I am not a big fan of modern stamps. I try not to focus on anything past 1960 although my collection is starting to accumulate stamps past it. I don’t really go for the stamps who promote things like movies or celebrities but a stamp is a stamp and sometimes there’s a story to tell.
Back in 1981 when E.T. was in production the screenwriter, Melissa Mathison, wrote that M&Ms, then one of the most popular candies was also to be one of E.T.’s favorites.
The management disagreed saying “We don’t want an alien eating our candy” an “It might frighten kids”. They turned them down.
Still looking for a product placement substitute they turned to Hershey and specifically to Reese’s Pieces. Hersey paid nothing for product placement and agreed to cross promote the movie in their advertising for $1 million dollars.
E.T. went on to win 4 Academy awards and Reese’s Pieces sales skyrocketed. At the time it was called “The biggest marketing coup in history”.
Embarrassed by their decision, Mars, Inc. would go on to try and outdo it by placing M&Ms on the U.S. Space Shuttle and Spaceship One.
I originally posted this on Facebook but decided to put it here as well.
Burma #142
Useless stamp factoid of the day. Burma Shave, which was famous for it’s roadside advertising poems in the 1930’s, was named after the country of Burma because it was originally a liniment whose ingredients were imported from there.
I would write this stuff on my stamp blog but no one visits there so…. I will leave you with 2 original Burma Shave poems.
Does your husband Misbehave Grunt and grumble Rant and rave Shoot the brute some Burma-Shave
No matter How you slice it It’s still your face Be humane Use Burma-Shave
Burma is now called, Myanmar and this stamp feature a large bell which is frequently called “The Liberty Bell” (No, not the one in Philadephia) but is more properly identified as the Mingun Bell which is presently located in Mingun, Sagaing, Myanmar.
The Great Bell of Dhammazedi
I had originally posted I believed it to be the Great Bell of Dhammazedi, the largest cast bell to ever have been made. At 327.5 tons, it was stolen by a Portuguese warlord and was lashed to a raft tied to the back of his ship. The bell fell off the raft, sunk to the bottom of the river and is thought to be buried there in 25 feet of mud. As a humorous aside, the warlord’s ship was also sunk by the bell. Later he would be captured and impaled on a stake.
I was wrong. Very wrong.
Based on the photo I recently found I believe it is the Mingun Bell. The cross brace and figurines astride the top of the bell look more like the one depicted in the stamp.
Mingun Bell in 1873
Mingun Bell in 1896
The Mingun bell is 97.5 tons (199,999 pounds) and while no slouch in the huge bell department certainly can not compare to the Great Bell of Dhammazedi (which had a much more interesting story).
It was knocked down in 1893 by an earthquake so I wouldn’t let your kids play under it.
The Bell of Good Luck
It is not the biggest nor the heaviest bell. That title goes to the Bell of Good Luck located in Foquan Temple in Pingdingshan, Henan, China. It is close to the Spring Temple Buddha, the world’s tallest Buddha statue. It comes in at 116 tons.
But wait, there’s more. The Bell of Good Luck is the largest WORKING bell. The largest bell title, although not working, goes to the Tsar Bell in Moscow. While making the Tsar Bell a fire broke out in May 1737. Workers threw cold water on the bell to put out the fire and cracked it in 11 places.
The wooden supports holding the bell up also burned and it fell back into the casting pit. The Tsar Bell remained in its pit for almost a century. Unsuccessful attempts to raise it were made in 1792 and 1819. Napoleon Bonaparte, during his occupation of Moscow in 1812, considered removing it as a trophy to France, but was unable to do so. It was too heavy. Finally in 1936 it was lifted out an put on a pedestal.
The Tsar Bell
My apologies, again, for the mis-attribution (is that a word? Almost every temple in Burma (Myanmar) has a bell and I could find no explanation on what the stamp depicted.
To wrap things up, there was a tongue-in-cheek MAD Magazine article “Postage Stamp Advertising” where the concept was, ads could be placed on stamps to supplement the beleaguered US Postal Service. This is one of them.
Suriname is a small country on the northeastern coast of South America.
Suriname was visited by Spanish and Dutch explorers but the first attempt to settle in Suriname was by the English in 1630. An interesting historical aside comes, thanks to Lord Willoughby, the governor of Barbados, who in in 1650 decided to start his own colony there called Willoughbyland.
Montenegro is in South-eastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south and borders Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the north-west, Serbia to the north-east, and Albania to the south-east.
History
Montenegro (meaning black mountain) had been under the nominal rule of the Ottoman Empire since 1528. After the assassination of his Uncle, Prince Nikolas (Nicholas), who was then in Paris studying, assumed the title of Prince of Montenegro. He was 19 at the time and married the daughter of a Montenegran General named Milena who was to bear him 12 children.
The territory of the Kingdom of Prussia included the provinces of West Prussia; East Prussia; Brandenburg; Saxony; Pomerania; Rhineland; Westphalia; Silesia; Lusatia; Schleswig-Holstein; Hanover; Hesse-Nassau; and a small detached area in the south called Hohenzollern, the ancestral home of the Prussian ruling family.
Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese nobleman who was born around 1460. His father was the Governor of Sines, Portugal. Teixeira de Aragao, a Portuguese historian, suggested that he studied at the inland town of Evora, where he learned mathematics and navigation and he may have studied under the astrologer and astronomer, Abraham Zacuto .
On July 8, 1497, Vasco da Gama led a fleet of four ships with a crew of 170 men from Lisbon, Portugal in search of trade routes. The four ships sailed a distance of more than 10,000 kilometres for over three months. On the voyage two ships were lost and only 55 men returned.
Da Gama set sail on the first European voyage to India. On his journey, he made stops at Mozambique, Mombasa and Malindi. His voyage opened the first all-water trade route between Europe and Asia.
Vasco da Gama spent March 2nd to March 29th of 1498 on Mozambique. Fearing unfriendliness from the local population, da Gama impersonated a Muslim. Da Gama sent the Indian king four cloaks of scarlet cloth, six hats, four branches of corals, a box with seven brass vessels, a chest of sugar, two barrels of oil and a cask of honey. The kings men burst out laughing, pointing out that even the poorest Arab merchants knew that nothing less than pure gold was admissible at court. The kings stated that they could sell as ordinary merchants in the marketplace should they wish and dismissed them.
The local population became suspicious of da Gama and his men. This forced them to flee Mozambique, firing cannons into the city on their way out.
Arab traders had been trading in the area for years prior to da Gama’s arrival and the Chinese explorer Admiral Zheng He had landed there no less than seven times with up to 250 ships manned by 28,000 soldiers. It is not surprising that the King was not impressed.
The fleet arrived in Kappadu near Calicut, India, on May 20, 1498. After his reception at Mozambique, da Gama was nervous about leaving the ship so he sent a few of the lesser crew members out to swim ashore to read the mood of the natives. Later he was to go ashore himself in a very theatrical, choreographed entrance.
Vasco da Gama left Calicut (now Kozhikode) on August 29, 1498 Vasco da Gama commanded two more fleets to India.
His fleet on the second voyage consisted of 20 armed ships.
As is common, history tends to distort reality and ignore the cruelty that was the norm at the time. Da Gama was known to loot unarmed Arab ships including one carrying 400 pilgrims including 50 women and children. After taking what he wanted he locked them in the ship and set the ship on fire.
Another story has it that during his visit to Calicut he demanded that the King expel every Muslim from India. The King would refuse. In retaliation Vasco da Gama bombarded the city destroying many houses. He captured the crew of a rice vessel and cut off their hands, nose and ears. The King sent a priest to speak to Vasco da Gama but da Gama called him a spy and cut off his lips and ears. He then proceeded to sew a pair of dog ears onto his head.
While he is known as hero, he became one at the cost of innocent lives. In spite of all the time he spent away from home he managed to have six sons and a daughter. There is a crater on the moon named Vasco da Gama.
Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and 8th largest city in the European Union.
Note: The date above represents the date of the first issue of stamps and the last. Hamburg is very much alive and kicking as is, in theory, not a dead country although in the form in which these stamps were issued no longer exists.
Hamburg bounces around like a ping pong ball on fire so pay attention.
Reunion, 1933, Scott 131, 10c, “Salazie Waterfall”
Salazie Waterfall, locate in Reunion, is now called Brides Veil Falls most likely renamed to attract tourists with the below associated legend.
Many years ago, a rich man fell in love with a poor but beautiful, young girl. The girls’s father opposed the relationship but, despite the father’s robjection, they still decided to marry.
Upon learning this the father of the bride entered the church where the ceremony was taking place and, armed with a saber, tried to kill the groom.
Fleeing the church, the bride slipped and fell from the mountain. Her veil was said to have hung from the rocks as she plummeted into the canyon. The groom is said to have sat there and wept, his tears falling and forming the waterfall.
A similar legend, and waterfall, is the tallest free-falling falls in Colorado is also called Brides Veil Falls. Utah, Oregon and North Carolina also have them. Seems as if lots of brides fall into waterfall lined chasms on their wedding day.
The crown of Portugal appears in the first stamps of Angola in 1870-1877. Interestingly, they aren’t the originals. The crown jewels of Portugal have been sold off and stolen quite a few times.
King António
In 1581 King António ( he was King of Portugal for 33 days in 1580) fled to France after King Philip I was made the King of Portugal and took the crown jewels with him. His plan was to reclaim the throne of Portugal and depose Philip I, To do so he wanted Frances support and sold or gave them some of the pieces. Things didn’t work out the way he would have liked and he ended up selling all of them.
During the Portuguese Restoration War, João II of Braganza sold many of the Portuguese Crown Jewels to finance the war with Spain and in 1755 the Great Lisbon earthquake destroyed Lisbon and the Paço da Ribeira, the Portuguese royal residence of the time. With the destruction of the palace, innumerable pieces of the Portuguese Crown Jewels of the time were destroyed, lost, or stolen.
The crown of King John VI
The crown shown on the stamp is from the reign of John VI of Portugal (1818 – 1825) who had it remade. John VI was a bizarre man. He hated physical activity, suffered bouts of depression, suffered panic attacks when he heard thunder and barricading himself in his room with the windows shut. He also lived in his coat, refusing to take it off and even slept in it. Seamstresses would mend it while he slept in it.
In 2002 a large part of the Portuguese Crown Jewels were stolen from the Museon in The Hague, where they were on loan for an exhibition on European Crown Jewels. They have not been retrieved and the Dutch government paid a six million euros to the Portuguese government for reparation. Since then the Portuguese Crown Jewels are currently kept in a secured vault at the Ajuda National Palace, in Lisbon.
A unique feature of the crown is that it is composed only of pure gold and red velvet, without a single precious stone or gem.
Lourenco Marques was a Portuguese colonial province and is located in southeast Africa in the southern portion of Mozambique. It is presently known as Maputo.
Lourenco Marques was a Portuguese trader and explorer who was sent from Mozambique Island in 1544 to investigate two rivers to the south. He reported that beads could be traded for ivory and also that there were numerous herds of elephants in that area. Initially the bay was named after him.
The Portuguese began sending trading vessels from Mozambique Island but did not really venture far inland. A small fort was built but came under attack and was abandoned. Later another fort and trading post was built, named La Goa, which was manned by a single Catholic Friar and a few merchants. This was soon abandoned as well because of an entirely different reason…. swarms of mosquitoes.
