Here you may find some articles, in English, which are related to discussed subjects in Forum:
1st ARTICLE:
Rose island, Insulo de la Rozoj a dream of freedom.
By
Fabio V. Published in The C.P. of January 2007.
During 1968 peculiar events are occurring in Italy. The Universities are full of students who claim more freedom, everywhere there is a new atmosphere. On the Adriatic coast the songs of Mina and the new dance named “twist” make crazy young people and tourists. At that time, in Italy, the rate for an internal letter was 50 Lira, while a newspaper cost 60 Lira.
On the 26th June of the same year, a title was submitted to the readers of Il Messaggero, a Roman newspaper: “A new Country was born off shore Rimini on an artificial platform” (fig1.).
1968: isola delle Rose or Free State of Rose island or L.T. de la insulo de la Rozoj
fig1 "A new Country was born off shore Rimini"
Fifteen days later the weekly magazine Panorama, published a long reportage “One million lira for an useless island”.
This is the scenario from which we will start in order to discover the true story of the Free Territory of Rose island, better known as “L.T. insulo de la Rozoj” as it is stated in Esperanto language on the stamp with a face value of 30 mills, depicting the Italy map and on the Adriatic sea a platform with two squared floors (fig.2).
fig.2 Rose island 30 mills stamp (Type1: short red bar between L. and T.)
How was this island born? What are its purposes? Has there been an International recognition? Is it true that a floating casino was planned on it? Is it true that politicians of that period did not sleep well, thinking that a “flowers’ island” was built a few meters out of Italian boundaries just in international waters? Is it true that the island was destroyed with bombs? And what about the Rose islands stamps? What about its postal system towards the Italian coast?
The best thing it is to talk directly to the engineer who built the island and who was also its owner. Today Mr. George Rosa is a brilliant 82 years old man (fig.3), who is closing his engineering study and enjoying his life after such a long time in the construction field.
fig.3 Mr. Giorgio Ing. Rosa now at 82 year born
The
owner’s interview
“I took my degree in 1950 -George Rosa says- in Industrial engineering . At that time there was plenty of work in building new houses and factories, we were still in after war period. So I worked very hard in constructions, but my passion was the sea, the free desert spaces and the free horizon, far from stress, from smog, from politicians. In the 1957 I began to think about a building which could resist to the strength of waves, but only in 1964 I started to make tests into the sea. I thought of a structure which could be transported easily from the coast to a specific point in the middle of a lake or of the sea and which could be easily installed, without any expensive underwater investments.
A building or an artificial island, with only 9 pillars which could support five floors of 400 squared meters each! Of course it was possible to add other artificial islands close to the first and you could arrange a large hotel in the middle of the sea!”
At this point, with visible pride, Doctor G. Rosa showed me the invention covered by copyright #850.987. The title of its invention is “System to build artificial islands -in steel and concrete- both for civil and industrial purposes”.
“My invention- he said again- consists in arranging a structure on the beach, transport it floating off shore in an already chosen place, where the maximum depth is 40 meters. The pillars, which are empty, are put vertically on the bottom of the sea floor. Then steel tubes are inserted in the pillars and pushed strongly into the floor. Afterwards the pillars are filled with cement and the job is finished, without any problems of corrosion.”
The first (and unique) Rose island was born in that way, after four years of tests, in 1968, in front of the town of Rimini exactly at 44° 10' 48" North e 12° 36' 00" East.
“But the expenses for such a new opera were anyway very high and I found some partners with whom I could divided the costs and also I could plan commercial activities. The total cost was 100 million of Lira (note: that amount today is equivalent to 800.000 Euro). At the beginning the island had only two floors 20 x 20 meters large. The name was Rose island, which depends from my name, but also from my idea of obtaining a coloured garden in the middle of the sea, far from Italian boundaries in order to be free and not submitted to fiscal rules”.
“In fact the island was 11,6 kilometres (7,2 miles) far from the coast, 500 meters inside the international waters. Red lights and other buoys made the island well visible to the ships which travelled the Adriatic sea.”
“ Tourists began to visit the platform, somebody just in transit, others for curiosity that rumours and newspapers had created along the Italian cost. Just one hour of driving and a motorboat was outside Italian territory.”
The platform consisted in a series of shops, among them there were a coffee-bar, a post office and a restaurant. Each side of the squared area had a name of a street and the number indicated the sequence of the shops. For example (fig.4) the address of the post office was “Bizet Street # 3”, as you can see on the envelopes which were for sale just there.The complete address was ” L.T. insulo de la Rozoj Vojo Bizet 3- Havena Verde- Valico di Rimini (Forlì-Italia). The words Havena Verde mean “Green Harbour” in Esperanto. While “valico” means “transit point” and Forlì is the province of Rimini town. On the second floor there was the house of the barman, who was also the guardian, and his wife. The couple lived on the platform.”
fig.4 address of the island on the cover for sale on the platform
Mr. Rosa continued his story.
”Despite of the information written on the newspapers, there were no plans to install neither a casino on the platform, nor a pirate radio transmitter. The long visible pole was used to find sweet water, which we found at –280 meters, digging the sea floor. Yes, our idea was to sell oil to the motor boats, at a cheap price, without the fiscal tax of Italy.“
“We choose Esperanto as official language of the island just to create an international “flavour” around our island in order to be separated from Italy. We also talk about asking an international recognition by U.N., but what happened after few months did not allow to formalize any requests.”
“On the first of May 1968 I and four partners had the first government meeting on our island. We divided responsibilities and activities. As you can see from the minute of our first Council (fig.5), we planned also a tourist ministry, one for the international laws, one for the communication and posts. The guy who had in charge the postal activities is no more among us, so the information about the stamps are no so accurate as I would like it to be. I had care of the engineering views and of new floors to be done, and so I had no time to check everything in details.”
fig.5 part of the minute of the first Government Council
“On the 24th of June 1968 a press conference was organized on the platform. Journalists and photo reporters were there (fig.6). Among them Mr. Davide Minghini, a photographer of Rimini who became famous for his photos and his friendship with the great director Federico Fellini. He shot many of the photos of my archive.”
fig.6 press conference on 24 June 1968 with young Mr. G. Rosa
A brief pause stopped the story of Mr. Rosa, probably he was thinking about what it happened the day after the press conference announcing the existence of a new State. Mr. Rosa opened a soft drink bottle and he continued: “Surely this island, in the middle of Adriatic sea, outside the control of Italian Authorities disturbed some politicians. All the jurists we spoke with, agreed with us on the clearance of our activities. We did not infringe any Italian or international law (read note 1). Nevertheless on the 25th of June, a motor boat of the Italian Police blocked the island and nobody, including myself could go in.”
“We wrote to many Italian Authorities asking the restitution of our platform and we made petitions and recourses, but our final appeal was rejected, some months later, by Italian Country Council. We received also the mandatory order to destroy our opera”.
Mr. Giorgio Rosa’s eyes became dim and he looked outside the window. Then with pride he said “our island resisted to the first attempt of the Navy divers to destroy it. They had to come back three times with more T.N.T. to mine all the pillars. At the end the basement was destroyed and a violent thunderstorm gave the last hit to the whole structure few weeks later”.
It was the end of February 1969. The creature of Mr. Rosa lasted less than one year!
“The disappointment for the destruction of my dream was moderated by a lot of evidences of solidarity both from Italian people and from foreign people. Citizen of the coast wrote to the newspapers saying that a tourist attraction had been destroyed! I received letters and support from many different Countries and my name became more and more important in the engineering projects. I had also the request to project an hotel in Adriatic sea, but INSIDE the Italian waters!”
The
stamps of Rose island
At last on the table Mr. Rosa put some stamps, overprinted sheets and covers. Just to better explain what surely will be of interest of collectors of locals and Cinderella I report what the Italian magazine “Panorama” published in July 1968.
“… a flag was flattering in the wind, on that pennant there was a white coat of arm with three red roses. The three roses appear also on the edge of the sheet which contains 10 stamps in two rows of five (fig.7). The stamps are printed on watermarked paper (!?). The currency should be the Ross (equivalent to 100 lira), but on the stamp there is a face value of 30 mills. No coins or banknotes are available at the moment, while a sheet of stamps is sold at 300 Lira and one cover with one cancelled stamp is available for 150 Lira. On the rectangular postmark there is the date and the words “Verda Haveno” (Green Harbour) (fig.10)…”
fig.07: sheet of 10 stamps of 30 mills stamp of island with the three red roses (Type 2)
The engineer showed us a pennant (fig.8) which was given to the tourists as free gift, while he showed also the stamps which were produced during the existence of the new State. We understood that data, dates and quantities were not sharp, but later we did an assessment which was approved by Mr. Rosa.
fig.8 pennant of island
The basic stamps of 30 mills were printed in 5.000 samples. Each foil has 10 stamps which are printed in two rows of five. The stamps exist in two varieties, with and without a short red bar between L. and T. (see fig.2 and fig.7). Line perforation is 11, the stamps are with gum, although after so many years the stamps have only a trace of it. The stamps are without watermark. On the edge of each sheet there is the inscription “L.T. INSULO DE LA ROZOJ 1968” The year is written under the coat of arm of three red roses. No information about the name of the designer and of the printing house, but both were surely Italian.
These
stamps were for sale on the island from the 1st of May until the 25th of June,
date of Italian occupation. Mr. Rosa presumed that only few hundred of stamps
were sold, while many others were destroyed during occupation and in the
explosion. So the rest in the archive of the owner are very few. The number of
covers which were sold at that time were no more than 100. The rectangular
cancellation with date and scripts is depicted in fig.10 with the last date of
usage: L.T. INSULO DE LA ROZOJ- HAVENO VERDA – 24 giugno 1968.
fig.10 cancellation of the island: Green Harbour – Rose island and date
After that date some sheets were overprinted with blue or black ink in three lines “Milita Itala Okupado” inside a rectangle 23x27 mm (fig.11). The overprint means “Italian forces occupation.” It was used also a linear rubber handstamp 97x6 mm which gave bad results due to its length (fig.12).
fig.11 30 mills type1 with overprint during the occupation
fig.12 proof of linear handstamp of occupation: only two sheets were overprinted in blue and black ink
In the 1969 three other stamps were printed. The face values were 30-60-120 mills, or better “miloj” in Esperanto. The three stamps have the same image: the platform at the moment of its destruction. The stamp has a black mourning ribbon in a corner. 150 sheets of these stamps were produced, and as usual, there were ten stamps per sheet. On the edge of the sheet the inscription “”Esperanta Respublisko insulo Rozoj” (Esperantist Republic of Rose island), usual coat of arm with three red roses and the year 1969. The stamps have a linear perforation 11, with gum and without watermark. On the picture you may see a police motorboat with a red flag. On the bottom the Latin motto “ “Hostium rabies diruit opus non ideam” (enemy violence destroyed opera not the idea”). Around the picture there is written: “Posto Esperanta Respubliko insulo Rozoj 60 MILOJ 60”.
There are no evidence of cancellations after the 25th of June 1968, so the set of three would be existing only in mint condition.
fig.13 sheet of ten of the 60 miloj stamp with explosion and mourning black line
Postal
service
“Speaking of the method of shipping” Mr. Gorge Rosa said “it was planned a regular connection between the island and the Italian coast. In the cost of 150 Lira for one cover was included the carriage to Italy and forwarding with an Italian stamp on the cover itself. I was not the responsible of the postal service, but I have in my archive some travelled covers (fig.14)”.
fig.14 rare travelled cover from Rimini with mixed franking
The cover which was shown by platform owner has a mixed franking: one Italian stamp of 50 Lira (1968 correct fare), plus a 30 mills stamp of Insulo de la Rozoj. The addressee was in Italy. The sender was not written on the back flap. The 30 mills stamp was cancelled by the Insulo canceller with the date 9th June 1968 “L-T- insulo de la Rozoj” and under the date the words: “Verda Haveno Posto” (Post of Green Harbour), the size of the rectangular cancellation is 53x33 mm. There is also a linear handstamp in Esperanto “Unua tago de eldono” which means “first day of usage”, although surely the stamps were in use since the 1st of may 1968. The Italian stamp was cancelled by a regular Italian postmark Rimini 9-giugno-1968. No arrival postmark, which was mandatory only for registered mail.
At this point Mr. George Rosa went again in front of the window, he looked over the trees the blue line of the sea.
“You are asking to me, - he said after a minute of silence- what are my new projects. Well, dear, I can say that I am still searching for my Verda Haveno, where I can create my new Rose island”.
Fabio V.
Note.
1. An interesting article by Pasquale Pavone on a magazine of International Law,
judged completely groundless the rights of members of Rose islands on
Sovereignty, Independence, and other international rights, although the platform
was outside the Italian boundaries. The magazine is the #505 edited in 1968 by
Giuffrè, and the title of article was “The case of Rose island”.
This article was appeared for the first time on the December 2006 issue of the Italian magazine “Il Collezionista Bolaffi Edition.”
Rose Island – A Short-Lived Nation on the High Seas
Article
by Bernhrad L.
Ask
to me if you want to read this article which was published in my section
"Locals of the world" in
the The Cinderella Philatelist January 2006.
PLEASE TAKE NOTE: Come back to the Micronation page 43 clicking HERE!
Un articolo in italiano sull'isola delle Rose è caricato a pagina 110a
IL
POTATO STAMP di Tristan da Cunha articolo di Wolfgang Baldus, apparso sulla
rivista inglese, The
Cinderella Philatelist" del luglio 2001.
Tristan
da Cunha is a small island situated in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is
sometimes called “the loneliest island of the world” since it is, as an
inhabited place, farther from the next inhabited land than any other place in
the world: The island of St Helena, the nearest inhabited place, is 1,300 miles
to the North, the Cape of Good Hope 1,800 miles to the East, the South American
continent 2,000 miles to the West, and South Georgia, the Antarctic Island, is
1,500 miles off.
The
island´s name was derived from the Portuguese admiral Tristao da Cunha who
discovered the island on his way from Brazil to the West-African coast in 1506.
Sealing and whaling activities in the South Atlantic Ocean brought Tristan ist
first temporary settlers in the late 18th century. The island was
annexed by the British in 1816, and became a dependency of the British Crown
Colony of St. Helena in 1938.
Tristan
island is the summit of a volcano of 6760 feet (2,010 m) height above sea level.
The peak of the volcano is in clouds almost the whole year, and its sides are
steep and drop straight into the sea. There is no landing place for larger ships
which have to anchor a few miles off the shore. The island has an average
diameter of 6 miles but only an area 4 miles long and ½mile wide, at the
north-west of the roughly circular island, is flat. The only settlement, called
Edinburgh, is situated here, and the small cultivated area for growing food is
nearby. In the late 1930s, the population consisted of 40 families (188 souls).
The
fascination to settle on this remote island is hard to understand for the
weather is mostly bad, with heavy gales and continuous rainfall in 250 days of
the year. Moreover, the isolation was almost complete in the past. There was no
wireless communication before World War II. Months or even years passed before a
ship called. A few selected data from a list of ships approaching the island
give an idea of the loneliness of Tristan da Cunha: For instance, only four
ships called at Tristan in 1913, a single one in 1921, none in 1924, two in
1936, two in 1947, none in 1953, four in 1958, three in 1978...
Growing
food has ever been difficult on the island. The attempt to grow cereals failed.
Potatoes were always the most important crop. They were used in lieu of bread
and for puddings in various forms, as stuffing for meat and as just potatoes,
fried, roasted or boiled. A bad potato harvest due to blight caused by the
continuous wet weather was always a serious problem. A man’s wealth was
measured by his stock of potatoes, and potatoes formed the only medium of
currency for decades.
Prior to
World War II, any mail to and from Tristan da Cunha was carried by whaling or
other ships. Individual agreements had to be made with captains, resulting in a
delivery time of 12 or 15 months or longer before the mail reached the addressee.
An attempt to attract attention to the island by the issue of own postage stamps
was made by a man named Allan B. Crawford in 1946. He was a British
meteorologist who spent a long time on the island since 1938. In 1943 he
published the first island publication “The Tristan Times”. The price of the
paper was fixed in island currency: The value was “3 cigarettes or 4 large
potatoes”. Crawford left the island in October 1943 but returned on board the
“S.A.S. Transvaal” on May 8, 1946, with a petition for postage stamps. The
petition is dated May 10, 1946. On this day, the “S.A.S. Transvaal” left
Tristan and returned to South Africa. It carried the petition which was signed
by the 12 members of the Island Council and addressed to the South African Post
Master General who forwarded it to the Colonial Secretary in London. The
petition sets out in six pages and 33 main clauses the reasons behind the
request for distinctive postage stamps for use on the island. A page containing
the designs of nine postage stamps was attached as an appendix, and a strip of
five printed stamps was affixed on the last page. These stamps were designed by
Allan B. Crawford who reported them in his book “Penguins, Potatoes &
Postage Stamps” (1999):
“Before
I left the mainland [i.e. South Africa, in spring 1946], I realized that for
many years there was considerable demand from stamp collectors all over the
world for postage stamps and letters from the world’s loneliest island. Why
should I not develop this potential?... I therefore designed a set of postage
stamps. I had little work in a peacetime weather headquarters and I found the
department draughtsman, Sergeant Jimmy Brown, also had time on his hands. So the
two of us worked together. I thought up the ideas and produced the rough designs,
and he completed the ‘artwork’... A problem was there was still no money on
the island so we could not ‘sell’ our stamps! However, just as the islanders
and sailors during World War II had bought their “Tristan Times” for
potatoes and cigarettes, each stamp bore a local value expressed in potatoes.
The values were based on four potatoes being equivalent to one penny.... We
planned originally nine stamps...(and) to portray the islander’s loyalty to
the Royal family, we designed a tenth stamp showing HM The King sitting at the
microphone broadcasting his annual Christmas message to the people of the
Commonwealth...”
Nine of
the ten designs were included in the attachment of the petition without a
mention of colors. Many designs were taken from photographs:
–
½D (2 potatoes
= newspaper rate), illustrating a map of the South Atlantic Ocean with an arrow
pointing at a tiny dot in the ocean representing Tristan da Cunha.
–
1D (4 potatoes
= postcard rate). A rockhopper penguin stands in front of a silhouette of
Tristan island. This is the stamp of which a strip of five was affixed to the
petition. Hortors Limited, Printers of Johannesburg, South Africa, confirmed the
order to print 10,000 copies of the red rockhopper penguin stamps under job No.
406626, dated April 8, 1946. The stamps were printed in sheets of 35 (7x5) and
were perforated. The order was subsequently increased to 20,000 copies. A.B.
Crawford wrote: “Provisionally, I had printed in Johannesburg 20,000 penny red
stamps to assist the project as a ‘booster’, and this they certainly did.
The object was to apply them to the islander’s mail as supporting propaganda
towards obtaining their own stamps.”
–
1½D (6
potatoes = local letter rate). A map of Tristan da Cunha with inscriptions of a
few important places.
–
1½D (6
potatoes = local letter rate), featuring a cart with two bullocks in front of
the potato patches. This design was not included in the petition
–
2D (8 potatoes
= empire letter rate). The British King George sitting at the microphone.
–
3D (12 potatoes
= foreign letter rate), depicting one of the typical canvas longboats sailing in
Tristan waters.
–
4D (16 potatoes
= registered rate). A spinning wheel in front of the Edinburgh settlement.
–
6D (24 potatoes
= parcel rate per pound). Two little girls on the shore watching a ship in the
distance.
–
1P (48 potatoes)
The meteorological station at Tristan.
–
2/6P (120
potatoes) The island’s church St. Mary’s.
All
designs have the value in a circle and the British flag in the upper corners.
Allan B.
Crawford presented his stamp essays to the South African Post Master General
before he talked to the Tristan Island Council about the matter. He acted on his
own and had the 1D stamps printed without knowledge of the islanders.
A short
announcement in the British newspaper “Evening Standard” of May 21, 1946,
reported the petition. It was headed “The Flag and Potato – A stamp, not an
Inn” and read: “Johannesburg. – Tristan da Cunha which has never had coins
or postage stamps is planning a stamp which will show the Union Jack and
potatoes side by side. Potatoes are the island’s currency. A.P.” The
interest of the public was boosted by articles like this but nevertheless the
petition was turned down for some reasons in September 1946. The press publicity,
however, “impelled philatelists to write to Tristan enclosing potatoes in
payment for the ‘stamps’. By the time the parcels of potatoes reached the
island most of them were mouldy, and there was a real risk of blight affecting
the Tristan crops.”
Today,
the 1D potato stamp is not easy to locate. The reason for this rarity is a
mystery. Only a handful covers with the potato stamp affixed were ever
illustrated in the philatelic press. The earliest known cover is from 1947, and
was carried by the “HMS Natal” which arrived at Tristan at Easter 1947 and
left the island on April 5. Some covers are known from 1948 and – after a long
pause – some from 1962. The absence of letters of the 1950s bearing the potato
stamp might be explained by the loss of interest to use this item after Tristan
da Cunha issued its first regular set of stamps in 1952. Only a fraction of the
potato stamps could have been used by the islanders as stickers on their mail.
An unknown number was bartered whenever one of the long awaited ships approached
the island. Did Crawford bring all the 20,000 copies to Tristan when he arrived
in May 1946?
One
explanation of the potato stamp’s rarity might be the eruption of the
island’s volcano on October 10, 1961, which led to the temporary evacuation of
the entire population of Tristan. Before leaving the island, the administrator (being
also the postmaster) “realised that he had to ensure that the post office
‘set up’ was destroyed, he therefore returned to the settlement with
assistance and collected the locked cabinet containing the government records,
stock of stamps, datestamps etc. from the post office. These were carried to the
shore loaded on to the small boat from the Tristania and rowed off shore where
the cabinet was tipped overboard but refused to sink; with the aid of some shots
from his revolver, however, the cabinet was persuaded to carry ist load to the
bottom, fathoms down. This was the dramatic end to the Tristan Post office...”
Unfortunately, it is unknown if potato stamps were among the destroyed stamps.
The
evacuated Tristan people lived in Great Britain until 1963. Between September
1962 and November 1963 they resettled the island. In 1962, Allan Crawford
allowed his essays to be reprinted in miniature sheets and sold to collectors
provided the islanders would benefit from the sales. The firm Cluett Burns Ltd
of Southampton printed two imperforated, gummed sheetlets which were placed on
the philatelic market by “Rembrandt Philatelics” of Southampton/Hants. One
contained nine potato essays with the design and values transposed in some cases
(for instance, it includes a 9D value, a formerly unknown denomination, and the
1½D value featuring a cart with bullocks in place of the stamp illustrating the
British King). The colors of the reprints are: ½D orange-beige, 1D red, 1½D
light green, 2D lilac, 3D brown, 4D ultramarine, 6D turquoise, 9D bright olive,
1P dark green. The other sheetlet has four of the red 1D=4 potatoes penguin
stamps with an explaining paragraph in blue and the handwritten signature of A.B.
Crawford in blue ink on the lower margin. Although frequently offered and
described as essays, these miniature sheets are just reproductions. They are
interesting because they show the original essay designs which otherwise would
be unknown to many collectors.
The
postal authority of Tristan da Cunha remembered the beginning of the island’s
history as a stamp issuing country when it illustrated the 1D potato stamp on a
sheetlet which was part of a set issued to commemorate the 100th
anniversary of Sir Rowland Hill’s death in 1979. The great importance of the
potato stamp essays in the postal history of Tristan da Cunha was recognized in
the sale of the famous Jack Cole collection at Stanley Gibbons in October 1998:
The original of the six page typed “Petition for postage stamps” of 1946,
estimated at £500-600, sold for £10,350.
Wolfgang Baldus
References:
–
The History and
Postal History of Tristan da Cunha (George Crabb), Charlwood, Surrey, UK (1980)
–
Tristan da
Cunha Its Postal History and Philately (James A. MacKay/George Crabb), Charlwood,
Surrey, UK (1965)
–
Penguins,
Potatoes & Postage Stamps (Allan B. Crawford), Anthony Nelson, UK (1999)
–
The Ships of
Tristan da Cunha. A listing 1506-1991 (Rozell C. Smith), Dartford, UK (1992)
–
Life on Tristan
(Barbara Last), The Stamp Magazine, December 1987, p 91-93
–
Tristan da
Cunha sell out, The Stamp Magazine, January 1999, p. 35
–
Tristan da
Cunha Stamp Essays 1946, The Philatelist, July 1979, p. 300-305
–
Interim Posts
from Tristan da Cunha (W.R. White-Cooper), The Stamp Magazine, June 1963, p.329
–
Twenty Years of
Tristan da Cunha (Charles Rowan), The Stamp Magazine, April 1972, p. 54-57
– Tristan da Cunha – Die Insel der guten Menschen (Christian Schmidt), GEO Magazin (German edition) 3/2000, p. 44-68
PLEASE TAKE NOTE: Come back to the "Potato stamp" page 2 clicking HERE!
Spero che il dettagliato articolo di Baldus vi sia piaciuto.
E' un bellissimo esempio della "STORIA DIETRO FRANCOBOLLI", ed ecco un altro articolo:
Visit the new Blog of residents in Tristan: http://erikclaire.wordpress.com/
CONCH REPUBLIC: the Cuban affair
Associated
Press
Posted
January 13 2006
KEY WEST -- The mock Conch Republic on
Friday ``annexed'' an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys that the federal
government ruled was not U.S. territory when 15 Cubans landed there last week.
Members of the republic, established in 1982 by disgruntled Florida Keys
residents as a tongue-in-cheek protest over U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints,
planted flags along the section of the bridge where the Cubans landed and said
they hoped to use it for affordable housing.
The kingdom of
Gold island- Ile d'Or- Insula Aurea
The article was published at page 6 and 7 of Atalaya magazine # 60 on Winter 2004. Atalya is edited by Chirster Brunstrom. Ask to me information about how to subscribe Atalaya magazine.
page 1
page 2
See all the original images at page 132.
PLEASE TAKE NOTE: Come back to the Micronation page 43 clicking HERE!
Aggiungerò quando ritenuto utile altri articoli in inglese.
Un saluto a tutti i collezionisti Fabio V.
......... °°°° ..........
P.S. Ringrazio il Cifr che mi ha concesso uno spazio sul suo sito per parcheggiare alcune immagini e articoli, relativi ai miei messaggi per il forum Filatelia e Francobolli. Chi fosse interessato ai bolli della seconda guerra mondiale, a quelli dei prigionieri di guerra, o di propaganda psicologica, alla resistenza, nonché alla storia contemporanea, incluse le missioni di pace italiane nel mondo e le missioni scientifiche al polo sud, può visitare le oltre 500 pagine, in italiano ed in inglese, del sito del Cifr, cliccando semplicemente sul tasto "Pagina iniziale" qui sotto:
NOVITA': Se cercate uno specifico argomento ed il Sommario
non è esauriente, potete provare con il nostro motore di ricerca. Esso funziona
all'interno del sito del Cifr, e può essere utilissimo. Basta scrivere la
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La ricerca può essere
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Per esempio facendo la ricerca con la parola mission*
si cercano tutte le pagine del sito, che contengono le seguenti parole:
missione, missioni ed anche mission, e missions, etc.
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QUI LA SEARCH ENGINE per ricerche all'interno di tutto il sito:
N.B. Le schermate sono state ottimizzate per video a 17 pollici e collegamento ADSL, per cui molte righe ed immagini potrebbero risultare distorte, spostate o lente a scaricarsi, su altri schermi o computer con vecchi modem. Nel caso scrivetemi che provvederò a fare migliorie specifiche.
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