Big Blue 1840-1940

A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzabar

Saturday, August 24, 2024

Saar - Bud's Big Blue

Saar indicate by small red box (1)

Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Observations

Political control in Saarland’s hills and valleys, hotly disputed since the 17^th Century, has shuffled between French and German authorities, although the city of Saarbrücken and its surrounds have remained ethnically German.

Scott #s 6 and 7, orange and red, overprints in French

The two 20th Century political shifts occurred immediately following World Wars One and Two, both meant to punish Germany for its belligerence. In the first of these, the League of Nations governed the Saar Protectorate from 1919 until 1935, largely under French administration. German stamps were immediately overprinted with Sarre (the French word for the region) and a bar striking Deutches Reich. Bavarian stamps were also pressed into use. Subsequent stamps with original designs feature mainly the area’s industrial strengths – coal production, steel mills, river transport.

Scott #83 dark blue, red orange, and black

Among these is my favorite stamp. It depicts the blazing furnaces of the Burbach steel works at nighttime (#83).

Scott #s C5-C8, red, red orange, black, brown

In 1935, the people of Sarre were allowed to vote on which country would be their homeland, a plebiscite scheduled by the Versailles Treaty. Twenty-seven Saar stamps were overprinted “Volksabstimmund 1935” to help promote the event, all showing in the supplement, below, on home-made pages. A large voter turn-out resulted; more than 90.73 percent chose affiliation with Germany, a lop-sided victory for Hitler. The remaining votes were for the status quo (8.86 percent) and unification with France (0.40 percent). Thereafter, German Reich stamps were again used. For the years from 1919 to 1935, however, all Saar stamps can be regarded as League of Nations issues.

In 1946, following World War Two, France again took control of Saar (Protectorat de la Sarre). New stamps were issued, 179 of which have spaces provided in Big Blue, Parts 2, 3, and 4. In 1956, France agreed to return the Saar to (West) Germany whereupon it became a small federal state in Germany, a status that continues to today in reunited Germany.

Horseshoe bend in the River Saar (2)

Census: 132 in BB spaces, three tip-ins, 72 on supplement pages.

Notes:

1. https://www.nationsonline.org/map_small/Germany/Saarland_sm.jpg

2. ibid.

Jim's Observations

On January 30, 1920, stamps of Germany (1906-19) were overprinted "Saare" for the mandated territory. Seventeen major number stamps are found in the Scott catalogue, and CV ranges from <$1-$10+ for fifteen of them.

One will note, for Saar Stamps, that "used" often have a higher CV than "unused".

Overprint Types

The overprint is found with three types.
Type I: Larger letters, no control mark (short thin line) below bar.
Type II: Larger letters and control mark present.
Type III: Smaller letters and control mark present.

I find it is helpful to look at the "r" in "Saare". The "r" appears taller (2mm+) in Type I compared to Type III (2mm).

The Scott catalogue has Type I as major numbers, and Type II and Type III as minor numbers. Some of the minor numbers have a very high CV ($1,000+ !).

Saar Post & BB Checklist

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Supplements

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Comments appreciated!

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Russia - Bud's Big Blue

Scott #714, indigo and red

Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Observations

Some collectors love Russia’s stamps, others love to hate them. Whether you love or hate them likely depends on your views about Russia’s philatelic politics and propaganda.

In the 1920s, The Soviet government began aggressively selling stamps abroad, both to wrangle hard currency from collectors and to show off Russian progress – i.e., communist propaganda. The practice accelerated through the 1940s and 50s. High priced stamps were printed chiefly for the philatelic market and were rarely used for postage. Russian “cancelled-to-order” stamps (CTOs), philately’s strange label for stamps cancelled by governments and then sold at a discount to collectors, abound in most albums. Like many youthful collectors, I was seduced into thinking Russian CTOs were genuinely used stamps. Some of the CTOs scanned for this post have remained in my collection, with their tell-tale corner postmarks, since the late 1940s.

Scott #s 712, dark blue, and 724, rose red

If you revel in Soviet history or brutalist architecture and if you find these questionable practices unobjectionable, you’re probably among the lovers of Russian stamps. If not, you lean toward those who hate them. Maybe you resent the propaganda. Maybe you feel cheated by the Russian postal authorities. They issued too many stamps, not for legitimate postal use, but to rob our pockets.

Even TikTok posts opinions about Russian stamps (1).

A posting by TikTok’s Russian Stamp Guy

I strongly suspect that most collectors fall into one extreme or the other. Early on, I was a plain-spoken hater. Yet, over the years, I’ve become more restrained. Whether sham or legit, Soviet stamps merit more than scorn; they deserve at least minimal respect if not appreciation.

As Carlos Shoetzer points out in his small 1953 monograph (2), most stamps carry some sort of propaganda. Often it’s obscure. Stamps have a symbolic message intended to influence citizen’s and/or foreigner’s opinions. As official government documents, stamps parade great history, big accomplishments, and beautiful landscapes exactly as the government wants them to be seen. Wide dissemination of these tiny documents makes them ideal propaganda vehicles.

Shoetzer goes on to say the Russian stamps issued during the reign of Romanov tzars (until 1917) “could well be considered ‘dynastic propaganda’, as well as historic nationalist propaganda, because they symbolize the development and expansion of [pre-Bolshevik] Russian might”– think of the noble coats of arms and images of important historical persons. (3)

Scott # 54, black and yellow

These royalist themes extended, naturally, to the overprinted stamps for Russian foreign offices and satellite territories. Big blue has spaces for some of these.

Offices in China, Scott #s 4-6, red violet, dark blue, blue

During the revolution, the emerging Bolshevists revolutionaries and their various opponents – Army of the North, etc. – began issuing stamps with very different propaganda. Waring groups wanted to proclaim their messages and establish their legitimacy.

Soviet Federated Socialist Republic

Scott #s 149, blue. and 150, brown

Sword severing Tsarist bondage chains.

Army of the North, anti-Bolshevik

Once the communists were in firm control, two additional sorts of stamp propaganda emerged: one that celebrates workers, peasants and victorious Red soldiers. These are featured in the first Soviet definitives (1923) and reminded Russian citizens of their new reality. These were reissued through the 1920’s and 30s..

Scott #s 238-240

Red, brown, blue

Soldier, worker, peasant – beneficiaries of the revolution

Shortly thereafter, the onslaught of stamps meant for foreigner’s collections began. Designs exult revolutionary triumphs, Bolshevist flag-waving parades, agricultural and architectural ability, athletic talent, and the everyday prosperity of ordinary folk – all intended to persuade collectors abroad that a dynamic Russia was leading to world into a new and better age. Dealers and collectors bought these stamps in mass, but there is little evidence that the propagandists succeeded in their intent. They didn’t give up, though. For decades, they persisted “in record breaking speed” (4).

Scott # 730 copper red

Some years ago, I decided to replace the CTOs in my collection with mint examples. It quickly turned into an expensive venture. So, most of my original CTOs have stayed in my albums. And I’ve come to think of them as an amusing part of the story. On many Russian stamps, to be sure, the artwork is curiously attractive, exotic. But, be wary of hidden agendas.

Scott #s 343-344 and 302-303, black violet, dark green, red brow, and indigo

Vladimir Lenin, founder of Soviet government

Of course, Russia is not alone in using stamps as propaganda. All countries, including the United States, use stamps for tourist propaganda, economic propaganda – cultural, religious, nationalist, political, wartime, charitable, Eurocentric, colonial, royalist, and/or national boundary claim propaganda. Our albums are filled with miniature propaganda posters. Russia, and its stamp producing Soviet Bloc friends, differ from other countries only in their extensive efforts to influence (and profit from) outsiders.

Census: 617 in Big Blue pages, 20 tip-ins, 272 on supplement pages.

(1) See also: https://www.tiktok.com/@stampporn/video/7266882917740104966. Stampporn currently has 146 “followers.”

(2) The University of Connecticut copy of Carlos Shoetzer’s monograph Postage Stamps as Propaganda is available online at: http://davidsaks.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/propaganda.pdf

Carlos Shoetzer, Postage Stamps as Propaganda. Washington, D,C.: Public Affairs Press, (1953).

(3) Ibid., p.9.

(4) Ibid.

Jim's Observations

The 2011 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Russia 1857-1943, 1415 major descriptive numbers. Of those, 661 are CV <$1-$1+, or 46.7%. Of interest, commemoratives of the 1930s and air post issues generally have a higher CV.

Russia, like the U.S. or China, is a world to itself, and one could spend a lifetime studying the philatelic output. I should have 3-4 blog posts devoted to the stamps of Russia, but I will reluctantly have only one. So with the WW classical collector in mind, I will mostly focus on the trickier earlier Russian Empire issues.

For the last part, we will look at some forgeries of the 1919 Army of the North issues. (If interested, click on the link below.)

Russia Blog Post & BB Checklist

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