Word: liechtensteins
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...last count, there were 72 princes and princesses of Liechtenstein, which is eleven more highnesses than there are square miles in the minuscule principality. Luckily for the postal system, only a dozen Von und zu Liechtensteins actually live in Liechtenstein. Indeed, it was not until 1937 that a hereditary ruler actually made his home in the drafty, 13th century family fortress, whose battlements rise starkly above the capital of Vaduz (pronounced Vah-dootz). There last week, amid eulogies and thunderous renditions of Heil Liechtenstein, Franz Josef II Maria Aloys Alfred Karl Johannes Heinrich Michael Georg Ignatius Benediktus Gerhardus Majella...
...fear of overcrowding its pocket paradise, Liechtenstein (pop. 18,000) has granted citizenship to only a dozen foreigners since 1950, and worries mightily over its rising birth rate. An unsullied blend of lush meadowland and soaring Alpine peaks, the nation nestles so unobtrusively between Austria and Switzerland (since 1924 it has shared currency, customs services and foreign service with the Swiss) that vacationers driving through are often unaware that they are even in Franz Josef's fief. This bothers Liechtenstein's government not at all, for, as Prime Minister Alexander Frick once observed, the sight of idle tourists...
Salami for Rubbernecks. Even to shuttle summer traffic through the country, Liechtenstein grudgingly has to double its police force, which consists normally of 18 men and a dog named Rex. The well-named Quick Tourist Office concentrates its energies on selling visitors Swiss watches, Belgian francs and Liechtenstein cuckoo clocks, which are made in West Germany. Since the country's medieval castles bear signs saying "No Castle Visiting," insistent rubbernecks usually get to see the salami skin factory or else one of two plants where strikingly healthy Liechtensteiners turn out false teeth and artificial limbs for world markets...
Though it boasts one of the world's highest living standards, German-speaking Liechtenstein is in every happy sense a have-not nation: it has no unemployment, slums, Communists, crime, TV or radio station, airports, divorces or billboards. Neutral in both world wars, it has had no soldiers since 1939, when the only remaining warrior died in bed. Its maximum income tax rate is 10%; corporate taxes are so liberal that more than 2,000 foreign firms have registered headquarters in Vaduz. While it is a constitutional democracy, Liechtenstein virtually dispenses with politics. There are two parties, known...
...only dabble in stamps to the considerable number of absorbed adult collectors who spend at least $1,000 a year. Harmer's alone last year turned over $3,000,000 worth of stamps by auction or private sale. Several small nations that philatelists consider particularly interesting-including Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino, the Vatican and lately Ghana-depend on selling their stamps to collectors as a way of replenishing their treasuries. Pitcairn Island, where the Bounty mutineers settled, receives almost half its revenue from stamps that never see Pitcairn but pass directly to stamp dealers from a printing plant...