PHILIPPINE PHILATELIC NEWSLETTER OFFICIAL ORGAN OF INTERNATIONAL PHILIPPINE PHILATELIC SOCIETY 1069 Vito Cruz, Manila, Philippines P.O. Box. 1936, Manila Volume 1 No. 1 July 1974 The much awaited information sheet If we will just sit down and think a or newsletter we Viere hoping tor is final­ moment on these double surcharges, upside ly off the ground and we will try to bring down, sideways, etc... " as long as there it out at least every two months as it costs is any money asked for the item and got­ nothing at this stage. Just hope that J ten for it, what is to prevent anyone from get a good writing mood and that members taking a sheet to a small printer and ha­ will contribute articles Or write in their ving any type of errors he wants made. opinions of certain Philippine issues which we will ioiurn publish. The Postmaster General told me with­ FRANK R. STANFIELD out any hesitation that this is what has been done and whether it is done in the Philippines of elsewhere, he does not know ERRORS IN OVERPRINT: and anyone who would buy this sort of 1 have just noted an ad which readsj thing must have a difficult time finding "Philippines 1972 lOs on double sur­ something to do with his money. charges (1148) ... $12.00; same inverted - scarce, one sheet known POR' While on this subject of errors, ano­ First of all, I was assured personally t.her things that should be generally knOWn by the Postmaster General of the Philip' is that the Bureau of Posts has a policy pine Bureau of Posts, Gene1"al Felizwrd? of printing so many sheets of imperforate R. Tanabe, that these could have not come issues of all stamps printed locally, in order to discourage someone from lifting a sheet out of the Bureau of Posts, and having ob· served their checking procedures, I am con' before it is perforated. This is a common fident that it did not come out of the Bu­ knowledge locally c:.nd should be generally reau legally. known. 2 I have received many inquiries regard­ Philippine stamps were used extensively ing the availability of materials locally for mail from Cuba to Spain. and will give my opinion for what it is worth. In order to qualify myself a bit Due to a letter to the editor publish­ as to my knowledge of the market, I have ed in the Stamp Wholesaler, I did receiv..:! attended" every auction for the last one an offer of three of these covers which I and half years, My wife, Linda Stanfield, purchased and are the only ones I ha\'e is one of the largest buyer of used Philio­ seen. This also applies to collector friends or mine. So, I would assume that th~s pine stamps for her company. As 1 am material now exists only in collections and trying to put together a Postal History most likely abroad, not here. and a Postal Library for future c.ollectors to use, I see a lot of materials, and I tRIO( A leading authority on this period :50 to alI the active dealers in the market. So, Mr. Rogelio de JeswJ, a local dealer who nlY observation are as follows: has a very fine collection of Spanish D..>· minion nnd has a very good knowledge of SPANISH-PHILIPPINE PERIOD: covers, etc... of this period. He has been a dealer since before WW II. Except for a scattering material of 1890-1898 period, nothing is ever seen of U.S_ ADMINISTRATION: this period and even these few bits and pieces are seldom seen. Covers are never This is one area that there has never seen and when anyone mentions them, they been much material offered from except for are always in the }-lands of old Spanish fa­ low values of all issues in bundles of milies U so they haVe heard" but never seen. 100 for packet material. Having heard from a dealer in Spah In the fall of 1973, I made one very and knowing the collecting habits of the good buy of packet materials of this pe­ Filipinos, I would say they are not even in riod all of it having been washed from the collections of the rich as they would FDC's. Any material from this period like to infer, but have gone to Spain where on the whole is nonnally used and is of· the dealers tell Tile they command very .fered as packet materials. high prices. From time to time, I have picked up In buying covers of this period, che~k some good FDC's and a collection Or twoJ, the postmarks closely as these Spanish- of commercially used covers, most of which • 1 3 consisted of errors On covers and in niany In one year, I have seen one N-7 of­ cases were o.e.'s with errors. But these fered outside of a collection and one plate collections came from poorer collectors who block and four cover~. Although collections did not have the money to put together are available, mostly from washed covers, mint collections which here is a STATUS you cannot find N-7, N02, and NB3 exeept SYMBOL. in complete collections. Also, NB3 in mint condition is just not available. And this It would appear that everything of this period is out of the market now and in item is in demand; the used is available collections or used up in packets. but from washed FOG's. Further to this, almost any of the5c FILIPINO REVOLUTIONARY GOVERN­ materials used are normally from FDC'g MENT or THE FIRST REPUBLIC as the postal service use was very limit­ ed at that time. These 8re never seen offered nor are the collections. A lonely stamp with ano­ The covers that I would class as the ther group of used material shows up from rarest and which should be the highest time to time at auctions. A while back, I priced are NI-N3-N4 and NOlj3/4 and saw some of them on documents used as p~'oper revenue but the price was far higher that N02 with the official handstamp. I could afford at the time and I passed N8 is very scarce while N9 is very common. it up. Any of the Nl through N7 are scarce to say the least, but, the... most common of Although again you hear stories about any of theSe in my opinion would be the the rich people having these On cover in N7 as these were 5ssued in large quantity their collections when you push the talk· and due ,to their bring One peso in value er to give specific details who these rich were taken care of. people are, and have they seen them, you COme up with no information. Again, like One dealer here is getting $25.00 the Spanish-Filipino covers, they existlJ wholesale in the States for every N7 011 mostly in people's minds here, as far as FDC that he can ship, whic~ of course lS I can determine. Anyone having any of not very many, although a great many these on cover, I would like to hear about. were made as inflation has set in when this was issued; also, the regular specu' JAPANESE OCCUPATION: lators were back in business with plenty of useless Japanese currency available. Again, here, the material seems t3 have disappeared almost completely from One thing that was reported to me the market either in packets or sheets. A. that was interesting is that the GI's who year ago, Japanese Occupation was offer­ carried large quantities of these material ed in packets of 15 Different for about $2.00, then raised to about $2.90, then home are now dumping it or their heirs they disappeared completely. are. I received a reliable report that !e- • 4 vera} sheets of ,N7 were found in one small As these stamps are almost in sets stamp shop In the States. In any event, and the unbroken sets are the only worth­ there wefe only 17,500 of these stamps while coll'Jctible it~msJ it is felt that Min· issued and as they are necesEary for any­ kus is the only worthwhile catalog for one completing a USA Collection, Japanese use in collecting this area. However, none collection, or Philippine Collection, this is of the catalog reflect the true values (.f Philippine Stamps, as they are mostly very few; it is now just a matter of de­ based on statistics and not in reality. In mand being created in Japan, the USA many c:;ases, these stamp~ were not issued or the Philippines for prices to increase out as sets but issued out -to fill tho? rapidly. postal needs. Postal Stationary of this period also seems to be very scarce in any condition. Let us take the Scott 572-574. If I do know that the cu~ squares of NUX14 you will look in your catalog, you will 2-3 were used in Japanese Occupation see that the 574 is quite t'xpensive while packets a year ago, as well as the NUl 572 and 573 are rather cheap. But 574 is still listed as available in the Philatelic and 2. Division of the Bureau of Posts for 18 Centavos, it's face value, while 573 and The N32/34 set was broken up as a 672 are impossible to find in any condi­ five centavo value which was needed in tion. Here, the only way you can get this the provinces and therefore N32 was is in mint condition and it is scarce, Or by issued for this purpose and even tada}·, washing an FDC for the used.