Queen Elizabeth II 25th Anniversary Coronation First Day Cover, Liberia postmarked on June 12, 1978.
Liberia
Liberia is a small, tropical country bounded by Guinea, the Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone and owes its foundation to the slave-owning mentality of the early 19th Century. The seed was sown by Thomas Jefferson, who believed that black and white could not co-exist as equals in America, and who thus advocated re-patriation. Southern planters took up the idea and formed the American Colonisation Society' to return freed slaves to Africa, and so remove the example they set other slaves Protestant businessmen put up the money, hoping also to bring Christianity to Africa and thereby open the way for trade; and the US Navy negotiated the necessary Ufld at pistol point. But black people saw America as their home too, and between 1821 and 1850 only 17,000 left to man the new colony.
A constitution similar to that of America was drawn up, but included only the 20,000 Americo-Liberians. The 2 million native Africans had no vote or representation in the new state until the rule of President Tubman in 1944, and strife was consequently no stranger during its early days.
The economy is still based on self-sufficient subsistance agriculture, although the government and missionaries have tried hard to get farmers to grow cash crops for the industrialised nations. Mineral wealth, chiefly iron ore, gold and diamonds, has since the 1950s brought some prosperity, but much remains to be exploited, including vast stands of ebony and mahogany within the dense inland tropical rain-forest
The issue commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Coronation was designed by G. Vasarhelyi, and printed by Format. It was issued on 12 June, 1978.
5c — The Coronation Chair. The historic Coronation Chair, used by every crowned sovereign since Edward II, was built in the reign of Edward I to house Scotland's Stone of Scone.
25c — The Imperial State Crown. Considered by many to be the most beautiful of the royal crowns, the Imperial State Crown is set with 3095 precious stones, mainly diamonds and pearls.
$1 — Buckingham Palace. Built originally for the Dukes of Buckingham, this famous Palace was bought by George III for his wife Queen Victoria was the first monarch actually to live there.
