Tag: Poland stamp

Sometimes it is very important for a new or in Poland’s case a reconstituted country to be able to reach back into history to promote important figures. This adds to legitimacy and gives young Poles someone to emulate. 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 shows how much of the Polish character survived into the communist era. From the style of this stamp, I assumed it to be an interwar issue and the denomination seems low for the 1950s. Coperinicus’ birth and death dates are not much help. The stamp celebrates the 480th anniversary of his birth, a strange number. The painting on the stamp is where the communist influence shows. Originally titled “Conversations with God” they seem to have retitled it “Copernicus Watching Heavens”. The painting is currently at the University of Krakow.

Todays stamp is issue A222, a 20 Groszy stamp issued by Poland on May 22nd 1953. It was a two stamp issue in different denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

I mentioned in the title that Poland claims Copernicus as a son of Poland. Germany does not formally make a claim to him but there is also a case.  given the crosscurrents of what was going on there on the ground. Copernicus was born into a wealthy family in Torun, a Henseatic city. At the time, 1473, the area was contested by the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order of Knights. The Henseatic cities treasured their special status as trading cities and when the Polish King offered to respect this status, the cities affiliated with Poland, despite the German tongue spoken by the residents. The area was known by the not very Polish sounding Royal Prussia. For a much later version of this rivalry see this Danzig stamp  https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/19/danzig-1923-a-very-early-airmail-stamp-from-a-german-city-that-suddenly-found-itself-outside-germany/    . Copernicus studied in the Polish then capital of Krakow, spoke Polish and German and published his scientific work in Latin. Copernicus went on to serve in the court of his uncle, the Bishop Prince of Warmia.

His uncle financed Copernicus to continue ecclesiastical training in Italy His studies went on and on since he was also receiving instruction in astronomy on the side. There is debate today whether Copernicus was ever ordained as a priest. The Catholics say yes and the scientific community disagrees. Late in life he was a candidate for his now late uncle’s old job as Bishop Prince of Warmia, a post that requires ordination. He never married but had a close relationship with a housekeeper. During Copernicus’s lifetime, the German Teutonic Order of Knights converted to Lutheran and became the Dutchy of Prussia. Copernicus did not convert.

Copernicus in Italy made his great discovery. By mapping the position of planets over time he was able to determine that the sun was the center of the solar system rather than the Earth as was believed. Pope Clement was briefed on the discovery but took no action against Copernicus. Copernicus was very worried over the reaction to his discovery and only sent manuscript copies of Commentaries to friends and colleagues. Lutherans were more initially opposed. They described Copernicus as an absurd Sarmatian astronomer who moved the Earth and stopped the sun. Soon after Copernicus’s death, his charts were republished as Prussian Tables and widely accepted. Catholics eventually got around to banning his work from 1591-1885. Copernicus also wrote poetry, wrote treatise on economics and practiced medicine. In 1973 on the 500th anniversary of his birth, Poland, West Germany, and East Germany honored Copernicus with stamps. The German ones only described him as an astronomer, not a Polish astronomer. In 2008, his remains were confirmed in the Cathedral at Torun.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Copernicus the classic Henseatic. I will know when I have had enough when the Earth spinning becomes all to obvious. Come again tomorrow for another that can be learned from stamp collecting.

This isn’t the first Polish scientist stamp I have covered. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/17/poland-1983-remembers-an-astronomer-mathemacian-from-a-time-with-so-many-changes-that-it-was-hard-to-develop-the-polish-academic-tradition/  . They all seem to have faced dramatic obstacles related to the plight of the Poles at the time, yet still moved mankind’s knowledge forward. With relative peace and prosperity not just in Poland, am I the only one to notice that progress has slowed. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp issue from 1982 shows four prominent mathematicians. They are displayed on graph paper in a fun 80s Max Headroom style. Sierpinski died in 1969 making him the most modern figure on the stamp issue, although most of his important work was 50+ years before that. Could Poland have come up with 4 living mathematicians in 1982 or 2019 that were advancing the field enough to be worthy of being remembered? I wonder.

Todays stamp is issue A799, a 6 Zloty stamp issued by Poland on November 23rd, 1982. It was a four stamp issue displaying 4 Polish mathematicians. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

Waclaw Sierpinski was born in Warsaw in 1882. At the time the city was under Czarist Russian occupation. The city’s University taught in Russian and had a largely Russian staff. As such, it was sort of a colonial operation and Poles were reticent to attend and thereby support the Russian occupation. Sierpinski did not honor the boycott as he desired to learn from a prominent Russian mathematician on staff there. He did withhold his first major academic work from publication until it could be published in Polish instead of Russian. World War I saw him in Moscow working with Russians. Sierpinski was back in Poland for the 1919 war with the Soviet Union and worked for the Poles decoding Soviet cyphers. Bet the Soviets were glad the Czarists had invested so much in Sierpinski’s success.

Sierpinski main mathematical contribution was in the field or numbers theory and set theory. In numbers theory, Sierpinski built upon the work of Russian mathematician Vorony. His later set theory work was built on the work of German mathematician Cantor. Below is a fractal that is named for him. It is one of those visual distotions.

Sierpinski continued working at the University or Warsaw through 1967. Or course his later years were more about receiving rewards for work he had done many years before. In a way, I wonder if this is the most interesting part. Is the adversity faced by people like Sierpinski necessary to challenge him to be his best? An alternative theory is that of course the older fellows seem to do more than the moderns because people just did not know anything back then.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Poland. It is a short list of countries that could put together a list of prominent mathematicians and Poland is one of the smaller and newer countries on that list. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

So many young people want to move to the cities. That is where the jobs, nightlife, and other young people are. Developers only want to build posh buildings that only the old and established can afford. Once the communists showed a different way. 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.

Brutalist architecture is quite imposing in size and detail. They are thought of as angry looking. This was intensified when done on this stamp as a row. To see them go up must have been a sight compared to modern construction. They went up fast as the were constructed often of pre fab sections. Yet this Polish stamp takes all this to an even bigger level. Seeing a large prefab section being lifted not by a construction crane but by a Soviet Mi-6 helicopter. It was then the biggest in the world. Incredible, if it happened and not just a projection from a fanciful 5 year plan.

Todays stamp is issue C54, a 10 Zloty airmail stamp issued by the Peoples Republic of Poland in 1976. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations displaying then contemporary aviation in Poland. To date, it is Poland’s last air mail issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used.

Brutalist architecture is most famous from then communist countries but the architectural style was also used on some mainly government buildings in the west. After Stalin’s death in the 50s there was more freedom granted to communist architects to allow more modern styles. There also had been some progress in the communist world and city planners had to house many families of workers. Instead of suburbs that required commuting by car, large swaths of land near city centers were set aside and public transportation was in place. The developments were somewhat self contained with schools, shopping, and parks contained on the grounds. They were by no means fancy, and the apartments were small but such buildings went up fast throughout the big communist cities. I believe the buildings on this stamp is the Smolna development in Warsaw that still exists. An updated 350 square foot one bedroom apartment rents for US$ 1020 a month.

These style of buildings quickly fell on hard times after 1990. Many were not well constructed and many former residents moved to the suburbs to have a house and car as soon as possible economically. For those buildings that survive, many are now experiencing a Renascence. They are so well located to the city center and the small units often have reasonable rents. I doubt  a major undertaking like these will ever happen again under any stripe of government.

The Mil Mi-6 helicopter was the largest helicopter in the world when it first flew in 1959. It had a payload of 26,000 pounds or 90 passengers and had both civilian and military purposes. It is a good deal larger than the American Chinook helicopter. The Mi-6 went out of production in 1980 when it was replaced by the even larger Mi-26, which is still in production. The Russian aviation authorities withdrew the certificate of airworthiness in 2002 for the Mi 6, though a few are thought to be in military service in the third world.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the brutalist city planners of the 1960s and 1970s. In retrospect, there was a certain style and there was never doubt about dreaming big. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

There is a perception today that cars should only come from a few places. Poland no longer builds cars at the plant that built todays Warszawa 223, while Sindelfingen still builds cars where tomorrows fintail came from. Is that fair? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp issue displays the products over time  of the Zeran car factory near Warsaw. The Warszawa 223 had left production 3 years before this stamp issue which also included the then current models. A great way to show heritage that was still evolving. The last Polish designed car left the Zeran factory in 2003 and the last locally assembled Korean car was in 2011. Neither event was recognized by a stamp. Sad endings…

Todays stamp is issue A665, a 1.5 Zloty stamp issued by Poland on November 6th, 1976. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used. There is also a souvenir sheet with all four stamps from the issue.

The Zeran automobile factory opened in 1948. As a gift from the always generous Josef Stalin, the factory was given a license to build the first Soviet indigenous car, the GAZ M20 Pobeda. By European standards, it was a larger car that was suitable for lower level officials and police and taxi work. It was rear wheel drive with a 2.1 liter four cylinder engine. The car had some similarity to the 1938 German Opel Kapitan, a car designed for Germany by  Opel’s American parent General Motors. The Russian car was made in Gorky along the Volga river as part of the factory shift east during World War II financed by the USA. The Pobeda was succeeded by the Volga line of sedans.

A Polish copy of a Russian car influenced by a car designed in America for use in Germany. Well you have to start somewhere. Japan’s early offerings were similar except that their copying often lacked license. After the Pobeda left production in Russia, development continued in Poland. The Warszawa 223 featured a more modern body in the pontoon style common on Mercedes of the day. The engine was updated to an overhead valve design and the floor shift was replaced by a synchronized steering column shifter. I mentioned taxi service, and like Mercedes Warszawa added a diesel engine aimed at that use. In the late 1960s, an even more modern style body and a six cylinder were contemplated.

Instead the Zeran factory licenced production of the Fiat 125 to replace the Warszawa 223. As with the Warszawa before it, the Poles designed a new modern body called the Polonez to go on the older design that allowed production to extend into the 21st century.

Poland tried to keep car assembly going after the Polonez faded. Korean Daewoos were assembled even after Daewoo itself went bankrupt and they made the Aveo till 2011 when the license ran out. 1800 workers then lost their job.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another in anticipation of tomorrows study of the eqivelent Mercedes. What were they doing right that saw them survive, or was it luck? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

An academic finds an asteroid and a new way to more easily solve complex equations using matrix algebra. Sounds impressive, but made even more so by the changes going on all around getting in the way. Only one/10th of the travails would have “the Big Bang Theory”‘s Sheldon riding the trains like a hobo with a credit card for the rest of the run of the show.

This stamp is somewhat of a reversal  for the Communist regime in power at the time of this stamp. The year Banachiewicz died in 1954, the government removed the prewar faculty of Jagiellonian University for incorrect teaching. Then they honor one of that very faculty with a stamp. So were they hasty in 1954 or in 1983. The regime would probably say both times.

Todays stamp is issue A806, a 25 Zloty stamp issued by the Peoples Republic of Poland on March 25th, 1983. The stamp featured Tadeusz Banachiewicz, the Polish astronomer and mathematician. It was part of a 6 stamp issue in various denominations featuring famous people, to Poles. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Tadeusz Banachiewicz was a Pole and  first studied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Warsaw. This sounds natural but at the time the area was under Czarist Russians. The Russians were using the institution as a vehicle to Russify the Polish population of the area. There came a lot of pressure on Poles to boycott the University and T. B. was not the only student to go west and seek educational opportunities in Germany. The contacts he made at the University of Warsaw continued to serve him and he was able to find positions at a string of Russian observatories in Saint Petersburg and Kazan. The 1917 revolutions in Russia ended that and T. B. moved to the Polish city of Krakow to witness the rebirth of the Polish state on land seceded from Russia, Germany and in Krakow’s case Austria.

He hoped to secure a position at Jagiellonian University, an ancient university whose students included Copernicus and Pope John Paul II. The University was nearly closed after the Austrians took over the city in the 1850s, even going so far as to empty out the Great Hall to use for grain storage. Emperor Franz Josef took an interest in the university, saving it and even expanding the schools facilities. That did not stop the Polish students from tearing down and destroying Franz Josef’s portrait when the school passed into Polish hands in 1919.

T. B. was able to get a position and get busy doing his most important work. In 1925, he developed a theory called cracovians, named after the city. It was a type of matrix algebra that could be used to simplify the calculations of many types of complex equations. Astronomy had not fallen away. He discovered an asteroid 1287 Lorcia named in honor of his wife Laura.

Jagiellonian University was closed in 1939 upon the Nazi conquest. The post war Communist government in Poland reopened the University in 1945 but with just a skeleton staff. They were suspicious politically of the prewar staff who they dismissed completely in 1954. They toyed with the idea of a new University in Krakow but progress was very slow and eventually it was decided to shift investment into what they had with Jagiellonian. It is today the largest and most highly ranked University in Poland.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another and ponder the trajectory of 1287 Lorcia. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

After Germany invaded Poland, the Germans destroyed the old Royal Castle not as a fortune of war but as a direct attack on the nation. So even though the post war government was communist and therefore not much inclined to royalty or history, the decision was taken to rebuild. Something all Poles agreed with and many worldwide donated 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.

Photobombing todays stamp is the also put back together Sigismund’s Column. Remember the 1920s Polish stamp featuring the column. Here is a link. https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/30/a-long-ago-symbol-of-a-great-poland-in-a-new-poland-before-germany-knocks-it-down/. Notice the quality of printing on the two stamps. Now the stamps are almost 50 years apart but still this was one area the communist regime was doing a good job.

The stamp today is issue A557, a 60 Groszy stamp issued by Poland on October 14, 1971. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the rebuilding of the castle and it being declared a heritage site. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

The Castle was built on the site of a previous royal residence by King Sigismund III coinciding with the move of the Polish capital from Cracow to Warsaw around 1600. The site was devastated by World War II. It partially burned in the initial attack and the castle staff stabilized the damage and began to hide artifacts. Hitler ordered the Castle dynamited and a historian team of Germans and Poles removed other artifacts. The building was not actually dynamited at this time but left a shell. After the Warsaw uprising was put down by the Nazis the dynamiting happened. The Germans planned to build a large Nazi center on the square but their time in Warsaw was almost over.

The new communist government put in place by the Red Army agreed to have the palace rebuilt and care was taken to recollect as many of the old artifacts as possible. A subscription was organized to pay for the restoration that occurred over many years and was still ongoing at the time of todays stamp. A majority of the funds for the work came from Poles in the United States.

A lot of Polish legends involve the castle. An interesting one involves King Sigismund Augustus who was mourning the death of his beloved wife Barbara. He sought out the services of mystic Pan Twardowski to conjure his departed wife in a séance. It was believed that Pan Twardowski had sold his soul to the devil in return for special powers. His wife appeared on a magic mirror that still exists in the castle. It was thought that this was achieved by the King’s mistress also named Barbara playing dress up with the assistance of the royal chamberlain. Pan Twardowski had a special codicil in his contract with the devil in that his soul could only be taken in Rome, a city he never intended to visit to cheat the devil. However the joke was on him when the devil came for him while staying at the Hotel Ryzm, Ryzm is Rome in Polish. When taken away, Pan Twardowski prayed to the Virgin Mary who had Pan Twardowski dropped on the moon with his friend that he turned into a spider. He still lives there today and his spider friend occasionally returns to earth on a string to bring him news of Poland.

Well my drink is empty and I will definitely have a few more pondering that legend. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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.

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 of an old column lifting high a statue of a king of a defunct empire, now important in a new country. So important that the Nazis knocked it down.

Poland was a new country in the 1920s. Their early stamp offerings are not particularly impressive to the international collector. The paper is cheap and the drawings are undistinguished. The column on this stamp changed with a fountain and fence removed soon after the stamp but the drawing is so bad, I can’t tell the difference.

The stamp today is issue A40, a 10 Groszy stamp issued in 1925-1927 by Poland. It is part of an 11 stamp issue that show various monuments around Poland. This stamp shows the Sigismund Column in Warsaw. The stamp is worth 25 cents cancelled according to the Scott catalog.

After the reformation of Poland as a result of the Versailles Treaty there was much fighting. The Soviets wanted to dominate Poland in the hopes that Lenin could then link up with Communists in Germany as part of a worldwide revolution. Ukraine wanted to solidify independence from the Soviets and Poland wanted greater territory at the expense of Ukraine and Lithuania. The Poles had some success militarily against the Soviets and the peace treaty partitioned Ukraine and angered the Ukrainians and Lithuanians.

The victory left the Poles proud but poor and it is understandable why old symbols of an ancient and great Poland became so important. The King on the Column, Sigismund II, had ruled Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and fought wars for the Catholic Church hoping to convert the Duchy of Moscow  from Orthodox and succeeding in pushing the Ottomans from Moldavia. The statue and column were erected 1n 1644 by Sigismund’s son King Wladyslaw IV to celebrate the moving of the Polish empires capital to Warsaw from Krakow. It was cast by Italians in the style of several similar monuments in Italy. This was a time of greater travel and the Polish King had experienced the artistic explosion of Italy while studying there in his youth.

During World War II, Poland was invaded by Germany and Russia, partitioned with Warsaw under German control. The column survived the 1939 destruction around it. In 1944 as the Russian army approached Warsaw, there was a rebellion by a mostly Jewish group that was brutally repressed by the Germans. The group of rebels was not controlled by the Polish government in exile, nor the communists that the Soviets intended to install. A cynical decision was made to let the Germans crush the rebellion. During this Sigismund’s Column was destroyed and the statue at the top was heavily damaged and siting on the ground. The Poles post war had a new granite column done and the statue was repaired and stands today.

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open the conversation in the below comment section. Lately there has been a movement to be rid of older statues as they mean nothing to the current more diverse population. Are the old statues worth keeping? I won’t surprise anyone that I think so. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.