Yesterday's bureaucracy is today's curiosity.
February 27, 2017 7:25 AM   Subscribe

 
This is phenomenal. Thank you for sharing!!
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:30 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


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posted by ellieBOA at 7:33 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


This is the venn overlap of two of my favorite small facts:

1 -- Queen Elizabeth II does not have a passport. Why? Because UK passports are issued in her name, so she is her passport.

2 -- (this one may be apocryphal; I can't find the link I read on it) As part of an audit of the Vatican's finances some years ago, they found vaults full of chests of cash, including what would be millions and millions of dollars from countries that no longer exist.
posted by Etrigan at 7:35 AM on February 27, 2017 [6 favorites]


I have my old, expired passport with stamps from a trip into Berlin and out (via roads!) through the DDR in 1988. I treasure it!
posted by wenestvedt at 7:59 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


Thank you for this post! I love passports. I really think we need more city-states like Fiume.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 8:30 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


1 -- Queen Elizabeth II does not have a passport. Why? Because UK passports are issued in her name, so she is her passport.

"Passport, sir?"

"I don't have one, I'm the Queen of England."

"Sir, you're clearly a 32 year old American man. You must have a passport to enter this country."

"I don't have a passport because I'm the Queen of England."

"Can't argue with that. Enjoy your stay, sir."
posted by Sangermaine at 10:58 AM on February 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


I have one in my pocket which says

EUROPEAN UNION
UNITED KINGDOM OF
GREAT BRITAIN
AND NORTHERN IRELAND

on the front. It seems very unlikely all of the above will be true when it expires.
posted by ambrosen at 1:20 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


Brings to mind Mayakovsky's ode to a Soviet Passport.

I suspect my passport will be Scottish before too long, and I will kind of miss the old port-wine British one. What could have been…
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 4:03 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


what a weird coincidence! a coworker was showing me her late uncle's british palestine passport today, a few hours before i saw this post.

i'd say someone should try to use one of these things with CBP today as a joke, except they'd probably disappear you before you could say just kidding...
posted by wibari at 12:05 AM on February 28, 2017


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