Tag: USA stamp

When a lot of money is spent and there is not enough results, a President’s term might become limited. 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 a Presidents Day offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp was simple and elegant. The issue shows all the previous presidents in the order that they served. All are busts and in profile. Even though the issue excluded presidents still alive, this included some then fairly recent ones of the other party. That these are treated with equal reverence is pleasant.

The stamp today is issue A300, a 24 cent stamp issued by the United States in 1938. The stamp displays a bust of Benjamin Harrison. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. The stamp to look out for in this issue is a used copy of the red brown version of the $5 Calvin Coolidge stamp. It is worth $7000. The catalog warns that it is possible to chemically alter the less valuable red version of the stamp to make it appear to be the red brown version. The suggest having it authenticated before purchase. Caveat emptor among philatelists… Shocking!

Benjamin Harrison was from Indiana and was by profession a lawyer. His Grandfather, William Henry Harrison was also President. The Family cane trace itself back to the early Jamestown settlement. Harrison was a Republican. At the time Republican political positions were more aligned with modern day Democrats and vice versa. Republicans dominated the Northeast and West and The Democrats dominated the South based on white votes.

Harrison defeated one term Democrat Grover Cleveland. He allowed 6 new western states into the union, the most of any president. Cleveland had delayed them fearing they would vote Republican. Harrison passed an anti trust act and enacted large tariffs on foreign goods. The tariffs threw off a lot of money to the government and government spending exceeded 1 billion dollars for the first time. There was infrastructure spending and an expansion of the navy. It came to be seen as an administration that spent money in a wasteful way. After 1 term Grover Cleveland ran again for his old seat and defeated Harrison. The new states he hoped would vote for him defected to a third party candidate to his left politically.

The second Presidential contest was bad for Harrison in another way. His wife Caroline was fighting tuberculosis and lost the fight two weeks before the election. His married daughter Mary took over first lady duties. A few years later he married Mary Dimmick, a 37 year old niece of his late wife that had served as her secretary. Caroline’s children who were in their 40s did not approve the match and boycotted the wedding. He had one daughter with his new wife and died in 1901 of pneumonia. Both wives are buried with him, Mary taking her place in 1946.

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another and toast all the Presidents. There have been 45 now so to do it one by one might leave me rather drunk. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

I wanted a stamp with hearts for Valentines, but did not really know what to say about one of the hippy like messages of peace and love that are the central to many recent stamp issues. This stamp turned out to be about celebrating intact families. As Frank Sinatra sung, “Love and Marriage go together like a horse and carriage.” 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 the Valentines edition of The Philatelist.

I do not like the look of todays stamp. It manages to be both ahead of it’s time and behind the time at the same time. In both directions, it is in all the wrong ways. Like so many twenty first century stamp issues, this 1984 stamp has lost all the dignity and gravitas of a major country stamp issue. It used to be an important event for an issue to warrant a postage stamp issue. Instead we have here what is made to look like a child’s stick figure drawing, that doesn’t even really tell you what it is about. The way that the stamp is old fashion is in the way the government presumes to tell an individual how to live. There was a big movement in 1970s America to get the government out of an individuals bedroom. The fact that the message was so out of date is probably why the messaging was so obscure. It perhaps was not something the postal service wanted to talk about.

The stamp today is issue A1489, a 20 cent stamp issued by the United States on October 1st, 1984. It was a single stamp issue displaying a child’s drawing of a family consisting of mother, father, and a child. The issue promoted family unity. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. There are out there imperforate vertical pairs of the stamp that are worth $325.

The level of illegitimacy was already on the way up by the time of this stamp. This was true both in the USA and in much of Europe. The rate of out of wedlock births in the USA was 16% at the time. This was more than double the rate at the beginning of the 20th century. This was mostly due do to the drop off in the practice of “shotgun” weddings. A shotgun wedding is one that happens immediately after an unmarried impregnation. The drop off accounted for over 75% of the increase in out of wedlock births.

Being raised by single parents does create issues for the child. They have higher rates of poverty, delinquency, and use of public assistance. They also have lower levels of educational attainment. What is less well understood is whether this is because of the illegitimacy itself of whether it relates more to the class of people involved. In Scandinavia for example the percentage of out of wedlock births are a big majority of births and yet wealth and education are at a high level and crime is low.

In any case it is not disputable that government promoting family unity was a failure. The illegitimacy rate in the USA is now over 40 % of all births. I guarantee that despite the fact that the rate of illegitimacy has continued to rise, the postal service would not repeat this type of issue.

Well my drink is empty so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. A stamp celebrating shotgun weddings would have more likely got my vote.  Issued a few weeks after Valentine’s Day? 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. Today we get to talk about a great organization that helped build communities in the USA and around the world and how it tries to find ways to continue as communities diversify and fragment.

This stamp is from mid 50s USA, a time when the USA was the world’s dominant superpower. This stamp sure shows it. An ancient Greek like strong arm holding a giant torch that shines it’s light on the whole globe that centers on the USA. Wow. I can see why this might rub some the wrong way. In terms of a time capsule from 60 years ago, one has to be impressed with the sheer audacity of having such confidence in ones ideals. That this is not a religious organization can even let the stamp take on a Ayn Rand look. No doubt this type of thing is what President Trump would hope make America great again could put back together. Or for that matter Putin in Russia. Not having much luck in either case, now days it just upsets too many people.

The stamp today is issue A513, an 8 cent stamp issued by the United States on February 23rd, 1955. It was a single stamp issue honoring the 50th anniversary of Rotary international. According to the Scott catalog, this stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used. I am not sure why the denomination is 8 cents when the first class postal rate was 3 cents, I doubt it was semi postal with the excess going to Rotary, the USA doesn’t do that.

The rotary club started when a group of businessmen began meeting weekly for lunch to socialize, network, and organize service opportunities for the community. It was called rotary because the meeting place would rotate. It was only open to males over 18 and membership was by invitation only. The motto was and is service above self. There were no racial or economic requirements for membership even in the early days. The idea caught on. By 1920 the organization was international with local clubs even in Calcutta and Shanghai.

Much good work was accomplished. Actions like scholarships and fighting illiteracy were common activities for local chapters. Speakers were often brought in to the weekly meetings to educate and interest the leaders involved in the club.  A wider mission of eradicating polio in the world saw over two billion babies inoculated with the vaccine developed in 1950s America.

As time past all this good work and fellowship were not enough to inoculate the organization as times changed. Woman were not allowed to join or attend the weekly meeting. Wives of members were allowed to participate in the quarterly socials and in club organized service missions. There was even a sub organization called the inner wheel for them. Even though there were many woman only service organizations that far predated the Rotary, a lawsuit was brought and the Supreme Court decided in the 80s the Rotary club must be open to female members. It was thought that the career benefits of the organization must be open to women. I don’t think it will really be a surprise that opening up to woman did not increase membership but rather made it decline. Fellowship is such an important part of the success of such an organization, forcing in people is the end of that. And less is around that binds a community together.

The rotary club continues it’s good work in slightly smaller form today. There was no USA stamp to honor the 100th anniversary of the organization in 2005. The Postal Service instead was celebrating Muppets, amber alerts, and xmas cookies around then. Lowered expectations I guess.

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

Today I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. The stamp today is issue A765 a depiction of the angel Gabriel from a van Eck painting. It is only worth 25 cents because a lot of people were still sending Christmas cards and letters in 1968. I sent mine this year I hope you did as well. If someone has an imperforate pair of this stamp it is worth $225. A version with the color yellow omitted is worth $50. After enjoying the holiday, 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 Tums and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We will pass on the adult beverage because the situation here would have benefited from more sobriety.

This stamp just did not age well. The old fashioned piggy bank did not fit the savings and loans of the go go eighties. In fact the times were the undoing of the savings and loan industry. Their undoing caused the nation to loose much wealth and perhaps cost the first President Bush his second term.

The stamp today is issue A1298, an 18 cent stamp issued by the USA on May 8th, 1981. It was a single stamp issue honoring the sesquicentennial of the Savings and Loan form of bank. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Savings and Loans are in theory a useful form of bank. In their most basic form, they borrow money from depositors at 3 %, make home mortgages at 6% and keep overhead under 2%. This works for everybody. A profit of 1% works out to 10% on a banks equity, so owners win. A decent return on deposits allows area older people to have a more comfortable and secure retirement without risk. Available mortgages allows responsible younger people to own homes to raise families and build wealth. Not many young people could have houses if they had to pay for them in full. 20 percent down can be done with a little saving and perhaps help from parents.

The inflation of the 1970s destroyed this model and eventually the saving and loans themselves. Inflation pushed up home prices and this pressured mortgage rates to compensate for the higher prices. Then the government raised interest rates dramatically to slow inflation and the economy. This forced the Savings and Loans to raise rates on deposits. This increased the wealth of some quite a bit. Their home value was much higher but their mortgage balance was still low and at a low rate agreed to long ago.

You perhaps can see the problem for savings and loans They are paying more for deposits but receiving the same old rate on the long term house mortgages. To counteract this, the savings and loans start making loans at higher rates to more risky real estate development. Developers than get the idea to start savings and loans themselves to fund their development projects. This was not going to end well.

End well it did not. The recession of the early nineties reduced real estate values and caused enough defaults on the risky loans to bankrupt the savings and loans. There was a government guarantee on the deposits at savings and loans and the government paid depositors in full in the middle of the recession, when government revenues are already depressed.  This contributed to a large deficit at the time and added to the belief that the first President Bush mismanaged the economy. After the bailout of depositors, the government got a little bit of a windfall as the foreclosed properties were sold off. Ironically, this made President Clintons recovery stronger. A similar thing happened in the later Obama years. Old bailouts from 2008-2009 were paid back making the deficit look better. This is over now so current President Trump  should be worried about the direction of the deficit.

After the nineties savings and loan crisis, the small surviving banks repackaged themselves as community banks but were never able to recapture the old financial model and many failed 2007-2012. Now again the survivors are repackaging themselves as credit unions without the profit motive. We will see how that turns out.

Well now I need a drink so I will turn over the conversation. For many years I was in this industry and a great believer in it but today find myself disillusioned and believing the lack of old fashioned banking will spell the death of many small towns as the next generation has no opportunity to stay. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

I wanted to wish everybody the best on Thanksgiving. I could not find a turkey, the animal, stamp but I thought this one fit nicely. It is issue A663 and reminds us that on Thanksgiving and every day we should be thankful of God’s bounty while remembering those less fortunate.

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 where we remember a civil rights leader from an important time in United States history.

The stamp today is from the Black Heritage series of USA stamps. There has been one a year of them since the late seventies. They are usually issued in January to be available in post offices during Black History month which is February. I especially like the early issues of the series as the often showed the subject looking up from his papers in a study. As if perhaps he is ready to discuss a stamp with The Philatelist.

The stamp is issue A1262, a 15 cent stamp issued on January 30th, 1981. As stated above it is the 1981 issue of the long running Black Heritage series of USA stamps. According to the Scott catalog, it is worth 25 cents in it’s used condition.

Whitney Young was the son of a black boarding school president and a postmistress in Kentucky. The school, Lincoln Institute, was formed by integrated Berea College as a way around mandated segregation laws in Kentucky that existed at the time. Whitney Young was also a graduate of the school. The school closed in 1966 after the desegregation laws then in effect was felt to leave the institution obsolete. The campus is now used as a government job corps center.

Whitney Young served in the wartime Army, married, and pursued academic opportunities. Soon he was dean of the Social Work department of traditionally black Atlanta University. Through this post he worked to bring more blacks in to the social work profession. To accomplish this goal he boycotted the professional organization of social workers in Georgia to pressure them to be more open to blacks.

At age 40 Mr. Young was made head of the National Urban League. During his tenure he greatly expanded the work of the organization. It went from 45 paid staffers to 1600. He worked hard through the institutions to open up opportunities for blacks.

In doing so, he somewhat became rather an institutional figure. He became close with higher ups of corporations, unions, and politicians. He was a major advocate for President Johnson’s expensive and failed war on poverty. He also controversially adhered to President Johnson’s pro Vietnam War policy, only to reverse course suddenly on the war when Nixon entered office. This can be a problem when you become a tool for one political party and forget who you are working for. Blacks were over represented in the conscripts sent to Vietnam and for the most part opposed it.

The esteem with which he was held by the establishment was shown when he died of a heart attack in Nigeria in 1971 while attending a conference there. President Nixon sent a government plane to pick up his remains and then gave a eulogy at his funeral. He has many monuments and schools named after him around the country which at least so far have not been attacked or threatened.

Well, my drink is empty on so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. Leaders like Mr. Young are not in fashion right now. Before they are condemned though, one should consider the real world help he gave individuals that were facing many barriers at the time. 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 where in my opinion the honor of this stamp would not have been appreciated and should not have been offered.

This is a good looking stamp. The color usage on American stamps was getting better in the early 70s and the size of the stamp was rising. This allowed more to be fitted in. At a glance one will just see the profile of Mr. Jeffers but a group of people and even a Burro have been included. This is perhaps to make the stamp more about the community in Carmel, California that Mr. Jeffers was a part of.

The stamp today is issue A899, a 8 cent stamp issued by the United States on August 13th, 1973. The stamp depicts the American poet John Robinson Jeffers. It was part of a four stamp issue featuring figures from the arts. According to the Scott catalog, it is worth 25 whether it is mint or used.

Robinson Jeffers came from a well off background that included much travel and educational opportunities. He ended up in southern California where he was studying biology. Here is also began an long term  affair with an older women named Una who was married to a prominent lawyer. The case became infamous and Una had to flee to Europe while the divorce case went through. The couple stayed together and Una became the wife of Mr. Jeffers.

The couple settled in Carmel by the sea, California were Mr. Jeffers had built a granite stone house named Tor house. As with much of Mr. Jefers’ life, breaking the rules had paid off. He later built a tower addition to the house called Hawks Tower. The home still stands and is a house museum.

Mr. Jefers began writing long form poetry on the nature of the area that kindly critics have related to Greek epics. In them nature is central and humans are evil. As might be expected, the prose did not include any meter as Mr. Jeffers felt that was an imposition of man on nature. After a while the works were well received by the east coast establishment. It must be remembered that during the 20s and the 30s the natural world of the west was unexperienced by most. So again a case where the rules are flouted and success follows.

Later work was less successful. Mr. Jeffers was opposed to American entry in World War II and later works became political screeds that were not well received. He died in 1962. He was recalled by some later as a progenitor of the environmental movement but he is not very prominent today.

I wonder why the postal service decided on Mr. Jeffers to be the poet in the arts issue. When one sets out to break rules, it seems strange that the establishment would then be dishing out rewards in response. It is safe to assume after all it is not what the artist was after.

You can probably guess that Mr. Jeffer’s poetry is not to my taste. I prefer the rules to be followed and proper meter takes more skill to write. Is it any wonder that so much of the great poetry came from long ago when rules were followed. Without it, it is just free form verse. All that said, I encourage you dear readers to read some of Mr. Jefers’ work. robinsonjeffersassociation.org has some samples.

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open the conversation in the below comment section. With only one stamp in the issue for a poet, who would you have picked? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Thanks to all who have served in the armed forces. Both here in the USA and all around the world.

This stamp is issue A376 and shows the famous picture of the flag being raised by the Marines on Iwo Jima. The picture is so iconic then and now because it shows the immense struggle and sacrifice when even a brave force faces tenacious defenders. A true mountain of sacrifice on both sides.

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 ground breaking treaty that seeks to prevent groundbreaking and how the USA celebrates the treaty while reserving the right to violate it.

The drawing of Antarctica on the stamp is not very well done and this is a missed opportunity. The USA will do very few stamps ever featuring Antarctica. To mess one up therefore is a serious offence. The territory that Britain claims, in violation of the spirit of the treaty, produces stamps that better show off the landscape most of us will never see.

The stamp today is issue C130, a 50 cent airmail stamp issued on June 1st 1991. It was a single stamp issue honoring the 30th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty. According to the Scott catalog, it is worth 45 cents cancelled.

The Antarctic Treaty was well worth celebrating in 1991 and every year. There were scientific stations popping up around Antarctica. These were set up by various countries and a few had started to make formal claims on land area in Antarctica. Antarctica has no native inhabitants and was an unspoiled and cold land. The nature of the expeditions of most of the countries involved service members and equipment from that nation’s military. The presence of armed men and conflicting claims potentially could have lead to an arms race and land grab.

This was a difficult issue to resolve. The 1950s were a time of cold war hostility. This was before there had been any treaty between East and West on arms limitations. There was one advantage however. The East was way behind the West in Antarctica and most of the claims were between a Great Britain that was sheading colonies rapidly and South American countries that could be expected to take the views of the Americans seriously.

The diplomats really did a masterful job with this treaty. All previous claims on Antarctica are frozen without any agreement to recognize them. Scientific outposts are allowed by all signatories of the treaty. Military members and equipment are allowed to be used but all signatories agree to leave them unarmed. All relevant nations signed the treaty and has such it was the first cold war arms control treaty.

The claims were frozen not ended. This was probably why the USA reserved the right to make a claim on Antarctica at a later date. The USA then and now possesses great expeditionary power projection military capability. This is beyond any other nation. So a threat to make a claim on Antarctica from the USA is potentially destabilizing. That has proved to be an effective tool to keep new claims from ruining the treaty. There is a annual meeting of signatories to address issues that come up. Lately they have mainly been about lessening the environmental impact of the outposts on Antarctica.

Well, my drink is empty and so I will pour another so I can raise it up in honor of the Antarctic Treaty and those hardy souls from the many nations that go there to learn more about the world around us. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.