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Sunday 8 November 2015

Monochromatic - Sunday Stamps II

Finding stamps to meet the 'monochromatic' theme had me puzzled and eventually sidetracked into research.

Google led me to images of monochromatic stamps that appeared to be anything else but one colour. However one stamp in my collection was included.


USA - 15 October 1968
By now I was more interested in the stamp than whether it is truly monochromatic.

The Cherokee Strip was an 8 million acre parcel of land in NW Oklahoma. When members of the Cherokee tribe were moved by the federal government from the southeastern United States to Indian Territory (in eastern Oklahoma) in the 1830s they were given an outlet to the western hunting grounds - this became known as the Cherokee Strip.

On 16 September 1893 the Cherokee Strip was opened by presidential order for a great land run, billed by the New York Times as the greatest real estate deal of the century

The stamp was issued for the 75th anniversary of the historic land run by more than 100,000 prospective homesteaders in the northern portion of Oklahoma. They were competing for 40.000 available home sites.


Still hunting for monochromatic stamps I found this stamp at my local market stall.


Belgium - Queen Astrid
At the time I did not realise that the stamp and the four others with it had black borders because of the black card holder that contained them.

Astrid was a Swedish princess who in 1926 married Belgium's Crown Prince Leopold. He became King with Astrid as his Queen Consort in 1934.

On August 29th, 1835 the royal couple had a car accident in the Swiss Alps - Astrid was killed.

Two months later, on October 31, Belgium issued a 70 centime Queen Astrid stamp. It was the first of a set of eight black bordered Queen Astrid semi-postal stamps.

Semi-postal stamps are also known as charity stamps and raise money for a particular cause.

This are the five stamps that I found.


Belgium - Queen Astrid
The surtax may be seen on each stamp at the top right. Proceeds were divided between several charitable organisations.

Even if you do not agree that my stamps are monochromatic I hope you can see why I have shared them this week under that theme on Sunday-Stamps-II- 47.

4 comments:

FinnBadger said...

Fascinating selection, and much closer to monochromatic than I managed to get.

Linda said...

Lovely and fascinating stamps!

Joy said...

I think I remember a Western that featured a race to landrights like the stamp. The Astrid stamps are a rather nice memorial, not to mention ticking all the monochrome boxes.

VioletSky said...

More history I knew nothing about!
The portrait of Queen Astrid is definitely of her era! (Not sure if I like the pink or green versions)
I've now read more about this Cherokee Strip - what a sad and crazy story.