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07 June 2020

Sunday Stamps | Champions of Liberty

Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines

In 1957, during the height of the Cold War, the Post Office Department of the USA issued a single, oversized 8-cent stamp commemorating Ramon Magsaysay (1907-1957), the deceased president of the Philippines. The stamp honouring this Champion of Liberty became the forerunner of a series of nine sets of two stamps each, issued from 1958 through 1961, known as the Champion of Liberty Series. All the stamps honoured men who fought for freedom in their homelands.

After Ramon Magsaysay’s single commemorative stamp was issued, the rest of the series had two stamps printed for each subject – one in a single colour, and one with three colours. The pairs were also of different denominations. The single colour stamps covered the domestic rate, while the multicoloured stamps paid the international rate, to “carry the message of freedom around the world.”

José de San Martín, Hero of The Andes

Ernst Reuter, Mayor of Berlin

Lajos Kossuth, Governor of Hungary

 

Simón Bolívar, The Liberator

Garibaldi, Italian Unification

Gustaf Mannerheim, Liberator of Finland




Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish Statesman-Artist

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, 1st President of Czechoslovakia

Gandhi, Apostle of Non-Violence

Today's theme in Sunday Stamps was free. I have chosen a series of stamps that I have been recently getting on postcards (Thanks, Bryon!), and intrigued me. Go to see what the rest of participants have come up with!

13 comments:

  1. I'm ashamed to say I've only heard of two of these men - Bolivar and Garibaldi.
    This is an interesting series and each one is slightly different in design.

    But, really, those whiskers on Lajos Kossuth do him no favours!!

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  2. An interesting series of stamps both in design and the choices of men.

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  3. I was not familiar with this series of stamps at all - thanks for sharing them.

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    1. Given current events, maybe we need a new series of stamps titled Champions of Justice.

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    2. I guess these are old to be popular right now, but probably they were on their time.

      Champions of Justice will be a good series.

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  4. I was not aware of this series at all either. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. There must have been lots and lots of this series printed as I still see them used on postage here from time to time 60 years later!

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    1. I think all of these were sent by you. It's a very interesting series. Thanks!

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  6. I was surprised to see that I had heard of all but two of the champions depicted although I was not aware of this series of stamps. I guess Champions of Justice would be controversial.

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    1. All people depicting stamp has its controversy :|

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Thank you for coming. All your comments make me extremely happy.