Philippines Stamps (1st Post)

New Entries

Today I will present a few stamps ( a small group, unfortunately..) from Philippines... I bought it a few weeks ago and it was a big surprise for me...it is a lot of stamps from the 60's and 70's and what surprises me the most is the quality of the printings... a great part of the stamps are [Photo] printed but with high quality printings, and this particular fact allowed me to use more detailed scans than those I use to show with [Photo] stamps... I want also to highlight the beautiful designs and colors of some of the stamps...

If you are a usual reader of this blog , you already know that reading catalogs is "Fun" for me , so it is not a surprise if I say I know many stamps that I do not own, I simply know them by reading the catalogs... there is one stamp from Philippines that I have to talk about , because of its beauty... it belongs to a 2 stamps series from 1960 , "World Refugee Year" and the two stamps are identical... if you see it  ,please buy it !!! it is a design of extraordinary beauty..!!

Another thing, much more important, that we learn reading catalogs is to find ways of dividing the time into periods, more or less long..one of the most common ways of doing it is to watch the evolution of the printing and/or the Printing Companies... in this Philippine case, this approach is obvious... 

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1854/1898 : Stamps from Spanish Origin , starting with some Queen Isabella's stamps in 1854 and ending with the stamps from King Alphonso XIII in 1898 (all the stamps printed in Madrid..)

1897 : Emilio Aguinaldo was elected President of the Philippines Republic...only two series were issued under this free government...the printings are internally made and are of general bad quality... 

1899/1935 : in the War US-Spain , the Spanish fleet was destroyed near Manila , and the Paris Treaty was signed between the two countries ; the Philippines were ceded to the US Government for a large quantity of money...( Aguinaldo was first arrested and then he ' allied' himself with the US forces ..).an initial Military government took place and was followed by civil Administration in 1901.. this is the period I choose to call " US BEP"(Bureau of Engraving and Printing).. if you don't know this particular period of Philippines Philately,You have here plenty of Excellent stamps and Printings...from 1926 to 1935 , two great series were issued with several beautiful different designs, always with the Very good [Recess] printings available in those days in the US...so, this a very interesting period and for a US collector it sure is appealing..

1935/1942 : BEP, PBP )Philippines Bureau of Printing)

1942/1944 : The Japanese invasion took place in 1942 and in 1943 the Japanese declared the Philippines as a Republic under the sphere of Influence of Japan...some overprinted stamps and some other original series printed in Tokyo were the most significant that happened before the Republic declaration .. some PBP were the main 'dish' until 1944..

1946/1958 : Independent Republic...this is a period where other great Printing companies choose to work also in Philippines.. so we have stamps from BEP, PBP, ABNC, Waterlow, GPW Tokyo, De La Rue, Courvoisier (in the beginning of the [Photo] period), Bradbury Wilkinson and Enschedé...of course, this is a period where we had the usual one or two color printings..  

1958/... : Independent Republic (Colorful Period).. well, the stamps I have today are all from this period, and the first years have many beautiful, beautiful stamps... 

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Here we have 3 stamps from 1962, the 2nd and 3rd from the same series... the 1st stamp

 is a surcharged stamp and the original is from 1952..

1962 "Fruit Tree Memorial fund" (2) [Recess (ABNC)] Sc(872) [ the personality represented in the design is Mrs. Aurora Aragon Quezon]

1962 "Rizal foundation Fund" (2) [Recess (GPW,Tokyo)] Sc(B21,B22)  [ this post is a nice opportunity to see some printings of the GPW Tokyo , not only the [Photo] but also the [Recess] printings, some of them really good ..]

The originals of these surcharged stamps are from 1962 , from a series with 12 portraits.. this series has the particularity of presenting several different perforations and being printed by 4 different companies...the chocolate brown stamp is printed by another Japanese company called Toppan of Tokyo..the other stamp is a Bradbury and Wilkinson work...

1963 "Surcharge on 'Portraits (1962/1969)" (12) [Recess (Toppan Printing Company,Tokyo)(Bradbury and Wilkinson)] Sc(874,873)

This is the first Colorful series I have to present , but it is not one of the best printed... if You notice carefully we will find some problems in the foot of the figures in the bottom right stamp..these are usual problems in [Photo] printed stamps , with some colors out of their place...but even these stamps present a level above medium , with well printed backgrounds and well defined figures...

1963 "Folk Dances" (4) [Photo (De La Rue)] Sc(889,...,892)

A nice design representing the visit of the President of Mexico...many and bright colors are definitely the Central point of attraction of these stamps...

1963 "Vist of President Mateos from Mexico" (2) [Photo (GPW,Tokyo)] Sc(896,897)

These Kennedy Commemoration series are very common in many of the Countries in the world...after President Kennedy's Assassination , a global wide consternation has hovered over the planet and soon these stamps became even one of the main topics of collection...this is Philippines tribute...

1965 "President Kennedy Commemoration" (3) [Photo (Harrison)] Sc(925,...,927)

starting in 1963 and ending in 1973 (I think....!) and  not annually issued, a group of  8 series with Presidential sayings was issued... the [Recess] printing was done by several different companies and in the end these are very good stamps... I call your attention to the exceptional engraving of the 2nd stamp... I think that it is the better engraving of all of those I present today... you see that the spacing between lines is very small , so the work was abundant and in the end the engraving of the President's face and hair is very , very good.. you can compare it with others with less work, less lines a final result not likely to be highlighted...

1st) 1963 "Presidential Sayings (1st Series) / (President Manuel Roxas)" (2) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson)] Sc(878)

2nd) 1963 "Presidential Sayings (2nd Series) / (President Magsaysay)" (2) [Recess (GPW,Tokyo)] Sc(881)

3rd) 1965 "Presidential Sayings (3rd Series) / (President Elpidio Quirino)" (2) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson)] Sc(883)

4th) 1966 "Presidential Sayings (4th Series) / (President General Emidio Aguinaldo)" (2) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson)] Sc(883A)

5th) 1967 "Presidential Sayings (6th Series) / (President Manuel L. Quezon)" (2) [Recess (GPW,Tokyo)] Sc(883F)

the original from 1966 and a surcharged stamp from 1971...a nice work..

1966 "Antonio Regidor Commemoration" (2) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson)] Sc(944)

1971 "Surcharge on "Antonio Regidor Commemoration" (2) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson)] Sc(1111)

from 1965 to 1968 there are some stamps with complex designs like this, where several points of history or "action" are represented... I like very much this kind of illustration but I don't know who is the designer.. it is a pity (my catalogs show  the designer's name only in the 80's and after...[ but I don't have a Philippine catalog.....]) ..

1966 "Introduction of a new seal for Manila" (2) [Litho (De La Rue)] Sc(954)

Two beautiful Christmas stamps ... [ I think that the proliferation of so many powerful Companies in this period, was very helpful to the general high quality of the [Photo] Printings , because in the end, "nobody wants to be bad in the picture..!" ]

1967 "Christmas" (2) [Photo (GPW,Tokyo)] Sc(976,977)

[Left]  the stamp show us President Marcos and his wife Imelda , picking rice.. 
1969 "Rice for Progress" (3) [Photo (Harrison)] Sc(1025

[Right] stamp from Tourism series showing the fishermen's work...

1971 "tourism (2nd Series)" (4) [Photo (Enschedé)] Sc(1087

a great, great stamp with one of those complex designs.. very beautiful..!!

1973 "Projects Inaugurated by Mrs. Imelda Marcos" (3) [Photo (GPW,Tokyo)] Sc(1216)

well, it was a brief look to the Philippine stamps , and next time I'll have Classic stamps from Luxembourg .. and I have also a lot of work to do...

SeeYou

USA Stamps (10th Post)

New Entries

Today I have more US stamps... the stock keeps bigger and bigger and from times to times I have to update my New US entries...A small selection from stamps of the 60's,70's,80's and even 90's is presented in this post ,particularly some nice engraved stamps... in the last two posts , a vast majority of the stamps were [Photo] printed, so this time the choice was obvious...

Classifying US stamps is an immense joy,not only because of its diversity ,but also because there is a large amount of information about all the little details that "fill" our collectors day to day...I recently bought the Scott 2013 Scott Specialized Catalog,but I didn't had the chance of using it in my classification work, because there was no need...this catalog really makes  the difference when we are talking of the early classics,with lots of those small and "difficult" details...

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A 1st group of stamps from the 60's where I want to highlight the Mixed printings of some of them...it is very rewarding to know the evolution of the printers in BEP (Bureau of Engraving and Printing).. I will leave here a small transcription of  the 'Mystic 2006/2007 US Stamp Catalog' where in resume this evolution is described : "In 1847 , when the presses first began to move, they didn't 'roll', they 'stamped'.. (..) by 1926 , all denominations up to 10c (..) were printed by Rotary Press (..) until the Giori Press was introduced in 1957, all bi-color stamps were printed in two runs on flat presses...The Giori Press utilized rollers to apply different colors of ink at the same time to a plate. the rollers put the ink only where it was needed ,rather than coating the whole surface, so that only one printing run was needed(..)" [ Text ]   

For a very good and detailed Article about this subject , please read "Linns" 

1) The first stamp show us the portrait of Sir Winston Churchill , prominent figure of the WWII Allied movement...a nice engraving by C.A.Brooks in a very famous stamp...
1965 "Honoring Sir Winston Churchill" (1) [Des (Richard Hurd)][Engr (C.A.Brooks)][Recess] Sc(1254)
2) the 2nd and 6th stamps are part of the "American Artist" series.. one stamp for year was issued in this series where a painting from a particular Artist  appear...in this case, the Artist was Mary Cassatt and the painting highlighted was "The Boating Party"...this is a fine example of the usage of the Giori Press (GPP).
1966 "American Artists / Mary Cassatt" (1) [Des(Robert J. Jones) after the painting 'The Boating Party'][Recess (GPP)] Sc(1322)
3) The "Airlift" stamp was used for parcels sent to US servicemen in foreign countries...in this stamp , a usual combination of [Litho] and [Recess (GPP)] printing was used ...
1968 "Airlift" (1) [Des (Stevan Dohanos)][Recess (GPP)][Litho] Sc(1341)
4) A nice stamp representing the Exploring Adventure of  Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet through the Waters of the Mississippi river...

it is a nice stamp, well designed , but like many others in this and subsequent periods has problems with the printing work , where it is visible a small displacement of some colors...

1968 "Father Jacques Marquette and the Mississippi River Exploration" (1) [Des (Stanley W. Galli)][Recess GPP)] Sc(1356)




5) 1968 "75th Anniversary of the Opening of Cherokee Strip to Settlers" (1) [Des (Norman Todhunter)][Engr (J.S.Creamer)][Recess (RPP)] Ac(1360)


(excerpts from a movie from the 20's about this subject)

6) Another stamp from the 'American Artists' series.. the Artist in focus is John Trumbull and his painting 'The Battle of Bunkers Hill'... a beautiful stamp, with printing by GPP..
1968 "American Artists : John Trumbull" (1) [Des (Robert J.Jones)][Recess (GPP)][Litho] Sc(1361)
7) 1969 "Bicentenary of California" (1) [Des ((Leonard Buckley)(H.C. Mildner)][Recess] Sc(1373)
8) The last of this small group of stamps from the 60's is dedicated to the commemoration of the Exploration of the River Colorado by John Wesley Powell in 1869...
1969 "Centenary of Colorado River Exploration" (1) [Des (Rudolph Vendelin)][Recess (GPP)][Litho] Sc(1374)

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The only 3 space stamps from the 70's I have to show today...all of them are commemorating the departure of Space missions to other planets in our system...

1)2) 1975 "US Unmanned Space Accompliesments" (2) [Des (Robert T.McCall 1)(Roy Gjertson 2)][Recess][Litho]  Sc(1558,1557)

3) 1978 "2nd Anniversary of the Landing of 'Viking 1' on Mars" (1) [Des (Robert T.McCall)][Recess][Litho] Sc(1759)

In my opinion , to get a good final result from a portrait engraving is much more difficult than in a landscape or other kind of Engraving ... the portrait really enhances the Master qualities of the engraver.. I must say that neither of the two portraits now presented are master works.. in fact they are far from it ... In the first stamp, representing the Poet Robert Frost , the engraving is very conditioned by the difficult design of Paul Calle , but in the 2nd we should expect something much better , because the design is very helpful (with a clear and linear background and where the usage of the usual engraving Technics for the portrait of Adolph Ochs was possible..)... the design of this 2nd stamp is work of Bradbury Thompson , a very influential Artist in what concerns to stamp Designing in this period...I will focus later in this post to his collaboration with the Engraver Thomas R. Hipschen with the presentation of 3 or 4 important and famous stamps...

The 3rd stamp is a simple commemoration of the Movie Maker D.W.Griffith and in 4th place we have a se-tenant pair of stamps commemorating the Banking and Commerce Activities.. it is very well designed and engraved...

1) 1974 "Birth Centenary of the Poet Robert Frost" (1) [Des (Paul Calle)][Recess] Sc(1526)
2) 1976 "Adolph S. Ochs (Publisher of New York Times)" (1) [Des (Bradbury Thompson)][Recess] Sc(1700)
3) 1975 "Griffith Commemoration" (1) [Des (F.Otnes)][Recess][Litho] Sc(1555)
4) 1975 "Banking and Commerce" (2) [Des (V.J.Ruther)][Recess][Litho] Sc(1577,1578)

3 more stamps from the 70's , the first two from the same series of 1978...nice engraving work..
1)2) 1978 "Bicentenary of Cook's Visits to Hawaii and Alaska" (2) [Des (R.F.Szabo)(J.Katalan)][Engr (E.P.Archer)(J.S.Wallace)(R.G.Culin)][Recess] Sc(1732,1733)
3) 1977 "50th Anniversary of the Opening of the Peace Bridge" (1) [Des (Bernard Brussel-Smith)][Recess] Sc(1721)

As promised above , here are 4 stamps representing some of the joint effort work of Bradbury Thompson and Thomas R. Hipschen ... it is clear the quality of both the design and engraving... 3 of the 4 stamps are already from the 80's but I decided to show them now in a separate section 
1) 1979 "John Steinbeck" (1) [Des (Bradbury Thompson)][Engr (Thomas R. Hipschen)(J.C.Masure)][Recess] Sc(1773)
2) 1984 "Herman Melville Commemoration" (1) [Des (*)][Engr (*)(R.G.Culin)][Recess] Sc(2094)
3) 1982 "Birth Centenary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt" (1) [Des (*)][Engr (*)(T.J.Bakos)][Recess] Sc(1950)
4) 1984 "Eleanor Roosevelt" (1) [Des (*)][Engr (*)(Robert G.Culin Sr.)][Recess] Sc(2105)

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 1)2)3)4) the first 4 stamps are obviously from the same 1981 series about Desert Plants...the stamps were designed by F.J.Waslick) and  Engraved by J.S. Creamer and R.G.Culin .... the series is [Recess][Litho] printed Sc(1942,...,1945)
5) Another Hipschen engraving, a truly excellent one!!..please see that  the work remind us of an old document  or an ancient engraving , but the illustrations were made by Richard Schletch of Virginia for this joint issue of US and Germany...


1983 "300th Anniversary of the First German Settlers" (1) [Des (Richard Schletch)][Engr (Thomas R. Hipschen)(T.J.Bakos)][Recess] Sc(2040)
6) stamp commemorating the life and work of the Novelist Horatio Alger.. the design was based in the cover of one of his books...
1982 "150th Birth Anniversary of Horatio Alger (Novelist)" (1) [Des (Robert Hallock)][Engr (G.J.Slaght)(G.M.Chaconas)][Recess] Sc(2010)
7) Horace Moses was the founder of the Junior Achievement Training Organization...his portrait was designed by Dennys Lyall and has another competent engraving work by Thomas Hipschen.  Sc(2095)

Two stamps commemorating the Veterans of the Korean and  I Word Wars...The first stamp was engraved again by Hipschen and the 2nd by the Polish Engraver Czeslaw Slania, considered by many as the world's best Stamp engraver...The designs are respectively of  Robert A. Anderson and Richard Scheaff ....Sc(2152,2154)

To end this post , I've got a small section dedicated to a PDSMID (Please Don't Show Me In Detail) stamp...

in a first view you can see a normal and somehow appealing stamp, but if you click on the picture to see it's detailed view, You will find a very weak design work,where all the faces in the crowd seem like pictures of a bad comic book...

1983 "American Sports Personalities Series [Babe Ruth]" (1) [Des (R. Gangel)][Engr (J.S.Wallace)(G.J.Slaght)][Recess] Sc(2046)

and now a "Cinderella" stamp

SeeYou

Turkey Stamps [8th Post]

New Entries

I have designated this post to show some new Turkish entries in the collection... but two possibilities were 'on the table'... or showing and talking of two large series of definitive stamps, or a group of several series from the 40's to the 60's...In the end , I choose the last option and so we will have many small series ,most of them completed...

I want to talk a little about the changes I've made in the Post Title's...in the old way , I choose a stamp or a group of stamps showed in the post to create the title... the problem is that after a small analysis to the Blog movement of viewers , sometimes people just appear in the blog waiting for something else... they were unwittingly 'deceived' by the title.. they enter the blog and leave almost immediately.. well I don't like to deceive people , so the new titles will say exactly what is the content of the post (what is the post about..)..I think this is the correct thing to do...!

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all the stamps that will be shown today in this post are [Photo] Printed... the Scanner resolution is 300ppp for all stamps..

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the stamp represents President Ataturk in the role of Professor teaching young students...

1938 "10th Anniversary of the Reform of the Turkish Alphabet" (6) [Photo (Courvoisier)] Sc(802)

These are the stamps that were missing in this series.. the others were presented in a previous post...it is a very famous series with focus on the figure of Kemal Ataturk.

1939 1st Death Anniv of Kemal Ataturk (8) [Photo (Courvoisier)] Sc(833,834,837,840)

1947 "International Railroad Congress, Istanbul" (3) [Photo (Courvoisier)] Sc(960,...,962)

1956 "20th Anniversary of the Death of Mehmet Akif Ersoy (Author of the Turkish National Anthem) (3) [Photo (Ankara)] Sc(1219,...,1221)

1957 "400th Death Anniversary of Fuzuli (Muhammad bin Suleyman) / Poet" (1) [Photo (Istanbul)] Sc(1258)

1960 "Independence of the Republic of Cyprus" (2) [Photo] Sc(1484,1485)

A nice series about the Olympics of Rome in 1960...

1960 "17th Olympic Games , Rome" (5) [Photo (Courvoisier)] Sc(1488,...,1492)

1960 "Centenary of the Journalism in Turkey" (2) [Photo (Courvoisier)] Sc(1495,1496)

1960 "Revolution of 27 May of 1960" (4) [Photo (Harrison and Sons, Ltd)] Sc(1502,...,1505)

This period of Turkish Philately is rich in 'poster like' designs... in fact, many of the Stamp Designers (in the World..) from the 40's, 50's and 60's were Poster designer's and worked  for the industry of Publicity and Marketing or just for the war effort (in the 40's) ...this series is a good example of that Background with at least two designs that could be very nice posters or movie advertisers...

1961 "50th Anniversary of Turkish Air Force" (3) [Photo (Istanbul)] Sc(1515,...,1517)

A series about an Astronomical Observatory in Turkey... two views of the building and what could be a sextant (I don't know what it is...) , together with a portrait of Fatin Gokmen (1877/1955) , astronomer responsible for the constant upgrade of the Kandilii Observatory...he was recently honored with his name in one of the last Astronomical Discovery (a dwarf planet, now called Fatin.)... these far and distant objects ,first receive a name only with numbers , but then they are a good opportunity for the International Scientific Community to honor the Global Heroes of the Past...  Nice..!

1961 "50th Anniversary of the Kandilli Observatory" (4) [Photo (Istanbul)] Sc(B81,...,B84)

1963 "600th Anniversary of the Conquest of Edirne (Adrianople)" (4) [Photo (Istanbul)] Sc(1587,...,1590)

Kemal Ataturk represented again in this series commemorating the Anniversary of the Republic...

1963 "40th Anniversary of Turkish Republic" (3) [Photo (Istanbul)] Sc(1604,...,1606)

the stamp with Kemal Ataturk staring at the Airplanes in formation,is very well imagined.. nice stamp..

1965 "40th Anniversary of the Turkish Aviation League" (3) [Photo (Istanbul)] Sc(1633,...,1635)

These are very good representatives of the Graphic Design applied to stamps..

1965 "Telecomunications Meeting of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO)" (3) [Photo (Istanbul)] Sc(1636,...,1638)

3 large stamps ...

1966 "400th Anniversary of the Death of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent" (3) [Photo (Ankara)] Sc(1715,...,1717)

It is the end of the post and I want to say that I don't like doing this kind of posts , just showing stamps and without no personal opinions, but today it is what  I've got , because I'm  again in a 'no talk' kind of day...

SeeYou