Harvey I think, therefore I am - I think! 31 Aug 2020 02:13:12pm
Not sure if this should be here or with the Philippines, but here goes. I was looking through my Philippines collection a few minutes ago and noticed something. I have a couple regular stamps that have an O. B. hand written addition and one that has an O. B. hand stamp instead of the overprint. I know they did this occasionally. I have them recorded as the regular stamp, I know this is very picky but should I have them as officials instead? I know it really doesn't matter in the long run but I'm just curious what you think. Does using a written O. B. make them official stamps?
There are numerous Philippine stamps with hand-written or hand-stamped "O.B." overprints which presumably mean the regular postal issue was used by a government official at some level for official correspondence. This would be distinct from the Scott catalogue listings of the official stamp issues of the Philippines. In my experience I have seen at least two reactions to these "unofficial" official stamps--treating them as if the official postal department issues or treating them as defaced stamps to be shunned. They certainly are numerous and are found on far more issues than the Scott-listed officials. Then there are the special class of overprinted officials known as the Bandholz overprints, which have various bolder size fonts of O.B. and come in a variety of colours. For some collectors, these are quite desirable and command high prices.
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Harvey I think, therefore I am - I think! 31 Aug 2020 02:59:08pm
re: Question
Thanks Tom! Mine do not appear to be anything special, so I think I'll just treat them as the regular numbered stamps. To me the couple with the inked O. B. are not grossly done and the one with the large hand stamp is not done badly either. I know to most people it really wouldn't matter, but if I had to consider these to be officials I would have to find the regular stamps again.
Tom, what's with the "Cathotel"? I am a cat person myself and prefer them over most people I know. Most people say you are crazy if you talk to animals. I say if you don't talk to them, how are you supposed to answer their questions? This is not original - I stole it somewhere, I just can't remember where!!
The "cathotel" user name goes back many years when I was setting up my member profile. At the time our family had four rescue cats (my wife is the rescuer, encouraged by our children back then) and this moniker just came to me as a fitting user name. Now we have only one Senior cat who is unquestionably queen of the realm; she currently is curled up asleep on 2/3 of my desk chair behind my back. This is one of her absolute favourite places to relax.
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