Get Your Portrait on a Stamp 1860's Style!

The first friction matches were invented in 1826. by John Walker, an English chemist and apothecary. They quickly caught on in the United States as an easy way to light lamps fueled by whale oil, which were much more reliable and neater than candles. Different chemicals were used to provide a surface that would catch fire when struck along a rough surface.

White phosphorus was commonly used in matches during much of the 19th century but it posed a danger because of a tendency to ignite when exposed to air. The discovery of red phosphorus (which is actually white phosphorus that has degraded) in the 1850's provided an alternative but white phosphorus continued to be used for much of the 19th century.

White phosphorus posed health risks for employees at match factories. In 1888 the London match girls strike raised awareness of the health risks to women working in match factories.

American entrepreneurs, looking to make a profit from the need for matches, invested in the industry and the race was on.

Matches were one of the proprietary products taxed by the Federal government, along with patent medicines, playing cards, and legal documents. Because of the proliferation of match manufacturers the government allowed for proprietary stamps to be designed and produced by manufacturers with the official approval of designs.

In typical grandiose 19th century style manufacturers of matches put their engraved portraits on the proprietary stamps to mimic U.S. postal stamps. The heroic portrait stamps of match manufacturers, posing as if they were U.S. presidents or war heroes, creates a small but colorful subset of U.S. postal history. They took advantage of the tax requirement and turned it into a way to enhance their advertising. Below is a sampling of these stamps.

E. K Smith used Benjamin Franklin's portrait with his own name!

1923: The Rise of Fascism, Economic Collapse and Hyperinflation in Germany

 At the end of World War I in 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and in November 1918 a new republic was established in Weimar  it was not the capital but historians generally refer to it as the Weimar Republic  one of the biggest challenges the new government faced was organizing its gargantuan war debt. The debt was burdened further because the Kaiser's government had released the mark from the gold standard, making it free floating. The government also decided to entirely fund the war effort by borrowing. By the end of the war the war debt came to 156 billion marks. To add to Germany's financial woes the war reparations due in 1921, totaling 112 billion marks. The Weimar government tried to finance this debt by buying international currency at any price, accelerating the beginning inflation. In 1918 the value of the mark had fallen to 7.9 marks per dollar. By the beginning of 1922 it was at 320 marks per dollar.

A loaf of bread in Berlin that cost about 160 marks at the end of 1922 cost 200,000,000,000 marks by late 1923. By late 1923 the dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 marks.  

It is not difficult to imagine the devastation this wrought. Unemployment soared and families found themselves destitute with their savings wiped out. Employers would pay their employees several times a day so that they could go out and buy food before the price escalated later in the day.

On November 16, 1923 the government stabilized the situation by issuing the new Rentenmark, dropping twelve zeros off prices to create a new base. The hyperinflation was over. However, the old marks continued to circulate, but offered no competition to the new Rentenmark.

Stamps from 1922 show the developing crisis

The first inflationary overprint from 1923

Stamps from an early 1923 series showing there was some time for anticipation.

As 1923 progressed and inflation got worse there was no time to create new designs and the government resorted to overprinting on any old stock that was available.

 

Stamps from later in 1923 had new designs but values kept going up.

“Milliarden” means “billion” in German

A letter mailed late in 1923 illustrates the depth of the crisis.

Taking into account several stamps that are missing, it cost 176,000,000M to mail this letter.

By November, 1923 the crisis had come under control

In mid-1923 it cost 100,000 to buy this one stamp!

The implications of this crisis still impact the world today. During this time political unrest and economic desperation in Weimar Germany provided an opportunity for a new political party, the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, to flex its muscle. An unknown political operative and the leader of the party, Adolph Hitler, staged an attempted coup in a beer hall in Munich in August, 1923. In the short term all he succeeded in doing was firing a pistol into the ceiling of the hall and gaining national attention, and he was sentenced to four years in prison, during which time he began his political manifesto, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). After his release he published his book and set about the task of making his party the majority party in the Reichstag, the German Parliament.

You wouldn't think that overstamped postage stamps and valueless paper money could impact us a century later, but in this case they do. The economic collapse of 1923 in Germany led to the rise of the monster to the left.