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Tractors

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The tractor was a very important invention for the development of agricultural production throughout the world and tractors on postage stamps can be an interesting topic for the stamp collector. Maybe some of the following shown here will be of interest also.
The stamp above depicts Demeter, the ancient Greek goddess of the harvest, as an allegorical figure representing agriculture, looking down upon tractors ploughing a field, engraved and printed by Thomas De La Rue & Co. Ltd., and issued by Greece in 1951 as one of a set of six stamps publicising Greece’s post-Second World War economic recovery.

The three-value ‘Historical Tractors’ stamps below, issued by the Czech Republic in 2005 feature an American John Deere tractor from 1923, a Germany-produced Lanz Bulldog (1921) and a Czechoslovakian Skoda (1937).

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. There have been several FAO-inspired stamp issues over the years since its formation in 1945 and shown below are two 1962 Freedom From Hunger stamps from Nigeria, one featuring a tractor.

Below is a beautifully illustrated 1972 four-value set from Zambia, one depicting a farmer ploughing a field on a Massey Ferguson tractor.

The Tractorul Brasov Factory (UTB) in Romania dates back to an aircraft manufacturing facility. After World War II, the factory was converted to tractor production. UTB tractors and engines were based heavily on licensed FIAT designs. Universal tractors were widely exported.

 

The first farm tractor imported to New Zealand in 1904 (top left on the above set) was the 12-horsepower ‘Kinnard Haines Flour City’, it was capable of speeds up to five miles an hour. Middle left is a ‘Fordson’. The first mass-produced farm tractor – and the first available at an affordable price for many farmers. Produced by the assembly-line method at a Henry Ford factory, it played a key role in converting farmers to tractors instead of horses. Bottom left is a Burrell steam traction engine, very popular at the end of the 19th century. Top right is a threshing machine and the $2 stamp displays a P & D Duncan seed drill. Duncan’s has a long history in agricultural implement manufacture. Established in 1866, the name still features on farm machinery today. Indeed the seed drill, introduced in 1884, is still manufactured to the same principles of design.

Above, from Iceland 2009, Vintage Agricultural Equipment – a 4-value set featuring left to right an IHC Bulldozer, Ferguson Tractor TF20, Landbaumotor Lanz (turf killer used for levelling hay fields) and a horse-drawn plough.

Liechtenstein issued the above set in 2015. The tractors depicted are a Kaiser Autotractor, a Raimündle tractor, a Unimog utility vehicle and a Fordson tractor.

The 56th World Ploughing Championship was held in Moravske Toplice, Slovenia in 2009. On the Slovenian stamp above is the event’s official logo and a tractor ploughing a field.


From Ireland, 2000 – the 100th Anniversary of the Irish Department of Agriculture (in Gaelic Roinn na Talmhaíochta), stamp showing a tractor working in a wheat field.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. this is amazing.
    I collect on Agriculture, and I found this fascinating. how can I keep getting regular updates on this topic?
    tx
    Ravi Rao, Dubai

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