Bobstamp
30 Dec 2020 03:25:52pm | re: What's your favorite stamp(s)?
Oh, too many! But you asked...
Canada's 1942 "Munitions" stamps. The Canadian wartime journalist and forward artillery observer, George Blackburn wrote a trilogy about his experiences in an artillery unit that used the famous 25-Pounder field gun, shown on this stamp. Under British/Canadian rules, a foreword observer, even if he was an enlisted rather than an officer, could call down fire on targets of his choice, which in Europe often were German tanks. Blackburn noted that American artillery officers would call a staff meeting to determine if a target was worthy of blowing to kingdom come. f I recall correctly, as many as 24 25-Pounders could concentrate fire on a single target, which rarely survived. The engraved stamp is incredibly detailed:
This Hungarian stamp (Scott C-156) pictures a Russian MiG-15 jet fighter, which was flow extensively in the Korean War by Russian, North Korean, and Chinese pilots, and was the standard fighter in all communist bloc countries. The stamp is relatively common in mint and CTO copies, but postally used ones? Rare as hens teeth. This is the only one I've seen in my life; I bought the mint "Aviation Day" set on approval, soon after it were issued in 1954:
I know, he cozied up to Hitler, but Charles Lindbergh will always be one of my heroes. The basic stamp, picturing his purpose-built Ryan aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was issued only a month or so after his world-changing solo trans-Atlantic flight in 1927
I can identify with this stamp, picturing a French paratrooper who has just floated down from the quiet sky into the deadly valley at Dien Bien Phu, where communist forces would overwhelm French defenders and end French colonialism in Southeast Asia. Just as the paratrooper shown on the stamp is looking over his shoulder with less than full confidence in his situation, for 37 days in South Vietnam in 1966, I looked over my own shoulder in hopes of avoiding any bullets with my name on them. Then on the 37th day, that bullet arrived, and I got to go home, almost but not quite missing my right leg!
Newfoundland was a British Colony, and Princess Elizabeth was only 6 years old when the portrait for this stamp was taken. She is now my queen, of course, which is something that as an American I could not possibly imagine. Then, in 1969, my wife and I moved to Canada and eventually became Canadian citizens.
I've always wondered what she was holding when the photograph was taken. I even wrote to the keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection to ask; the assistant to the "keeper" responded, saying she didn't know, but would look into it. But that was years ago, and I'm still wondering.
I was privileged in 1994 to be selected as one of two official photographers to tag around with Queen Elizabeth during her visit to Prince George, BC to officially open the new University of Northern BC. This is my best photo from that day:
And then there is Princess Grace of Monaco, who greatly disappointed me when she married that Ranier guy. Didn't she know that I was waiting to grow up so I could marry her? I bought a mint set of her wedding stamps on approval, and a few years ago added the airmail set. Here is the high-value stamp of that set:
I love the goofy, unflyable, Disneyish airplane shown on this Iceland stamp. Then there's the interesting spin on solar geography:I never knew that the sun rose (or set) over the North Pole!
Do I have to quit now? Well, OK, if you let me show you this privately printed Christopher Columbus tribute label was authorized for three days of use, in 1930, by the Spanish postal department. If there's ever been a better example of the engraver's art, I don't know what it could be. (Word of warning: mint copies of this stamp are coated with a thick, sticky gum that nearly defies removal. That wouldn't be a problem, except that, on my copies, the gum had caused the stamps in the set to roll themselves up into stiff, narrow tubes which seemed impossible to unroll without damaging them. I solved the problem by first soaking them for a long time in hot water, then gradually unrolling them and "shaving" the gum off with a sharp paring knife held at almost a vertical angle to the stamps. Took forever, but now that flat as a proverbial filberts.)
Bob
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