doug2222usa wrote:
I looked in the Prinet specialized catalog of Belgium and
found nothing like what you describe.
Do you know why they're called "Eisenhower" reprints?
Eisenhower was of course the "Supreme Commander" of the Allied Forces...so directives would emanate from Supreme Allied HQ, in other words his office...probably not his idea, he would just sign-off on the orders, but as titular figurehead his name goes on them...
As for why they were made, this is a long-shot and maybe I'm being too imaginative, but here goes:
In the 1930's, when many people were emigrating from Europe, they needed something portable to convert their wealth into...Germany had severe restrictions on buying foreign currency (see for instance Adam Tooze 'Wages of Destruction'), don't know about other countries; gold or silver jewelery, bars or coins could be bulky and conspicuous (everyone knows what gold looks like), and art or antiques would be even bulkier. Stamps were small and easy to carry, they could even be smuggled if need be (Herman Hearst discusses this in his memoir 'Nassau Street'). Many people fleeing Germany would sell all their assets, buy some stamps and carry the stamps to America, then sell them to dealers. The dealers apparently operated a busy trade, then mailing those stamps back to Europe making sales to dealers in Germany, and the cycle begins again.
So, to my theory...what if a similar movement of refugees was projected at war's end? During the war years in Germany, many people were earning good salaries in the war economy, but being a war economy, there was nothing to buy (no consumer goods, factory production all focused on military materials). Thus, banks held enormous amounts of savings. These of course were entirely in Nazi-era Deutchesmarks, which would become worthless with the end of the war and collapse of the government. So, everyone would be looking to get their money *out* of cash and *into* a commodity which could be converted at a later date into the new currency.
What if the Allied HQ projected this, and wanted to negatively influence this, some sort of punishment to the Germans...produce a bunch of reprints of classic stamps, distribute them in the market, people buy them thinking they've safely hedged their money, then at a later date they're told be dealers 'sorry this looks like a forgery/reprint with little/no value'.
And for those who are thinking 'oh, Allied HQ would have more important things, military things, to be thinking about, consider the attention given to artworks and historic buildings ('The Rape of Europa', Lynn Nicholas). An entire department staffed with army officers with Art History backgrounds was created, with officers posted to the front line, driving around in jeeps (using scarce fuel rations) immediately after liberation of territory, checking on the status of thousands of famous paintings and buildings, lists of which had been drawn up in advance.
Strangely however, it is being said that there is no mention of this in specialized catalogues, so maybe its an anecdotal story that never really occured?
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