Major Site Updates

November 2010

New Section created specific to the Habilitado por la Nacion (HPLN) issues which were previously included under other sections. Further work to take place to tidy up this section further.

Specialised Catalogues created for the Isabella and HPLN issues. Plan is to provide similar specialised lists for all other eras over time.

August 2010:

New Isabella Forgery discovered – 5c 1859 issue printed in black (Gooding #10F5)

October 2009:

New Section Created: Zambales Tribunal Cancellation. Providing listing of all known covers with this town cancel.

September 2009:

New Section Created: Printers Waste. Providing full listing of all knows Printers Waste on postal stamps.

August 2009:

New Section Created: Non-Philippine Circular Date Stamps. Aimed to highlight stamps from the Spanish-Philippines postmarked in Hong Kong, Singapore or Saigon. This complements the earlier section of B62 Hong Kong postmarks, as being other types of cancels used on Spanish Philippine issues. Thanks to Don for added input on this section and for supplying a list of stamps in his collection with these types of cancels.

June 2009:

Three new Perfins discovered and added: SB&Co on Scott #85 (10c King Alfonso XII issue); SB&Co on Scott #86 (12-4/8c Bright Rose); and RR&Ca on Scott #57 (20c Violet Brown).

One new Inverted Date Postmark discovered and added: Correos – Manila CDS, being the first recorded example on this particular cancellation.

New Section Created: 1881 – 1888 Surcharge Era. Major work undertaken to create a section dedicated to all Scott listed issues from this period, including all known types of surcharges for each issue. Special thanks are extended to Don Peterson and Rick Miggins for their valuable help and knowledge sharing. This section would not have been possible without major collaboration between Don and Rick, and for allowing stamps from their respective collections to be featured on the website.

One new B62 HongKong Cancel discovered and added: Scott #79 (2-4/8c King Alfonso XII – First Retouch issue).

Postal Rates section has been changed to simplify the tables. This has now also been expanded to include Interior and Overseas Newspaper and Circular Rates.

May 2009:

The 1854 and 1855 Isabella covers pages have been updated, with many thanks to Antonio Cuesta for providing valuable information to allow greater accuracy around these covers. A few covers have been removed due to duplication.

Updates to Isabella pages (1847 to 1862) completed.

April 2009:

The Queen Isabella stamp section is being revamped to include new information and also provide details of various Royal Decrees and Circulars issued in each year. This will be an ongoing project to bring the rest of the stamp pages up to date and refreshed as the data contained on the old pages have not been updated for a few years !!!

March 2009:

A new section has been added featuring two recorded stamps with postmarks showing inverted centre dates. Thanks once again to Don for sharing his stamp to also feature in this section.

February 2009:

The Postal Rates section has been completed to show various postal rates across the Spanish period.

Yet another Queen Isabella forgery has been added to the Isabella Forgery Section – 10 Cuartos 1863 issue (Gooding #15F3).

January 2009:

A new section featuring ‘SN’ and ‘RS’ Manuscript markings on Official stampless mail has been added under General Topics. I would like to extend my thanks to Pedro Ortiz for sharing his covers with me allowing me to feature some of them in this Section.

November 2008:

Major work carried out with extensive support from Geoffrey Lewis to update the known covers for Scott #s 1 -7. These links now show all known covers for the 1854 and 1855 issues and provides pictures of available covers. If anyone has knowledge of any additional covers, please email me so these can be added.

October 2008:

A new section featuring ‘Private Business Firms Business Handstamps’ has been added under General Topics. This section provides a listing of various Private Business Firms known to have used Handstamps on letters and other correspondence. I am pleased to have major support and assistance from Don Peterson, who has also allowed me to use the information contained in a Handbook he published covering this topic. Plan is to expand this section over time with new finds and additional data not included in the original Handbook. Hopefully, it will help fellow collectors identify various cancellations on postal issues that contain such handstamps.

One more inclusion in the Isabella Forgery Section, with a new discovery added: 1855 stamp issued in 10-Cuartos as opposed to the normal stamp of 5-Cuartos. Furthermore, issued in blue-grey instead of vermilion (Gooding #6F17).

Another new section featuring known Forged Cancellations has been added under General Topics. This section will continue to be expanded with discoveries of other forged cancellations on postal issues.

Further research is currently underway to expand the Isabella Covers Section for the 1854 and 1855 issues. This is a collaborative exercise with support from Don Peterson and Geoffrey Lewis, with further support anticipated from Mario Que, Antonio Questa and other sources.

September 2008:

Yet another inclusion to the Isabella forgery section, with one new discovery added: 12-4/8c 1864 issue in Green (normal color being blue – Gooding #23F4).

August 2008:

A new section featuring the ‘Revisado Handstamps’ has been added under General Topics. Special thanks to Don Peterson and Rick Miggins for assistance with information and scans supporting this section.

April 2008:

A new Reference Section has been added this month. I am in the process of converting a lot of smaller articles to electronic (pdf) format. This section will be constantly updated with new additions to my personal reference library. Please email me if you are interested in receiving copies of any listed Articles.

January 2008:

A month of two new (previously unrecorded) discoveries:

·        Forgeries: 3-1/8c 1864 Queen Isabella II issue - Scott #21F7

·        Specimens: 2m Green Newspaper Stamp with Type 3 Muestra Overprint – Scott #P14

Further expansion has been done to include known stamps and covers with Postal Cancellations covering the King Alfonso XII period.

August 2007:

Changes to the Isabella Stamps section providing details of the plates of the 1854 issue. This amends the original classification of the 10c Black from a proof to being plate one of this issue.

King Amadeo and First Spanish Republic Stamp Forgeries - New Sections created detailing known forgeries between 1871 and 1874, excluding the Habilitado por la Nacion overprints. The Habilitado overprints will be added in due course.

Expansion to include known stamps and covers with Postal Cancellations up to the 1874 First Spanish Republic issues.

July 2007

Three more Isabella forgeries have been added: Scott #1F9, Scott #6F16 and Scott #23F3. The last one is thanks to another new find by Don Peterson. Thanks again to Don for sending me another batch of forgeries to review and comment on.

I have re-classified the 3-1/8c stamps that were previously believed to be Essays of the 1864 issue as forgeries. These are now listed as Scott #F21F6 and are known to exist in shades of black and rose. One of these stamps has been sent to Comex to obtain formal certification to verify this conclusion.

June 2007:

New Section added: Philippine Military Mail to Cochinchina. This details the history of the French-Spanish Campaign in Indochina, including Filipino involvement between 1858 and 1862. A total of six known covers are shown, all addressed to Ignacio Garreta, an engineer on the Spanish warship ‘Jorge Juan’, which was one of two Spanish naval ships that made regular mail and supply runs between Manila and Indochina to support the Spanish and Filipino soldiers.

May 2007:

Layout of the website has been modified in an aim to consolidate the sections which hopefully makes navigating the site easier.

I have re-established the Queen Isabella Covers Section. Aim is to highlight as many of the key covers as I can for the issues with low numbers of known covers. For other issues (1856, 1859 and 1864) to depict a few interesting covers and mixed postal cancellations as well as usage. If anyone has a cover they wish to add to the site, please send me a scan and will be happy to include.

Work is currently underway on updating the Postal Cancellation section. A long way to go to get it populated but will be interesting to come up with what we know as the earliest and latest usage of each of the different postal cancellations. I am sure these will change dramatically over time, but will be good to have a centralised database for known examples and corresponding dates.

March 2007:

Four more Isabella forgeries were added to the site (#6F15, #11F3, #21F5, and #23F2). Also updated to reference four existing forgeries as created by the Senf Brothers (#2F1, #4F1, #7F1 and #16F2). It still amazes me that there are yet more forgeries for this first Spanish period. General tidy up on the forgeries was also carried out. This part of the site is now fully updated with all known forgeries of the Isabella period. I am sure there are others out there waiting to be included.

November 2006:

Three new sections have been added – ‘Gutter Pairs’, ‘B32 HongKong Handstamps’ and ‘Municipal Town Cancels’. As always, please forward any additional information to help expand these and any other sections of the website.

New Specimen find – 5c 1871 issue, previously unrecorded as having the Muestra overprint. Table has been updated to now show that each value of this set is known with the Type 1 Specimen overprint.

July 2006:

Thanks to fellow forgery collector Carl Walske, we have added a further 4 forgeries to the Isabella section (#1F8, 4F9, 10F4, 22F4 plus one more that I managed to obtain in a mixed lot through ebay (#24F4).

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