp is issue A117, a 2 Franc stamp issued by Belgium on May 11th, 1955. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the International Textile Exhibition to be held in June that year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

In the USA, 95 percent of textile mills closed in the 1980s and 1990s. Belgium has faired a little better. The country still employs 42,000 people in the industry, this number drops 1-2000 a year. This is a little less than one percent of the countries workforce. In the 1970s, developed nations noticed the movement of production to the third world. A multi fiber arrangement was worked out between them that temporarily put quotas on the amount of third world imports. Europe however made a special allowance for very poor countries to help them. Under this Bangladesh was allowed to export to Europe with no tariff or quota. Given that a Bangladeshi textile worker makes 30 Euros a month, no amount of industrial efficiency can match that. In the late 1980s the multi fiber arrangement broke down and the export rules were put under the jurisdiction of the World Trade Organization. China is the primary beneficiary of that and today is the worlds largest textile exporter. Somehow China has managed this while paying their workers a whopping 175 Euros a month.

China and Bangladesh should keep an eye out behind them. Recently Calvin Klein and H&M have moved some factories to Ethiopia. There a textile worker makes just 26 Euros a month. It has not been an easy go in Ethiopia. There has been much labor strife and turnover as it is not possible to support a family on 26 Euros a month, even in Ethiopia. Ethiopia was the last country on earth to officially ban slavery in 1942. Or did they?

Luckily for Europe, nobody is interested in having conventions in Dacca or Abbes Ababa. This year the Exposition was held in Barcelona and in 2023 there will be another one in Milan. There is no doubt that Europe knows how to put on a show, but it is too bad the act of making the textiles we use has been taken away.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering what the Brussels exposition was like. Were they still musing about technological and design advancements, or was there already a sense of doom over what was about to happen? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

The USA had a tea party and Belgium has a night at the opera. Sometimes something stirs and the people realize it is time to separate. 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 the stamp is taken from a well known painting by Charles Soubre. The painting depicts revolutionary leader Charles Rogier leading 300 volunteers from the city of Liege to fight in the uprising against the Dutch in Brussels in 1830. So many years later, it seems surprising to use such an image. It makes the undertaking appear heroic. The history of the Belgian government is that it is not afraid to get tough with for example labor agitators who disturb the peace. Perhaps there is a conflict there. Belgium took a different tact on the 150th anniversary in 1980, with stamps showing the Opera house and the then new King of Belgium.

The stamp today is issue A119, a 20 Centimes stamp issued by Belgium on September 10th, 1955. This was a two stamp issue the celebrated an exhibition in Liege on the romantic movement of the volunteers to Brussels 125 years before during the uprising against Dutch rule. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Until the late 18th century, much of modern day Belgium was a part of the Catholic Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire. The revolutions spreading from France and Napoleon’s army put an end to that. The majority of the people in the area were French speaking so this made some sense. After Napoleon’s final defeat, the peace conference awarded the area to the Netherlands. This was at the suggestion of Britain who wanted a large strong Netherlands as a counterweight to France and to repay Netherlands for colonies in Asia taken from the Netherlands during Napoleon’s occupation that were not getting returned. Forget Ceylon, how about Belgium? Strange but true. Netherlands, now United Netherlands was Protestant and spoke Dutch, a Germanic language. Thus there was tension and the Belgian people, especially the French speakers did not feel represented by the new situation.

In 1830, there was an opera put on in Brussels that depicted romantically Neapolitans rising up against the Spanish masters. The audience was moved and filed out of the theatre joining riots against Dutch rule. At the same time Frenchman Charles Rogier was leading his volunteers from Liege to join the uprising. Not realizing that if he has lost the opera fans it is over, the King of the Netherlands sent two of his sons to Brussels to deal with it. The first son offered negotiations but the best deal to be had  was not something his father would agree to. The next Prince lead the army in to reestablish control over Brussels. His army’s ranks had been greatly thinned by desertions of ethnic Belgians and was not strong enough to end the uprising.

Holland than turned to Great Britain to try to settle the issue. Disappointing the Netherlands, the British proposed a separate Belgium kingdom ruled by a King who was closely related to the British royal family but also acceptable to France. The revolutionary leader, and now former Frenchman Charles Rogier severed several terms as Prime Minister. Since 1830, Dutch speakers in Belgium are the ones who feel less than fully represented by the government.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast French tenor Adolphe Nourrit, whose romantic, patriotic singing so stirred the Brussels’ crowd. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Sometimes the capitalist aspect of conservatives can lead them to empowering their socialist rivals. A new class of industrial workers is fertile ground for socialists. 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.

If you knew nothing of Belgium but a little about stamps you could make some good guesses by examining todays stamp. A royal, conservative country is implied by the formality of todays stamp. The use of emblems is a sure sign of a new country trying to stake out a separate identity. What the stamp doesn’t show is how quickly the country was changing from how it still presented itself. The cities were growing and the new class of industrial worker would not have seen Belgium the same way.

Todays stamp is issue PP3, a 1 Franc parcel post stamp issued by the Kingdom of Belgium in 1902. It was a 20 stamp issue in various denominations over a 10 year period. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used. Given the high denomination, I am surprised at the stamps low value. A similar parcel post issue from 7 years before is today worth $175 in the 1 Franc denomination. Later than this issue share the low value so I must conclude that sending parcels through the mail got much more common at the time.

After a series of long wars, Belgium achieved independence from the Netherlands in 1830. The majority of the people were Walloon who are Catholic and speak a dialect of French. At the time the area was mostly rural and agricultural. The government was democratic but conservative and heavily influenced by the Catholic Church. The task at hand though was to build a separate country and so a big priority was building infrastructure such as railroads that connected the country including the small outlet to the North Sea at Antwerp. This new infrastructure and advances in agriculture that freed up workers and the Catholic tendency at the time for large families allowed for rapid industrialization in the growing cities. Coal mines, iron works, and textile factories quickly grew up and added a great deal of wealth to the new country.

Such a change brought huge and perhaps unintended effects. New factories tend to start out with low wages. The workers came to the city for a better life and the low wages became a source of dissatisfaction. Cities always being a hotbed of liberal thoughts, it is no surprise that a socialist trade union movement got going. The electoral system favored property owners so the socialist were not able to get in to the government. Even the Catholic based school system that served the elites far better than the working class was protected by the government.

The socialist showed themselves most in the cities. With King and government building in the neoclassic style, socialist architects such as the influential Victor Horta offered a very different art nouveau style. His house of the people was built directly for the socialist party. It was torn down in the 1960s to make way for a characterless high rise. By then both political sides had given up their style and so the least common denominator prevailed. This architectural trend was actually called Brusselsization.

Strikes quickly became the preferred method to enact liberal change. Strikes were called not only over wages but to demand specific reforms from the government. The industrial output of the time was less about consumer goods so there was no blowback from the labor strife on the countries reputation as with, for example, 1970s Great Britain. If World War had not come in 1914, Belgium might have been the site of a communist revolution before to long. Oddly enough the German occupation might have saved the conservative government.

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

These sinecures that go to the powerful. Conventions of the connected in swank cities while partying on the dime of others. How does one sign up? Also how did something noble but perhaps futile degenerate into this. 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.

In Brussels, it is big business hosting international organizations, today notably NATO and the central staff of the European Union. Think of how great this is for Brussels. A lot of well paid staff with a healthy sized support staff that are hired locally. The big shots will be spending lots of money that comes from the outside. Probably more than their high salaries as most are old money. In addition there will be subsets that will be constantly hosting conventions, where lesser big shots will be coming from far and wide to spend, spend, spend. So Belgium puts out a stamp to celebrate an especially important convention. How nice of them to emphasize the history and noble original purpose of the organization. A stamp issue showing a fancy restaurant, a 5 star hotel, a disco, and a fancy mall would have been a little too real.

Todays stamp is issue A157, a 3 Belgian Franc stamp issued by the Kingdom of Belgium on September 14th 1961. It was a 2 stamp issue celebrating the 50th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union that was held in Brussels that year. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The Inter-Parliamentary  Union was the brainchild of French parliamentarian Frederic Passy and English Parliamentarian Randal Cremer. Both men were avowed pacifists that hoped an international body could arbitrate disputes before they lead to war. They were part of a large movement of the time that included American William Jennings Bryant and steel baron Andrew Carnegie. The IPU started in Bern, Switzerland in 1892 but soon moved to ironically Brussels. World War I went unprevented and the organization moved to Oslo and then to it’s current home in Geneva. The work and noble intentions of Messers Passy and Cremer saw both men individually awarded Nobel Peace Prizes. Cremer had guided through parliament a bill that all disputes between the USA and the UK be handled by arbitration. Passy had been useful in an international dispute involving the future of Luxembourg in the 1860s.

The organization changed after the passing of the founders and became less about peace and more to do with promoting vague notions of representative government. One party states are still welcome to the parties and the most recent, the 138th was held in the home base in Geneva earlier this year.

It was decided that a woman from the Americas should be the current President of the IPU so after a contest with a lady from Uruguay, Mexican Gabriela Cuevas Barron was given the title in 2017. She is young. still in her thirties and had to change left wing parties in Mexico with the rise in fortune of the National Regeneration Movement at the expense of her former party PAN. Her short resume includes work for NGOs, so I bet she is adept at party planning on an international scale. Nice work if you can get it, but none of her biographies list the wars she prevented. Hopefully then the Nobel committee will hold off on her award.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Ms Cuevas on her title. Maybe that would get me invited to one of those great living large on someone else’s dime conventions. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.