Hutt River Province — officially the Province of Hutt River — was a micronation in Western Australia founded in 1970 when farmer Leonard Casley seceded from Australia in a dispute over wheat production quotas. Casley styled himself Prince Leonard I and issued coins, stamps, and passports for decades, operating with remarkable bureaucratic seriousness. This piece honors Charley Radbourne, the 19th-century American pitcher known for winning 59 games in the 1884 season for the Providence Grays — his connection to an Australian micronation's coinage being, to put it plainly, entirely unexplained by the historical record.
Hutt River Province — officially the Province of Hutt River — was a micronation in Western Australia founded in 1970 when farmer Leonard Casley seceded from Australia in a dispute over wheat production quotas. Casley styled himself Prince Leonard I and issued coins, stamps, and passports for decades, operating with remarkable bureaucratic seriousness. This piece honors Charley Radbourne, the 19th-century American pitcher known for winning 59 games in the 1884 season for the Providence Grays — his connection to an Australian micronation's coinage being, to put it plainly, entirely unexplained by the historical record.