It is Day 102 of the war with Iran (the war that is not a war, right?).
More than two months have passed since Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire.
We’ve been hearing every few days that the two sides are close to a deal .. but besides the Strait of Hormuz, there is the issue of Iran’s nuclear program and the spillover skirmishes and strikes elsewhere in the Middle East.
We’ve also been hearing that the price of oil may hit $150 per barrel ‘soon’, but instead it has stuck to a price ranging from $80 to $100.
Economists talk of ‘demand destruction’: if the world learns how to get by with 15 million fewer barrels of oil per day, the price of oil may not go up by much more. (The world consumes about 103 million barrels of petroleum and liquid fuels every day).
Reporting from the New York Times about the sea drones that rescued the two pilots from the helicopter that was shot down. The sea drones are officially ‘Task Force 59 unmanned surface vessels’. The U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter was struck and brought down by an Iranian Shahed one-way attack drone while patrolling international waters off the coast of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz.
Happy Friday.
I’m reading up about the stamps from Greenland that had I bought at the stamp show from a friendly guy from Nuuk, at the Greenland booth at the stamp show.
2025 The 75th Anniversary of the SIRIUS Patrol Issued Jan. 31, 2025 Perf. 13 | Design: Miki Jacobsen | 40 mm x 30 mm | Offset Lithography | Printing: Gutenberg AG | Paper: FSC SecurPost 110g/ m2 | No watermark 01100788 19.00 Kr | Multicolored | SIRIUS Patrol with provisions and dog sled
The headquarters of the SIRIUS patrol is Daneborg, located on the east coast of Greenland, close to 74 degrees north latitude. The headquarters is completely cut off from the outside world. To get there, you have to fly in a small propeller plane from Iceland. At the station, twelve men and 80 sled dogs are each other’s only company for a radius of about 250 kilometers. There are not many distractions outside of work. There is mail from home six to seven times a year. SIRIUS’ northernmost station is called Station Nord. Five men are stationed here year-round. The main task is to keep a large runway free of ice, but there are also many other tasks. On the patrols, the menu is freeze-dried food, powdered milk, chocolate and rye bread, but after arriving at the station, there is food in abundance, as well as videos, music and even a shower. Everything is in sharp contrast to the patrols’ harsh living conditions. Station Nord is therefore a very popular place to stay for the patrols. In a modern era, when surveillance of Northeast Greenland could easily be carried out using satellites or aircraft, the SIRIUS patrol may seem redundant. However, the fact is that, according to international conventions, sovereignty can only be enforced by entering the areas that a country possesses. So the unique Danish military unit will probably continue to operate in Greenland’s northernmost regions in the future. [Sources: stampworld.com, stamps.gl/greenland-collector, Google AI]2025 Greenlandic Dog Sleds Issued Jan. 31, 2025 Perf. 13 | Design: Konrad Nuka Godtfredsen | 56 mm x 33 mm | Offset Lithography | Printing: Gutenberg AG | Paper: FSC SecurPost 110g/ m2 | No watermark 895 AEK 3.00 Kr | Multicolored | East Greenlandic sled 896 AEL 38.00 Kr | Multicolored | Greenlander with East Greenlandic sled [Sources: stampworld.com, Google AI]2025 EUROPA Stamps – National Archaeological Discoveries Issued May 26, 2025 Perf. 13 | Design: Maya Sialuk Jacobsen | 30 mm x 40 mm, 40 mm x 30 mm | Offset Lithography | Printing: Gutenberg AG | Paper: FSC SecurPost 110g/ m2 | No watermark 902 AER 25.00 Kr | Black and white | Boy with animal skin clothing from the Thule culture More: Qilakitsoq is an abandoned Inuit settlement on the Nuussuaq Peninsula on the West coast of Greenland, about 450 km north of the Arctic Circle. The settlement is renowned for the discovery of eight mummified bodies from the Thule culture in 1972. The discovery was made by two local reindeer hunters, Hans and Jokum Grønvold. In two graves were the mummies of six women and two boys. They comprise three generations with close familial links across the graves. Although the causes of death are unknown, they probably died at the same time in the Autumn shortly after arriving at the Winter settlement. They were wrapped in animal skins and fully clothed. They were equipped for a long journey to the underworld, carefully prepared according to ancient, traditional rites. They had extra skins and clothing to afford them a safe journey and a good life in the realm of the dead. The five oldest women have almost identical facial tattoos that can express both kinship and social status. The youngest woman of about 20 years is not tattooed. Perhaps she was either unmarried or childless. Tattoos have been in common use among Inuit women for thousands of years. There were amulets on and among their clothing. The Inuit probably employed these amulets to muster strength and protection from evil spirits. The mummies from Qilakitsoq have since afforded valuable insights into the life of the Inuit who lived in the area some 500 years ago. The stamp reproduces the most recognisable and most iconic of the eight mummies. It is presumed to be a small boy of about six months. While the gender is based on the clothing, the age has been ascertained from the development of teeth and bones through radiographic examination.
903 AES 28.00 Kr | Black and white | The Kingittorsuaq rune stone More: The Kingittorsuaq rune stone was found in 1824 by a man called Pelimut. The discovery was made on top of the mountain on the small island of Kingittorsuaq about 20 km north of Upernavik. At the highest point of the island, he saw three collapsed cairns placed in a triangle formation. Near the largest of the cairns, he spotted a stone with several markings that he did not recognise. The stone, which is known as the Kingittorsuaq Runestone, bears medieval rune inscriptions. It is conclusive evidence that Norsemen in Greenland on their fishing trips along the West coast of Greenland reached as far North as North of the present-day town of Upernavik. The stone, which currently resides in the National Museum in Copenhagen, has been dated to the Middle Ages between 1250 to 1333 AD. The last part of the runic script remains undecipherable as it appears to be a group of meaningless characters. However, the first part of the writing on the runestone translated from Old Norse reads: “Erling, son of Sigvath and Baarne Thordar’s son and Enriði Á’s son, on Saturday before Rogation Day raised this stone and rode…” [Sources: stampworld.com, europe-stamps.blogspot.com, Google AI]2025 Dove of Peace Issued Sep. 12, 2025 Woven cloth with embroidery | 100% Recycled polyester | 55 mm x 42 mm | Mfg. by Hämmerle & Vogel (Austria) | Self-adhesive 909 AEY 75 Kr | Stylized, white-and-blue embroidered dove carrying an olive branch Part of an international joint initiative where multiple postal services worldwide issued identical embroidered stamps. It features the exact same dove motif across over a dozen postal organizations (including the UN, Switzerland, Austria, and the Faroe Islands) with only the country name and local currency varying. [Sources: stampworld.com, Google AI]2026 Boston World Expo Issued May 23, 2026 Perf. 13 | Two stamps in minisheet (140 mm x 80 mm) | Design: Martin Mörck | Stamps 40 mm x 30 mm | Offset Lithography | Printing: Gutenberg AG | Paper: FSC SecurPost 110g/ m2 | No watermark 01100819 25.00 Kr | Multicolored | Leif the Lucky’s discovery of Vinland* 01100820 37.00 Kr | Multicolored | Thor Solberg’s flight aboard the Leif Eriksson biplane**
*Leif Eriksson, also known as Leif the Lucky, was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus did. Vinland is the coastal region of North America (Newfoundland & eastern Canada) explored and temporarily settled by Norse Vikings around 1000 CE. **Thor Solberg was a Norwegian-born aviation pioneer who made the first successful flight from the United States of America to Norway in 1935. He made the journey, which started in New York City, in an open-cockpit single-engine aircraft with no landing instruments. [Sources: stampworld.com, stamps.gl/greenland-collector, Google AI]
I’m going to have to find another way to get my summary of the day’s calamities, now that the Stephen Colbert Show is over.
(Background: The cancellation announcement in July 2025 closely followed a legal settlement in which CBS paid Donald Trump $16 million over a controversial 60 Minutes interview. Because Colbert was a relentless and high-profile critic of the Trump administration, many media critics and fans speculated the cancellation was tied to political and corporate dynamics. At the time of the announcement, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, was navigating a complex, multibillion-dollar merger that required government approval from the Trump administration — Google AI Overview).
Here is how Edward Norton (American actor and filmmaker), described the difficulty for the individual following the news, on the Stephen Colbert Show, Mar. 18, 2026.
“The anxiety of these times is particularly intense right now. We know the world is effed up in ways that are unprecedented in our lifetimes. We live in this unbelievable onslaught of information. We see genocide being livestreamed to us. We see American citizens being killed by paramilitary people in our own streets for standing in solidarity with their neigbors. We’re seeing Epstein’s abuses titrated to us on a daily basis. And it is such a conundrum, because we know – we know there is a value, we know that it is good in some ways to know what is exactly happening, to know what is happening in Gaza, to know what is happening in Ukraine and Sudan and Minneapolis, but at the same time it is very difficult to know what we as an individual person can do about all of that while moving through our day.”
It is Memorial Day here in the United States— the day dedicated to honoring and mourning military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.
The Boston Fire Department Engine 4 Ladder 24 at 200 Cambridge Street has the old Stars and Stripes with 13 stars in a circle, on the fire station doors. The 13 original colonies, or states, were: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island. This flag was adopted in 1777, and replaced in 1795 by one with 15 stars on.
The site of the Boston Tea Party incident is a short walk from the Convention Center.
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest on December 16, 1773, where American colonists, frustrated by British “taxation without representation,” destroyed 342 chests of tea. Led by the Sons of Liberty and disguised as Mohawk warriors, the group dumped $1.7 million worth of British East India Company tea into Boston Harbor.
The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum had already closed for the day when I got there last night.
I took a few pictures and then walked to South Station at 700 Atlantic Avenue. It is a large train station that serves the MBTA Subway, bus lines and an Amtrak line.
The site of the Boston Tea Party in Boston harbor.The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum.A block of four 1973 stamps to commemorate the Boston Tea Party.A modern walkway and arches leading to South Station. The tall skyscraper above South Station is the South Station Tower. Standing at 690 feet tall with 51 stories, it is the sixth-tallest building in Boston.The main entrance into South Station, at the corner of Summer St and Atlantic Avenue.The main lobby inside South Station.I took the Red Line with three stops to Charles/ MGH* station. *Massachusetts General Hospital.The Puffers Building, located at 214-218 Cambridge Street in Boston’s Beacon Hill, is a historic Queen Anne-style brick building built in 1899. Financed by carbonated beverage magnate Alvin D. Puffer, the building originally functioned as sweatshops employing newly arrived immigrants in the West End’s cigar-making industry. – Google AI Overview/ Boston Women’s Heritage TrailAnd here is what must be one of the orginal Massachusetts General Hospital buildings. Founded in 1811, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is the third-oldest general hospital in the United States and the original, largest teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. Conceived to treat Boston’s sick and impoverished, MGH has grown into a world-renowned biomedical research and clinical care center.
I attended the opening ceremony of the Boston 2026 World Expo stamp show, and spent the best part of the day looking at the displays, and checking out the offerings from the vendors. (And making a few acquisitions— nothing too extravagant).
There was a little pomp and ceremony during the opening of the exhibition. A marching band called the Concord and Acton Minutemen came in. They performed the national anthem for us, and then marched out. Lexington is known for Lexington Common, or Battle Green, where the first shot of the American Revolutionary War was fired. This picture is from the end of the opening ceremony, with the unveiling of ten new stamps issued by the United States Postal Service, called Treasures of the Revolutionary Era. On the stage are several dignitaries of the Expo, of the USPS and the Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (The Honorable Kim Driscoll).A view of the main exhibition hall as one descends down the escalator from the main lobby. There are some 10,000 exhibits with a total of 4,000 frames, each with 16 pages, on display. An estimated inventory of some $10 million worth of stamps are for sale at the booths of the vendors and at the auctions that will be held.The USPS is a major sponsor of the show and there were long lines at the counters in the morning.Prints of about 2 ft x 3 ft of stamps of the world adorn the panels that form the spaces on the floor of the exhibition center. I still have to track down the ones depicting stamps from South Africa. (Do you know where in the world Zanzibar is?)An offering for serious collectors that also have deep pockets: a whole sheet of the 1918 issue of USA airmail stamps, 24c apiece, can be yours for $13,000.The 24c airmail stamp from the previous picture was printed in separate runs for the red link and blue ink. On one AND ONLY ONE SHEET, the Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplane was accidentally printed upside down. These stamps are called the 1918 24¢ “Inverted Jenny”. When this single sheet of 100 Inverted Jenny stamps was purchased by William T. Robey in May 1918, it was quickly sold to stamp dealer Eugene Klein. Klein then sold the intact sheet to the eccentric multimillionaire collector Colonel Edward H. R. Green. Colonel Green instructed Kleinto break the sheet up into single stamps and smaller blocks. While most of the sheet was split into individual singles, Green deliberately kept the most important positional units intact. The Centerline Block of Four is shown in this picture: Taken from the exact center of the original sheet of 100, this block features the horizontal and vertical guide lines used by the printers. This unique centerline block survived intact and sold at a Spink auction in 2019 for $1,740,000.The famous Cape of Good Hope stamp from the Cape Colony in South Africa, issued 1853 to 1864. It was the world’s first triangular stamp. This panel is part of a thematic collection of triangular stamps of the world.And here is the stamp that started it all: the 1840 Penny Black issued in the United Kingdom. These were imperforate and cut apart with scissors. This is one has four full margins around the edges of the stamp. The display envelope with the stamp on goes for $295. So far I have resisted the temptation to buy one!
Happy Friday.
Trump is back from China, where he tried hard to undo the catastrophic damage of his trade war— the one that he had started last year in April.
The headline of the order for 200 Boeing jets looks good, but the article mentions that Boeing was hoping for an order of up to 500 jets.
Front page of the Seattle Times today.
I asked Google AI to summarize the trip for me— what is publicly known about it, anyway.
At the bottom: “Highlighting deep-seated paranoia over Chinese surveillance, White House staff immediately confiscated and threw away all Chinese-issued credentials, delegation pins, and burner phones before anyone was permitted to board Air Force One to return to Washington.”
I bought a large batch of Japanese stamps from an Ebay seller.
These are from 1981, and depict the very first stamps issued by the Imperial Japanese Post (today simply called Japan Post).
Japan’s first postage stamps, known as the “Ryu” (dragon) stamps, were issued on April 20, 1871.
These imperforate, hand-engraved stamps featured dragon designs and used “Mon” currency.
It would be nice to own just one or two of the original dragon stamps, but man! they are listed for anything from $500 to several thousand dollars on Ebay.
Then you have to take really good care of this little square of paper.
Also: a lot of well-made forgeries are floating around.
Some sellers offer authentication certificates, but can even those be trusted?
1981 International Stamp Exhibition “PHILATOKYO ’81” Tokyo, Japan— Stamps on Stamps from 1871 Issued Oct. 9, 1981 Perf. 13 | Photolithography and engraving | No watermark 1481 A1063 60y Multicolored with vermillion 1871 stamp of pair of dragons facing characters of value 200 mon 1482 A1063 60y Multicolored with brown 1871 stamp of pair of dragons facing characters of value 48 mon 1483 A1063 60y Multicolored with yellow green 1871 stamp of pair of dragons facing characters of value 500 mon 1484 A1063 60y Multicolored with blue 1871 stamp of pair of dragons facing characters of value 100 mon [Sources: 2021 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol. 4A, stampworld.com, Google AI]
I am expanding my collection of stamps from Japan, and have bought some older ones on Ebay recently.
I love the graphic design of this one.
Check out its interesting history in the caption below.
Japan, 1923 ‘Earthquake Stamps’ Issued Oct. 25, 1923 Imperforate | Offset lithography | Granite paper with colored fibers, parallel lines watermark | No gum 183 A51 4 sen Gray-green | Mount Fuji, cherry blossoms and dragonflies around the Imperial Chrysanthemum Seal (the 16-petal flower at the top center) Text on the stamp: 日本郵便 Nippon Yūbin (Japan Postal Service) 四錢 Yon Sen (or Shi Sen) 4 Sen, equal to 1/100th of a Yen [Sources: 2021 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 4A, Google AI]
Historical Background These stamps were created following the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1, 1923, which devastated Tokyo and Yokohama. The disaster destroyed the government’s Printing Bureau, along with its stamp-making equipment and stored inventory. To maintain postal services during reconstruction, the government commissioned a private corporation to produce these emergency definitives. Unlike standard stamps of the time, these were issued imperforate (no holes) and without gum (adhesive) on the back due to the emergency conditions. They were used until April 30, 1925, after the Printing Bureau was restored.
Reporting by Josh Holder, Adina Renner and Blacki Migliozzi for the New York Times:
On Monday, the United States imposed its own naval blockade, intent on ending Iran’s dominance of the waterway and cutting off its oil income by blocking all traffic to and from its ports.
More than 12 American military vessels were stationed in international waters in the Gulf of Oman, beyond the strait, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. And the military is likely monitoring the region from a distance, using radar, patrol aircraft and drones, said Jennifer Parker, a former naval officer now at the University of Western Australia’s Defense and Security Institute.
Since the U.S. blockade took effect, no ships linked to Iran have been spotted leaving the region, according to the vessel‑tracking company Kpler.
Headlines, images and captions below are from the New York Times:
U.S. And Iran Fail to Agree on Peace Deal After 21 Hours of Talks, Vance Says
Vice President JD Vance said the Iranian delegation had not accepted American terms for ending the war after a marathon, face-to-face session in Pakistan.
– Headline and reporting from the New York Times
A report from Farnaz Fassihi on the New York Times live blog.
I was very relieved late last night, to learn that the US airman whose fighter jet had been shot down* had been rescued out of Iran.
*We subsequently learned he is an Air Force colonel, actually.
But then Sunday morning came, and here is whatGreg Jaffe, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt and Julian E. Barnes reports for the New York Times:
The moment of celebration seemed to pass quickly for Mr. Trump, who on Easter Sunday morning returned to the reality of an unpopular war for which he seemed to have no clear exit strategy. The airman was safe, but the Strait of Hormuz was still in Iranian control, imperiling as much as 20 percent of the world’s oil supply and the global economy.
Mr. Trump had tried bullying America’s allies in Europe and Asia to come to his aid, but his entreaties were ignored.
So he threatened Iran’s leaders in an angry and profane social media message.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.
The four weeks of war with Iran have now turned into a month.
So now we have started to count the war time with Iran in months.
Catastrophic miscalculation when it comes to Iran goes back all the way to the 1978–1979 Iranian Revolution*, argues Scott Anderson in his book published a few months ago.
*The 1978–1979 Iranian Revolution was a populist uprising that toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s absolute monarchy, ending 2,500 years of imperial rule and establishing an Islamic Republic.
This book by veteran war journalist Scott Anderson came out in August 2025 (so after the June 2025 bombing by the U.S. of Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan).
Scott Anderson’s take of the current situation, during an interview with him on CNN today, were more or less as follows: “(Members of) The Revolutionary Guard are not going to negotiate. They have nowhere to go. They are hated by the people. Their backs are to the wall. I feel there is a huge element of wishful thinking in this (by the Trump Administration): ‘Maybe if we talk to moderate people, maybe that empowers them somehow.’ I am not even convinced that they’re taking to many people at all. Five days ago Trump was saying we’re very close to a deal, and then the Iranian foreign minister said ‘We’re not talking to the Americans at all.’ Time is on the Iranians’ side. Who has to cut a deal here quickly? I think it’s Trump. He’s seeing his favorability ratings go down by the day. That’s going to increase, the longer the oil crunch happens, and as inflation spreads through the whole economy. They can wait this out. Trump is the guy who needs a settlement soon.”
Here in Seattle, we gathered at Cal Anderson Park at noon.
There were a few speeches, and then the crowd made its way along Pine Street, past the Seattle Convention Center and on to Seattle Center.
My two amigos and I made it to the Convention Center, from where we surveyed the long parade of protesters and their signs that kept on coming.
From the New York Times, with reporting by Tony Romm, Isabel Kershner, David E. Sanger, Javier C. Hernández and Johnatan Reiss:
Oil prices surged to $119 a barrel on Thursday, an increase of nearly 10 percent, before settling at $108.65. Ground troops: During a meeting with the Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, in the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr. Trump was asked about using ground troops in Iran. He said: “I’m not putting troops anywhere. If I did, I wouldn’t tell you.” Missile attacks: Strikes on Wednesday and Thursday hit the Ras Laffan energy hub in Qatar, reducing the country’s natural gas export capacity by 17 percent and causing an estimated loss of $20 billion in annual revenue, according to Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, the country’s energy minister and head of QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy company. He said damage from missiles would take three to five years to repair and would affect supply to markets in Europe and Asia. Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said that the country reserved the right “to take military actions if deemed necessary” to protect itself from Iranian attacks. Death tolls: Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations said last week that at least 1,348 civilians had been killed since the start of the war. On Wednesday, a Washington-based human rights group, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, reported that at least 1,369 civilians had been killed. The number of Lebanese killed rose to more than 1,000, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday. At least 14 people have been killed in Iranian attacks on Israel, officials have said. The American death toll stood at 13.
I spend a lot of time scrolling through the listings of stamps and postcards online. Here is a postcard with a photo from Tel Aviv, Israel (circa 1942) that I find very interesting.
King George Street (named after King George V) is an iconic road in central Tel Aviv. In 1942, Tel Aviv was part of Mandatory Palestine, a territory administered by the British under a League of Nations mandate from 1920 to 1948. During this period, Tel Aviv was a rapidly growing Jewish city adjacent to Jaffa. The entire region was known as Palestine, not as the state of Israel, until 1948.King George Steet—a July 2022 image from Google Streetview. There are still Palestinians living in Tel Aviv, specifically in the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo, with most residing in Jaffa (Yaffo). Palestinians make up 4 to 5% of the city’s population. These are largely Palestinian citizens of Israel (or Arab-Israelis) who remained after 1948, rather than residents from the occupied West Bank or Gaza. Palestinian citizens of Israel possess legal rights such as voting and holding office, but do not have the same, equal rights as Jewish citizens in practice or law. While holding citizenship, they face systemic inequalities, discrimination in housing, land access, and education, and are governed by laws privileging Jewish citizens, such as the controversial 2018 Nation-State Law. Palestinian citizens of Israel (Arab citizens of Israel) hold Israeli passports, which allow them to travel internationally and access the same rights as other Israeli citizens. Their rights are distinct from Palestinians in East Jerusalem, who are generally permanent residents without Israeli citizenship or passports.The stamp on the postcard was first issued in 1927, and still in use in 1942. It depicts Rachel’s Tomb— a site revered as the burial place of the Biblical matriarch Rachel. The site is also referred to as the Bilal bin Rabah mosque. The tomb is held in esteem by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It is located at the northern entrance to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, next to the Rachel’s Tomb checkpoint. This stamp’s denomination is 10 mil, 10/1000ths of a Palestine pound (£P) which was pegged 1:1 to the British pound at the time. So one penny’s worth of postage was good for sending the postcard down to South Africa. The number 39 is a unique identifier for the individual censor from the Royal Air Force or the specific censorship unit that examined and approved the message.
The sender was a Harold McMaster, on active duty in the British Army. (The British Army controlled Palestine in 1942 as part of the British Mandate, which lasted from 1920 to 1948.) It certainly seems that Mrs. McMaster that resided in Vereeniging, South Africa, was his mom, or at least a close family member. At the time there were lots of South Africans of British descent, and of Jewish descent, residing in South Africa (and there still are, to this day).
I bought this set of stamps in Singapore.
It is a 2024 joint issue of stamps from ten ASEAN* countries. (Different stamps for each country but issued on the same day).
*Not, not Asian— ASEAN: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
It is a regional intergovernmental organization established on August 8, 1967, to promote economic growth, social progress, cultural development, and regional peace. It comprises 11 member countries—Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Timor-Leste.
The theme for the joint issue is not super-exciting: general post office buildings.
Some of the stamps have cool security features, though.
And I was reminded where in the world the Brunei is.
Here’s tiny Brunei (pop. 462,000), on the island of Borneo. It is a fabulously rich country, wealthy from oil and gas. From Google: Brunei is a tiny nation on the island of Borneo, in 2 distinct sections surrounded by Malaysia and the South China Sea. It’s known for its beaches and biodiverse rainforest, much of it protected within reserves. The capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, is home to the opulent Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah mosque and its 29 golden domes. The capital’s massive Istana Nurul Iman palace is the residence of Brunei’s ruling sultan..Shining a UV light on the stamp from Brunei reveals the logo from Brunei Postal Services on the stamp.The paper used for the stamp from Indonesia has fibers in that lights up under UV light.The image of the Grand Postal Building in Bangkok is embossed on the stamp .... and the paper also has fibers in that lights up under UV light.The stamp from Malaysia has a watermark that shows up only under UV light. The SPM lettering is an abbreviation for Security Printer of Malaysia. The SPM watermark has been applied a long time on stamps from Malaysia, and is found on stamps as early as 1986.
German stamp album publisher Leuchtturm generally did a great job with their preprinted stamp album for South Africa. They followed a minimalist, clean layout without the year of issue only, and no descriptions for what the stamps commemorate.
On some pages like the first two below, for example, several versions of the same stamp exist, but there is place for only one. (The stamps were issued on on different types of paper, or with different watermarks, for example.)
So I added a page into my album with the sets that had stamps with multiple versions.
P.S. That monument on the green 4c stamp is in my hometown of Vereeniging. Its inscription says ‘Wounded but invincible’. Sculptor Coert Steynberg is shown working on it (it was unveiled in 1961).
The monument commemorates the Treaty of Vereeniging, a peace treaty, signed on 31 May 1902, that ended the Second Boer War between the South African Republic and the Orange Free State on the one side, and the United Kingdom on the other.
..If one looks closely at the stamps with the mail coach, or the transmission tower, or the green ones with the monument, one can see that the colors are different. That is because the stamps were printed on different types of paper.
It just happened to be Día de la Bandera— National Flag Day— today here in Mexico.
While catching the sunset at the Olas Altas beach by Centro de Mazatlán, we spotted the giant Mexican flag on the flagpole way down along the promenade (the far left in the second picture)—a rare treat since it’s only up a few days each year.
We reached it in the nick of time, just as the flag was being lowered and taken away.
P.S. Built in the early 1920s (often cited as 1919–1920) by Californian Louis Bradbury, Hotel Belmar is Mazatlán’s original oceanfront hotel, representing the city’s golden age. Located on the Olas Altas boardwalk, it was a 1940s/50s hot spot for Hollywood stars like John Wayne and Lucille Ball, known for its elegant, historic, and slightly bohemian atmosphere.
