Postage stamps are endlessly fascinating to me, ya'll. While puttering around in the digital realms, I wandering across this ancient (in internet years) listicle from Mental Floss elucidating ten postage stamp controversies. This is before the Liberty head gaffe or the destruction of extra Simpsons stamps; otherwise, I'm sure those would have made the list.
The story I was most surprised by was the engraver who hid a tiny Star of David in the stamp of Bernard Revel. "I placed a little Star of David on his mustache," he said later. "It was just a symbolic gesture. He's Jewish, I'm Jewish. No big deal." That engraver, Kenneth Kipperman (Content warning: Holocaust), is an interesting fellow. I'd've never known any of that if he hadn't put a tiny star on a stamp; so I'm going to profess that it was worth it.
Excellent list! I kind of have a hate/hate relationship with one of the stamps that I bought that came in a lot of a few hundred. It's of the Confederate carving on Stone Mountain. (I put it face-down in my stockbook. I should probably give it away.)
Posted by: TB | January 17, 2019 at 09:14 AM