8 incredibly bizarre postage stamp controversies

Stamps are the kind of thing we only think about on two occasions: when the postage rates increase or when we need to mail something and don't have one.

And you wouldn't think that something as innocuous as the little piece of paper that your grandmother uses to make sure you get your birthday check each year would be capable of raising eyebrows. But you would be wrong.

Here are eight postage stamps that sent the masses into an uproar…

Mexico Issues Most Racist Stamps Ever

In May 2005, Mexican President Vicente Fox sparked a healthy amount of outrage when he stated that Mexican migrant workers took jobs in the United States that "not even blacks" would want. He later expressed regret for making the statement and insisted that his comments were misinterpreted. In an epic display of the most horrible timing imaginable, a few weeks later the Mexican government introduced a line of postage stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of this:

Kind of makes that statement about jobs seem like the "I Have a Dream" speech, yeah?  What you're looking at is the cover of Memin Pinguin, a comic about a character who allegedly often finds himself the butt of jokes because of his appearance and mannerisms.

And here are the stamps.

When controversy erupted over the stamps, Mexican officials argued that Memin Pinguin was a product of the period when he was created and should not be interpreted as racist. This prompted then White House press secretary Scott McClellan to respond that "racial stereotypes are offensive no matter what their origin. The Mexican government needs to take this into account. Images like these have no place in today's world."

Mexico responded by mentioning that they weren't offended when the United States brought Speedy Gonzales to the world in 1953.

The United States Flag Gets an Extra Stripe

The stamp in question.

Philately might sound moderately dirty, but it's really just the study of stamps and postal history. Being that an entire subset of the world's population spends their free time obsessing over the most inane details of every stamp the government releases, it should come as no surprise that the error visible in the above stamp was picked up on pretty quickly.

In case you're not seeing it, allow us to demystify things. There are 14 stripes on that flag. As history has (we hope) taught you, the U.S. flag only has 13 stripes.

The error was first mentioned in a letter to the editor in Linn's Stamp News, a magazine we assume you all subscribe to. But the story really picked up steam when it was posted on the website Stampsofdistinction.com.

Postal officials later admitted that they were indeed aware of the error. The extra stripe was added to give the flag "more definition," which is kind of like adding a third boob to a picture of a beautiful woman because "everyone loves breasts."

Niue Splits Up the Royal Wedding

How excited are you about the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton? Yep, we don't give a shit either, but plenty of people do. At first glance, it would appear that the tiny island nation of Niue is looking forward to the festivities. After all, they did release a set of official postage stamps to commemorate the event. That's going above the call of duty if we've ever heard of it. You'd be hard pressed to get us to even show up at a wedding unless the promise of an open bar reception was somewhere in the invite.

But this might be a case of looks being more than a little deceiving. The layout of these stamps has prompted some to question whether they're celebrating the royal wedding or mocking it. For one thing, the stamps are perforated in a way that splits the happy couple right down the middle, which seems to suggest that the people of Niue think the marriage won't last. To be fair, they've totally got history on their side in that argument.

And then there's the matter of the stamps' denomination. Prince William's is worth more than Kate Middleton's. The patriarchy!

But some argue that this "controversy" is just a ploy to drive up the price of these stamps on the collector's market. We're not so sure about that, though. As you're about to learn, the Brits take their stamps pretty damn seriously.

Roger Taylor Breaks British Rules By Not Being Dead

So here's the deal: According to British law, the only living people allowed to be portrayed on postage stamps are members of the Royal Family. Everyone else just has to die. Like Freddie Mercury, for example. He got his awesomely mustached mug plastered on a stamp as part of the "Great Britons" Millennium Stamp series issued in 1999 by the Royal Mail.

That's all to the good. Freddie Mercury was a stone cold legend and more than worthy of the hono(u)r. The problem is that Queen drummer Roger Taylor can be seen, albeit just barely, in the picture that was chosen for the stamp also. His current state of aliveness does not meet the stringent "being dead" requirement.

Cue the royal outrage, British Philatelist Peter Jennings:

I am extremely surprised that the Royal Mail has broken the strict rule that no living person other than a member of the Royal Family may appear on a British postage stamp. Roger Taylor is clearly shown behind a set of drums proclaiming the name Queen on a stamp which depicts lead singer Freddie Mercury.

Clearly, there's only one acceptable resolution to this controversy. Someone is going to have to kill Roger Taylor. We're sorry, but rules are rules, people.

Robert Johnson Kicks the Habit

Fans immediately notice something odd about this stamp.

Let's get one thing clear right away, the fact that the feds decided to put blues legend Robert Johnson on a postage stamp is awesome. You won't find us complaining about that decision at all. But the tribute wasn't without controversy.

In a case of political correctness gone horribly overboard, the cigarette dangling from Johnson's mouth in the iconic photo used on the stamp was edited out of the picture. That's something like putting Flavor Flav on a postage stamp and editing out his famous clock. It's an artistic decision rendered even more egregious by the fact that only two known pictures of Johnson even exist. The cigarette is present in both.

Some other artistic liberties were taken also. The picture was colorized and, call us crazy, but it kind of looks like Johnson is wearing lipstick. That hardly seems necessary. Anyone who's ever listened to a Robert Johnson record knows the music is the very definition of stripped down. His stamp should have been the same. We'd probably send a lot more mail these days if our stamps looked like this:

But there was a lesson to be learned from all of this. That lesson, sadly, is that the Postal Service gives not a frick what we think. A few years later, they issued a Jackson Pollock stamp and did the exact same thing.

England Celebrates Nazi Sympathizing Family Planner

Those wacky Brits just can't win when it comes to postage stamps. If people aren't pitching a b***h over living people pictured on stamps, they're losing their shit just because a family planning pioneer honored by the Royal Mail just happened to also be a Nazi sympathizer who thought poor people, sick people and people of mixed race should be sterilized. So uptight, England!

We kid, of course. England's decision to put Marie Stopes on their stamps was caused by her being credited with opening the first ever birth control clinic in Britain in 1921 -- a true feminist hero! But take into account that Stopes' clinics were generally clustered in impoverished areas, which we're sure is just coincidental to the fact that she was a proponent of reducing the birthrate in poor areas in the name of "racial progress." Add to that the fact that she also attended a 1935 Nazi congress on population science and once sent Hitler a book of love poems. LOL.

The Other Statue of Liberty

The stamp.

Imagine mistaking the actual Statue of Liberty for the hussied-up knockoff version that resides in front of the New York New York Casino in Las Vegas.

That's exactly what happened when the Postal Service issued a new Statue of Liberty stamp this past December. Like all good stamp controversies, this one was outed by the fine folks at Linn's Stamp News. You just can't get shit past them.

What's really troublesome about this story is how the error happened. Turns out the Postal Service just pulled a shot of Lady Liberty off of a stock image site and plastered that shit on a stamp. How fricking lazy is that?

The government remains defiant in the face of criticism, though. Even though the stamps include a brief write-up about the history of the real Statue of Liberty, not the knockoff Vegas replica, they swear that this is the picture they would have used for the stamp no matter what. Apparently, the real thing is just a little too homely for public use.

Real (left) and knock-off (right).

While we do agree that fake Liberty has the nicer grill, she's also built like a total softball player. For one thing, her arms are skinnier. But we'll take the real thing any day, thank you very much.

UPDATE: Making things even worse, a federal court has ruled that the post office must pay the replica's sculptor $3.5 million for violating his copyright.

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  1. 13 years ago
    svarti

    Ok, i’m gonna talk about the Memin Pinguín issue. First of all, yeah, he’s black, but he’s not african-american, he’s in fact cuban. By those times where Memin pinguín was created, a lot of cubans were tresspasing to Mexico before the Castro dictation took place. I know you haven’t read any of this comics because you’ll have notice that although Memin is poor, also the rest of the characters are too. He used to simbolize the struggle of daily Mexican life, and that’s why so much people in Mexico really like him.

    • 13 years ago
      abrown

      And the Frito Bandito used to symbolize our love of delicious snack chips, but that doesn’t mean it was right.

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