Observer's

"It is surprising that more do not collect the Philippines, which range from 19th century Spanish colonies, through the US era (interrupted by Japanese occupation) to the present-day republican stamps -- nearly all of them in common everyday use. This is a country offering a great deal to those more interested in stamps as stamps than as an investment or a picture gallery." 

--Anthony New, Observer's Book of Stamp Collecting, Bloomsbury Books, London, revised 1989

loot

One of my all time favorite philatelic writers is Herman "Pat" Herst Jr. (1909-1999) whose works were to span generations of collectors from the 1930s to the 1990s.

In his memoirs as a stamp dealer ("Nassau Street", Amos Press, Ohio, first revised edition, 1988), he relates a story (pp. 128-129) that is of particular interest to Philippine philately, as follows.

"A few months after Japan surrendered, two soldiers came down the hall to my office dragging a heavy trunk along the stone floor. Panting, they pulled it into my office and asked me if I wanted to buy it. It was a solid mass of Philippine stamps, in full pads of sheets, all stuck together so tightly that they seemed like bricks, and almost as heavy.

"'They came from the Manila post office,' one soldier told me. All of Nassau Street knew of the burning and subsequent looting of the Manila post office. As the Japanese withdrew from Manila, they set fire to most of the government buildings. The post office conflagration was the biggest fire Manila had ever seen; it burned for three days. Hundreds of millions of stamps were destroyed; even larger quantities were water-soaked.

"The contents of the trunk consisted of 2-centavo and 4c values. There were hundreds of thousands of them. 'As long as you were getting stamps,' I asked, 'why did you have to take only the lowest values?' 'The colonel got there ahead of us; you should have seen what he took!'

"I felt sorry for the soldiers, having lugged about 300 pounds of stamps halfway around the world, across the Pacific, by train from San Francisco to New York, and then at the end of the trip finding it almost impossible to sell them, especially until soaked apart. The last I heard of the soldiers, they were dragging the trunk down the hall to other stamp dealers in the Morton Building. What they finally did with them I never knew."

(Amos Press is the publisher of Linn's Stamp News, the "World's Largest Weekly Stamp News and Marketplace" and a good source for articles written by Pat Herst.)

new Spanish-Philippines book

A new book has been announced today on the website of the International Philippine Philatelic Society.

Titled Spanish Philippine Postal Issues - Genuine Surcharge Types of 1881-1888: Illustrated Guide, the authors are Don Peterson, Nigel Gooding and Thomas Lera.

1930s or 1940s?

In A Beginner's Pictorial Guide to Stamp Collecting (and How to Organize Stamp Clubs), authors Jorge and Alice Cuyugan say that "We have to admit that Philippine philately will probably be 're-born' to the same levels of the 1930's when stamp collecting was truly our national pastime."

But in From Galleons to Computers: The Story of The Philippine Postal Service, author Chando P. Morallos says that "Prior to World War II, philately in the Philippines was not a popular hobby. It had very few adherents as most Filipinos then did not consider it a worthwhile activity....After the liberation of Manila, however, Filipino philatelists started to stir into life...."

Now, which one hit the mark?

military postal stations

"U.S. Military Postal Stations in the Philippines (1898-1904)" by Geo. S. Goodale is a chapter in the book titled Cyclopedia of United States Postmarks and Postal History edited by Delf Norona.

Copyright year is 1975.

This hardbound book is illustrated in black and white.

Bought my copy by mail in the 1990s from a US bookseller.

beginner's guide

Published locally with a copyright year of 1999 is A Beginner's Pictorial Guide to Stamp Collecting (and How to Organize Stamp Clubs) by Jorge and Alice Cuyugan.

Edited by Amando H. Labayen, Jr., "the dean of Philippine philatelic journalists."

"The first part [of this book] contains a simplified beginners' lecture about stamps and stamp collecting, and the second part proposes some activities required in organizing and operating stamp clubs, a fitting finale to one's entry into the hobby. The presentation ends with a supplement of valuable information to every collector's library of philatelic references." - From About This Book

In writing the book the authors not only consulted publications but also conducted interviews with Severino Luna, Rolando M Garcia, Reynaldo B. De Jesus, Alfredo T. Principe, Darwin M. Maglaqui, Amelia L. Cunanan, Donald James Dane Nye and Ysmael E.A. Inductivo.

This book is illustrated, in black and white for the inside pages. Unfortunately, it is printed in newsprint, which doesn't print the illustrations clearly.

Bought my copy in Cagayan de Oro at the National Bookstore back in the early 2000s.

Interestingly, there is no Philippine stamp illustrated on the front cover!

Spanish mail markings

Another good reference for the Philippine specialist is Mail and Mail Markings of Private Business Firms of the Spanish Philippines by Don Peterson.

Published by the International Philippine Philatelic Society.

Copyright year is 1998.
Printed in black and white, with illustrations.

"This book," says the Introduction, "is a compilation of information on the mail and markings of private business firms of the Spanish Philippines from the late 18th century through 1898. The information, both historical and philatelic in nature, was collected from the Library of Congress, other libraries, auction catalogs, historical documents, and from Philippine stamp and postal history collections. The book represents accumulated data collected over the past 25 years."

My copy is signed "8 of 200" by the author.
Bought it in the late 1990s by mail from Don Peterson in the US.

Harradine handbook

Although dated this Philippine Postage Stamp Handbook, 1854-1982 by Peter W. A. Harradine still is a good reference book.

Copyright year is 1987.
Hardbound.

This detailed list of stamp issues is arranged according to periods in the history of Philippine philately. Quantities for each issue are given, if known, as well as the relative scarcity.

The illustrations, in black and white, are found in plates tucked in between.

Bought my copy by mail in the latter half of the 1990s from a US bookseller.

story of post office

From Galleons to Computers: The Story of The Philippine Postal Service by Chando P. Morallos has a chapter on philately.

Copyright year is 2000 by the Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost).
Issued with a dust cover.

It also has a chapter titled "History through Stamps".

The hardbound book is illustrated in black and white or in color.

This was a gift to me in Cagayan de Oro a few years back.

Spanish Philippines postal history

I didn't know so much could be written about Spanish-Philippine postal history until I read the book Postal History of the Spanish Philippines 1565-1898 by Don Peterson and Geoffrey Lewis.

This hardbound book has a copyright year of 2000.
It is illustrated in black and white.

Bought my copy by mail from Don Peterson in the US.
Came with a dust cover.
Unfortunately, pages 159-174 are upside down!

blast from the past 1

Column by Paulo Alcazaren talks about "Stamps of the Philippines: Historical and Topical Collections 1854-2004".

See--

http://www.philstar.com/modern-living/78188/stamp-stories

The book was written by Lisa Mapua and edited by Mimi de Jesus.

Here's what the columnist says about the hobby:

"Stamp collecting may start as a childhood hobby but it can lead to a lifetime of discovery and enjoyment. I started a stamp collection before I hit my teens. My father traveled widely and sent us postcards. One of my siblings collected the postcards; another collected the matchbooks my dad also picked up in Europe or the States (he stopped smoking decades later). I collected the stamps."