Buzz
For decades, stamps have played a crucial role in financing postal services. Their wide array of designs quickly attracted collectors, making stamp collecting one of the most popular hobbies globally.
While stamps are widely used and cherished, they aren’t typically seen as thrilling. To many, except for avid philatelists, they might even seem dull. However, a closer look reveals that the stamp world has been filled with its share of dramatic and contentious events.
10. Lunar Postage Stamps
One of the most notorious stamp-related events took place in 1971, when the Apollo 15 crew smuggled hundreds of first-day covers to the Moon without NASA's approval.
Apollo 15 commander David Scott revealed that the astronauts were approached by Walter Eiermann, who initially suggested they earn extra income by autographing stamps. Later, he proposed they carry 400 commemorative envelopes to the Moon. The crew would keep 300 as mementos, while the remaining 100 would go to a German stamp dealer in return for a $6,000 trust fund for each astronaut.
The astronauts agreed, with the condition that the dealer would delay selling the stamps until after the Apollo program concluded. However, the dealer ignored this agreement and began selling the covers shortly after the mission.
While the astronauts technically didn’t violate any rules, NASA was already under scrutiny from Congress due to a similar deal involving the Franklin Mint during a prior Apollo mission. This led to an exaggerated response to the Apollo 15 incident. Scott described it as a “witch hunt,” with NASA sacrificing the astronauts to pacify Congress. None of the involved astronauts ever returned to space.
9. Stamps, Scandals, and Rock & Roll
Millennium stamps are commemorative postage stamps released to mark the turn of the millennium, often featuring significant figures or events from a nation's history. In 1999, the British Royal Mail, among others, issued a special series honoring influential Britons over the past 1,000 years, organized into thematic categories they referred to as “tales.”
One standout stamp from the Entertainers’ Tale showcased Freddie Mercury, the iconic Queen frontman. Released in June, it quickly sparked controversy. While some critics objected to Mercury’s lifestyle, the primary uproar stemmed from a design flaw that violated an unwritten rule in stamp design.
The stamp depicted Mercury performing live, with Queen drummer Roger Taylor faintly visible in the background. Collectors pointed out that, traditionally, only members of the British royal family are allowed to appear on stamps while still living. The Royal Mail acknowledged the oversight but chose not to withdraw the stamp, as it had received the queen’s approval.
8. Cashing In on Harry Potter
In today’s digital age, where the Internet dominates communication, stamps have lost much of their appeal. To counteract this decline, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has increasingly focused on creating commercially appealing stamps. In 2013, they released 100 million stamps themed around the Harry Potter franchise, featuring its iconic characters.
This move sparked outrage from the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC), a USPS division formed in 1957. The CSAC evaluates thousands of public proposals annually and advises the postal service on new stamp designs.
The committee was displeased for two main reasons: first, the USPS had ignored their input in releasing the Harry Potter series. Second, they opposed the use of a foreign, commercially driven theme, arguing that stamps should reflect American heritage rather than prioritize sales.
7. Operation Cornflakes
During wartime, forged stamps served as propaganda tools or methods to disrupt enemy revenue. Both sides utilized them in World War II, with the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) famously employing them in Operation Cornflakes.
The OSS, America’s intelligence agency focused on espionage and subversion, devised a plan in 1944 to drop counterfeit letters and propaganda into German territory. These materials were so authentic that the German postal service would unknowingly deliver them.
To ensure success, the OSS meticulously replicated German mail. They interrogated POWs with postal service experience to perfect packaging, seals, and cancellation marks. Spies gathered samples of stamps, mailbags, and envelopes for duplication. Real names and addresses from German phone directories were used. Some stamps inside the envelopes were altered to depict Hitler’s skull with the phrase “Futsches Reich” (“Ruined Empire”) instead of “Deutsches Reich.”
The counterfeit packages were airdropped onto bombed and derailed trains. German authorities, assuming the letters had fallen from the trains, delivered them without suspecting their true origin or intent.
The operation was carried out in the final months of the war, involving 20 mail drops that distributed over 96,000 propaganda items. While strategically effective, it remains unclear whether Operation Cornflakes had a notable psychological impact.
6. The Unwanted Graf Zeppelin
Zeppelin airships were immensely popular in the 1930s, until the tragic Hindenburg disaster. Operating these airships, particularly for transatlantic flights, was costly. Despite high ticket prices, a zeppelin could only carry 20 to 25 passengers, making mail delivery its primary source of income.
Several nations issued exclusive postage stamps for zeppelin mail, with 93 percent of the revenue going to the Zeppelin Airship Works in Germany.
Initially, the US was reluctant to agree to these terms but eventually complied, largely as a gesture of goodwill toward Germany. The Graf Zeppelin series was released in 1930 in three denominations: 65-cent, $1.30, and $2.60 stamps. The US Post Office printed one million of each, hoping collectors would buy most of them, allowing the agency to retain the profits.
However, the Post Office misjudged the stamps' appeal and underestimated the impact of the Great Depression. The full set, priced at $4.55, was about 50 times the cost of a loaf of bread. Only seven percent of the stamps were sold, and the majority of the remaining stock was destroyed. This angered collectors, who were already upset by the high prices and later accused the Post Office of manipulating the market by creating artificial scarcity.
5. The Mastery of Jean De Sperati
The stamp-collecting world is rife with forgeries, some so expertly crafted that they deceive even seasoned experts. Among these skilled counterfeiters, Jean de Sperati stood out. His forgeries were so impeccable that even when he admitted they were fake, experts refused to believe him.
Born in Pistoia, Italy, in 1884, Sperati learned the art of forgery from his mother and two older brothers. He employed a common technique of bleaching inexpensive stamps and printing the designs of more valuable ones. Although the British Philatelic Association discovered his forgeries in 1932, they chose to keep it secret to avoid undermining trust in the stamp market.
This secrecy lasted a decade until Sperati was compelled to reveal the truth under unusual circumstances. While living in Aix-les-Bains, he sent some of his stamps to a dealer in Portugal. French customs intercepted the package, accusing him of illegally exporting valuable items. An appraiser valued the stamps at 234,000 francs, prompting Sperati to confess they were counterfeit. Despite his admission, experts didn’t believe him until he demonstrated his forgery techniques.
After years of court proceedings, Sperati began selling his stamps as reproductions. These became highly sought after, sometimes even surpassing the value of the originals. In 1955, the British Philatelic Association purchased his entire collection and published a booklet titled “The Work of Jean de Sperati.”
4. Honoring the War
Commemorative stamps honoring World War II have sometimes sparked controversy due to the sensitive events they depict. This occurred in England in 1965 with a stamp series marking the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Critics raised two main concerns: first, artist David Gentleman’s “headless” designs excluded the queen’s portrait, claiming it occupied too much space. Second, a stamp featuring a swastika on a German bomber’s tail fin drew significant backlash.
More recently, in the 1990s, the USPS faced criticism for a planned stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the war’s end. The design showcased a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion, accompanied by the caption “Atomic bombs hasten war’s end, August 1945.” Many deemed it insensitive, with Nagasaki’s mayor labeling it “heartless.”
The stamp risked reigniting tensions between the US and Japan, particularly due to the caption, which some interpreted as justifying the bombings. Historians debated this, with some arguing Japan was already nearing surrender. Following disapproval from the White House and State Department, the design was replaced with a portrait of President Truman.
3. The Great British Stock Exchange Forgery
In the early 1870s, a group of deceitful clerks at the London Stock Exchange embezzled an undisclosed amount of money, using a scheme that went undetected for 25 years.
The telegraph revolutionized the Stock Exchange by enabling rapid dissemination of stock prices. To send a telegram, traders filled out a form and attached one or more one-shilling green stamps, which clerks would cancel with a dated postmark before dispatching the message.
Some clerks discovered they could forge the stamps, allowing them to pocket the shillings without depleting the audited stock of genuine stamps. The counterfeits, though imperfect, were sufficient since clients only handled them briefly before attaching them to forms. These forms were later filed and marked for destruction.
The fraud was uncovered 25 years later, thanks to a stroke of luck. Some forms, meant to be destroyed, were sold as wastepaper and ended up with philatelist Charles Nissen. He identified the fakes due to their flaws and lack of watermarks.
The full scale of the deception remains a mystery. In one batch of recovered forms, over 100 forgeries shared the same postmark date, suggesting a daily fraud of £5. Investigators, however, believe the actual amount could have been ten times higher.
2. The Mystery of the Treskilling Yellow Stamp
In 2010, the Treskilling Yellow stamp was hailed as the world’s most valuable item by weight. Its exact value remains unclear, as its last two sales were for undisclosed sums. In 1996, it reportedly fetched around $2.3 million.
The stamp dates back to 1855, when Sweden released its first postage stamps, ranging from 3 to 25 skillings. The three-skilling stamp was intended to be blue-green, while yellow was reserved for the eight-skilling version. A printing error resulted in a yellow three-skilling stamp, which went unnoticed for 30 years.
Only one Treskilling Yellow is believed to exist, with its history well-documented since its discovery in 1886 by a young man in his grandmother’s attic. However, in 2010, Baron Jean-Claude Pierre Ferdinand Gunther Andre claimed to possess nine additional copies, alleging they had been stolen.
The baron and his wife revealed these details in a lawsuit against Clydesdale Bank in London. They claimed to have deposited a trunk with the bank in 1986, which remained unopened until 2004. Upon accessing it, they discovered it had been tampered with, and several items, including rare stamps worth approximately $7 million, were missing. Six covers containing nine Treskilling Yellow stamps accounted for most of the value. The court dismissed the claim, citing “sheer inherent implausibility.”
1. Farley’s Follies
James Farley, an influential American politician, was known as the kingmaker behind Franklin Roosevelt’s four successful presidential campaigns. During his tenure as postmaster general from 1933 to 1940, Farley sparked outrage among stamp collectors with a misstep famously dubbed “Farley’s Follies.”
Farley had a practice of taking unperforated and ungummed stamp sheets directly from the printing press. He paid for them personally, signed them, and gifted them to friends and family. Some of these stamps eventually entered the market, and collectors, upon learning of his actions, criticized it as an abuse of his position.
Although the postmaster general paid the full price for the stamps, their value skyrocketed due to his signature and the absence of perforations or gum. Some of these stamps were gifted to political allies, including President Roosevelt, raising concerns that they could be seen as bribes.
The outcry and allegations of corruption prompted a congressional investigation. In 1935, Farley resolved the issue by reissuing the stamp sheets without gum or perforations, identical to the ones he had taken, in sufficient quantities to satisfy collectors.
