Tag: Panama Stamp

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USA 1913, Panama Pacific Exposition, Celebrating permanent construction by building things designed to crumble

An immense construction project is completed and so America celebrates in a city that had lately needed some construction itself. 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 Panama Canal was a massive project. It involved some wild political maneuverings to get control of the land. Some engineering challenges that must have seemed insurmountable. A massive requirement for labor in a hot, buggy tropical place at a time when it was no longer possible to have slaves do it. Just a massive challenge. A challenge that was by no means complete in 1913 when this stamp came out. The project was being handled so confidently that an international exhibition was scheduled to celebrate the successful completion. Imagine the egg on the face if the Panama project bogged down the way modern projects of any scale always seem to. The stamp was a success though because everything came off. Could even China pull that off now? I am confident the west could not. To the collector all these years later it might have been better for the stamp value had it been a failure.

The stamp today is issue A145, a 2 cent stamp issued by the United States in 1913. The four stamp issue was part of the build up to the Panama Pacific International Exposition scheduled for San Francisco in 1915. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1 used. A mint version of the 10 cent stamp of this issue is worth $700.

The stamp displays the Pedro Miguel locks. This was one of the more simple locks on the Pacific ocean side of the canal. This made sense both for fact that this lock was done early enough to be shown on the stamp and also since a Pacific lock is more in keeping with the Pacific theme of the Exposition. It must be remembered at the time power and population was mainly located in the East and the power shift to the west on a complete different but soon not so far separated ocean. I can see why this would generate so much excitement about the project. After this stamp was issued in 1913 an order went out by telegraph from the White House that set off an explosion of a dyke that first connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Pedro Miguel Locks in more modern times

Getting the Exposition to San Francisco was a timely move. Panama was a long way away and they were not going to be able to have a world class exposition. The place was just too poor and isolated. It had indeed required a great deal of work on sanitation in Panama so to lesson the dangers of yellow fever and malaria to the thousands of Americans recruited to work on the project. Americans of the period had a special skill in this as they had figured out the connection  of flys to the diseases after a program to reduce the diseases in then newly conquered Havana, Cuba. It still remains that about 5600 workers on the project died of disease and accidents. This does not include workers on an earlier failed French effort in the area.

San Francisco, on the other hand had been devastated by an earthquake in 1906. Nine years later was a perfect time for the city to announce that they were back and better than ever. Much Moorish style architecture was constructed for the fair. Interesting it was purposely designed to be short lived structures. The architect was of the opinion that every great city needs a few ruins. In the end most of it was demolished after the Exposition in 1915. The Palace of Fine Arts was allowed to remain. First as a ruin and later rebuilt as a permanent fixture of San Francisco to this day.

Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast those hearty souls who traveled to the jungles of Panama to build a great canal that still serves today. Quite an American achievement to remember on July 4th. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Panama 1967, Remembering Palenque, the Mayan city state that rose out of the jungle under Pakal the Great and his mother Lady Beastie only for the jungle to reclaim

Panama was clearly excited by Mexico City getting the Olympics in 1968. In the runup to the games there were many stamp issues showing solidarity with Mexico. This issue shows of some of Mexico’s indigenous ancient sites, of which there were many in Latin America and a part of history that many of the day wanted to better connect to. 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.

One thing this stamp does convincingly is teach how to be remembered. Build in stone. It is believed that the area was occupied from about 2500 BC through 900AD. Yet virtually the entire site was built in a 35 year period under Pakal the Great. Carved into the stone edifices were stone reliefs that told how the elite lived and the then understanding of their history. 35 out of 3400 years is a drop in the bucket but all we have.

Todays stamp is issue A150b a 21 Centessimos airmail stamp issued by Panama on April 18th, 1967. It was a six stamp issue in various denominations that was also available as a souvenir sheet. The three highest denominations including this stamp were airmail. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents cancelled to order. The souvenir sheet is worth $18.00.

Palenque is the Spanish word for the site of the former Mayan Indian city state in the modern state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. In it’s time it was called Lakamha, which translates into big water. What we know of the place comes from modern guesses at translating the hieroglyphics that have been found in great numbers. The place was abandoned and taken over by the jungle. Even now when it is a major tourist site hosting almost 1 million visitors a year, experts believe it is only about 25 percent excavated. Recently they discovered the Western Hemisphere’s earliest viaduct. It had a spring loaded release that could release 20 feet of water under high pressure. Nobody has figured out conclusively why they built it.

The glory days of Palenque started under someone known as Lady Beastie in 600 AD. She acted as ruler after the death of her husband the last King and before her son Pakal could take over at age 12. She is believed to have had a large influence on Pakal during the first half of his long reign. Interesting her stone depictions of her time ruling are much more masculine appearing than those earlier or later. Pakal started his building spree 33 years into his reign with a temple and just kept going. The Throne than past to two of his sons who continued Pakal’s projects though the second son worked mostly on the Palace. The city was sacked by rival Mayan city state Tonina in 711 AD. After that there were no more local Kings but there was still some farming in the area until around 900AD.

Lady Beastie

The site was discovered overgrown by jungle by the Spanish Conquistador de la Nada in the 1520s. Nothing was done and the whole area was very sparsely populated. In 1786 the Spanish administration in Guatemala sent out a proper expedition that included an architect and a draftsman to make copies of the stone reliefs for further study. The findings of the expedition were much later published in London As “Descriptions of the ruins of an ancient city” that was very popular and got the word out about the place.

Well my drink is empty and one thing I find interesting is that these ancient sites always seemed to be discovered and interpreted by outsiders before taken to heart by the actual descendants. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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USA Panama Canal Zone 1928, remembering those who built the canal, while they were still alive

The USA Canal Zone did not recognize Panama. They operated under the spirit of the USA constitution but not it’s particulars. This added leeway made the labor intensive construction possible, but also allowed the American tradition of not putting live people on stamps to be dispensed with. 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 doesn’t look like much. A simple portrait with a last name and a denomination. This is in keeping with the prewar time but understates the achievements of the men who worked on the canal. There were many schemes to build a canal through Central America. The British and the French tried and failed, the Panamanians would have probably tried if and when they ever progressed. The Americans succeeded, due in large part to the engineering and logistical work of the men honored on this series of stamps.

Todays stamp is issue A43, a 30 cent stamp issued by the Canal Zone in 1928. It was part of a 10 stamp issue in various denominations the honored the men behind the Panama Canal. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 70 cents used. Strange that the value is so low, far below the inflation adjusted value of the denomination, ($4.42). We are perhaps not in a time when the long ago achievements of old white guys are properly valued.

The Panama Canal was constructed between 1903 and 1914. The work had been started by a much smaller capitalized failed French venture. Most of the French work had returned to nature. After a few years of fits and starts, it was decided that the US Army Corps of Engineers should run the project, after civilian contractors proved incapable. The project required the construction of locks, canals, and docks required large amounts of engineering skill and large amounts of physical labor at a time when slavery was banned. Contract workers were brought in from Barbados and Jamaica to do the labor. No American blacks were involved.

The contract workers have in the years since generated much controversy. The workers in the Canal Zone were divided into gold coin and silver coin workers, with the gold coin workers being almost all white and silver coin workers being all black. Whites were not allowed to apply for silver dollar jobs and the blacks were only rarely promoted to gold coin status. The coins were of course how they were paid although over time the Gold coin workers were paid in USA paper money and the silver coin workers began to receive American coinage to replace the Colombian coins they were paid early. The Gold Coin workers also received better food and housing and were encouraged to send for their wives at home while the silver coins had to survive on the local economy. When the USA saw that the silver coins were receiving poor food at inflated prices from the Panamanians, a Commissary was set up that sold them imported food at cost. Unionization  was banned, strikes dealt with harshly and an attempted West Indian workers association went unrecognized. On a brighter note unlike so many modern projects, it got done and worked as hoped.

The man on todays stamp is Col. Sydney Williamson of the Army Corp of Engineers. He had a degree in Civil Engineering from the Virginia Military Institute. He was hired by General George Washington Goethals to work on the Western End of the Canal. After the canal was completed in 1914, Williamson went into private practice. Goethals called him back into service to work on logistics involved with the American deployment to France. After the War the two men worked together in private practice. Among the post canal projects he worked on were copper smelters in Chile, street cars in Brazil and Argentina, the water supply in Genoa, Italy and the port facilities of West Palm Beach, Florida. He died 7 years after his stamp in 1935.

General Goethals in addition to Canal Zone stamps was honored with a USA stamp in 1939, ten years after his death. The Panamanians have not given either man a stamp. There was a stamp for the failed French effort in 1980, and President Carter is on a few stamps celebrating the USA giving the Canal to Panama in the 1970s. I guess gratitude and success are not things to celebrate in Panama.

Well my drink is empty and I will have a few more pondering a stamp website that could pay me in gold coins, or even silver ones. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting and remember our sponsors and their unobtrusive banner ads.

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New Country, so time to build a University?

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. 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. We have an interesting story to tell that asks the question if it can be too early to build a national university.

Todays stamp is rather a mess to look at. The paper is cheap, the building on the stamp is generic and the overprints with a new denomination are lazy. They also do not exactly give one confidence in the value of the local currency.

The stamp today is issue C248, a 1961 reprint with a surcharge on issue C230 orriginaly issued by Panama in 1960. This stamp shows the administration building of the National University. It is part of a three stamp issue in various denominations commemorating the 25th anniversary of the National University. There were issues with various surcharges into 1963. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used or which surcharge it has been stamped with, if any.

Panama came into existence after the Columbian Senate refused to ratify a treaty with the USA to give permission to build the Panama Canal. A greater Columbia had existed early after independence from Spain, but over time many areas broke off. Panama was the last area to leave but the history indicates that Columbia was not meeting the needs of the outlying areas of there would not have been such a rush to the door. It is something to consider before someone rushes to judgement on American interference.

Panama was ruled by a small connected elite that made most of their revenue from the Panama Canal, more specifically those in the country to operate it. Not much of this income made it’s way to the poor, mostly rural, mostly Indian population. At the time when the university was started in 1935, over 70 percent of the population was illiterate and a solid majority of school age children were not in school.

From these facts it is easy to see that the University was really to serve the elites themselves. At the time the percentage of college age young people in school was only 7 percent. Even today, with the large university having been in operation for over 80 years, the number attending is still around 20 percent.

Panama only started making strides reducing illiteracy in the 1960s. Getting the opportunities out into the countryside took even longer. The military in Panama eventually decided that government by and for the elites was not the best and in 1968 a coup happened. The military set a program of price and rent controls and land redistribution to help the lower classes. They also started working with the USA to get control over the canal. A controversial in the USA treaty was signed with President Carter in 1977 and now the canal is fully owned and operated by Panama.

With several smaller institutions of higher learning already existing and the ability of the wealthy to study in the USA, I think the national university could have been put off to 1965-1970. Doing so before served as a way to keep power and opportunity in the hands of the few. If the building on the stamp dated from later, it would probably be even uglier. It would have been a bigger accomplishment, because it would have extended opportunity to all.

Well, my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. Columbia is better off today than the territories that broke off from it, how do you think a continuation of a Greater Columbia would have worked for the people. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.