Coincidence

 Ever hear something and suddenly the next day you see it even though you haven't seen it for quite some time? Claudia, who's a member of the group "stamp collecting" said "Portuguese stamps, where are they?" just 2 days ago. Well lo and behold last night I pulled an envelope out with a few stamps in poor condition that if they were in good shape(they are not) would be great finds for me and one of them happened to be this stamp from Portugal.
 This is King Luiz on an issue from 1870-1884. It's catalogue value, #42 in mine, is $14 when in much better condition. Still a find by my standards of low cost acquisitions.
 King Luiz was a man of science, he invested heavily in research boats that set off to the oceans in pursuit of studying new specimens of ocean life. The reign he held was forced upon him by the deaths of his two elder brothers. He had no political skills to speak of, but his scientific interests far outweighed that in my own view.  I just happen to be reading the memoirs of Thomas Henry Huxley vol. 1 at the present time. who was a philosopher during this time from Great Britain who began his career with the British Royal Navy as a researcher on such a vessel. The first part of volume one was a bit boring, but now I'm half thru and it's picking up. So in a sense, it is even more fortuitous that I ran across this stamp.

JimmyB