Spanish-Philippines Habilitado Por La Nacion Overprints 1868 -
1874 Nigel Gooding Collection Habilitado Por La Nacion The
revolution that led to the dethronement of Queen Isabella II was the work of
army oligarches led by Francisco Serrano
y Domingues and Progressive conspirators
behind General Prim y Prats, the Prime Minister. The Democrats became active in setting up
juntas after the revolution. The Democratic intellectuals' main contribution
was to add a radical democratic content to the demands of the military
oligarchy. The generals were determined to keep the leadership of the revolution
in their own hands by channeling it into
a constitutional monarchy. On September 30, 1868, the Revolutionary
Committee in Spain, prompted perhaps by a revengeful spirit as well as a desire
to emphasise the change in form of the government, decreed that the legend
"HABILITADO POR LA NACION" (Validated by the New Government),
should be surcharged on all remaining stamps of the 1864 issue while awaiting
a new delivery of stamps ordered from the Fabrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre in Madrid. Over a six year period, a
number of other Queen Isabella issues were also overprinted in order to meet
the increasing demand of stamps whilst awaiting further deliveries from December 1868: 3-1/8c Black, 6-2/8c Green,
12-4/8c Blue and 25c Red issues of January 1, 1864 [Scott #s 35-38] Many varieties of hand stamping dies for these
surcharges were made at the Casa de la Moneda, in The surcharging was done very hastily by
Filipino employees of the ordinary class, and because there were no specific
instructions given on how to apply the overprint to the stamps, there are
many varieties in usage, as well as errors. As a result, stamps are found
with the surcharge applied vertically, reading upward or downward; diagonal,
reading upward or downward; inverted; doubled; or in any combination of these
possibilities. |