<div class="image-550">
<a href="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/first-stamp-1854.webp" rel="lightbox">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/first-stamp-1854-t.webp"  alt="The 10 cuartos stamp" />
</a>
<div>
(The 10 cuartos stamp)
</div>
</div>
<p>
In 1842 the editor of the <i>Seminario Filipino</i>, Don Gregorio Borjas, recommended a system of post offices and Sinibaldo de Mas in his report to the Queen 

in 1842 mentioned the need for a mail service. In 1843, the following year, Governor General Marcelino Oraa y Lecumberri published rules for the safeguarding 

and carriage of the mail. Commercial and private correspondence was intrusted to private carriers while official mail marked S. N. <i>(Servicio Nacional)</i> 

was carried by special messengers or by the Royal Galleys in the interisland communications. 
</p>
<p>
It is reported that an Englishman in Manila suggested the pre-payment of important mail by an adhesive stamp as early as 1842, the design of which was a sun 

surrounded by rays-forerunner of the Katipunan designs. The value was one <i>escudo de oro</i>, about two pesos of our present money (1935 peso value). In the 

original decree, dated Madrid, January 5, and signed by Minister Claudio Anton Luzuriaga, the postage rates for the Philippine Islands carried by municipal 

carriers <i>(polistas and cuadrilleros)</i> were to be 5 cuartos vellon, about 1-1/4 cents of the present currency for local letters. Those for Spain and 

foreign countries were to be 10 cuartos vellon, with proper equivalents in <i>reales de plata</i> and <i>reales de calderilla</i>, another, coinage then 

existent. 
</p>
<p>
In March, 1854, however, the first stamps were produced locally by the Philippine Government. These were mainly for local use, but some found their way to 

Europe on cover as well. The high real values were in the main for registered mail, the cover of which with the stamps was retained by the government as a 

receipt, as in Spain, and these, in consequence, are rarer on cover than the low values. 
</p>


<p>
The design was the head of Queen Isabella II, but so crudely drawn as to make the genuine stamps look like frauds, and as the inks were purchased locally from 

the Chinese stores, these varied, and were not lasting in color. The stamps were made by Filipinos, first engraved and then printed in the establishment of 

<i>Plana, Jorba y Compaña</i> in Manila. The metal plates from which they were printed bore five rows of eight stamps each, and this, due to minor differences, 

caused forty different types. In each sheet of 40 of the 1 real was the error <i>Corros</i> instead of <i>Correos</i> (number 26 in each sheet). For the most 

part these were printed on white wove paper and there were four values. Of the 5 cuartos orange and the 10 cuartos carmine, 5000 each were printed; and of the 1 

real slate and 2 reales green, 2000 each, the first two for ordinary mail the others for registration or heavy letters. There was a change of color in the 10 

cuartos value to rose.  In June and in August, as the low values were exhausted, a further printing was made of a few thousands, distinguished by a new design. 
</p>

<div class="image-550">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/governor-oraa.webp"  alt="Governor General Marcelino Oraa y Lecumberri" />
<div>
(Governor General Marcelino Oraa y Lecumberri)
</div>
</div>
<p>
The entire stamp needs for the Islands were then for the first year less than 28,000, hence their rarity and their value at the present day to collectors. There 

are also many counterfeits of these issues. Spanish usage was to change colors and designs every one or two years and a few thousand stamps of the Cuban issue 

were sent here in 1856 which can only be distinguished by the postmarks. Due to distance, time, and the tardiness in filling orders common in Spain, stamps were 

produced locally, and the troubled political times in the mother country necessitated various overprints and surcharges which, through no fault of the 

government here, has made collecting difficult. In fact it is said that fraudulent marking designs made in Paris, were delivered to the addressee by the postal 

authorities themselves, after fees were paid covering the package through the post office. 
</p>
<p>
In 1863 the printing contract was given to <i>La Ilustracion Filipina</i>. The stamps were of finer designs and the inks good. Issues of Nos. 14 to 20 were as 

follows: 5 cuartos vermilion, 9000; 10 cuartos carmine, 7000; 1 real violet and 2 reales blue, 5000 each; 1 real plata gray-green, 1 real dark-green, and 1 real 

emerald green, the first 7000 copies and the last two 5000 each. This was the end of producing stamps locally for some thirty years. 
</p>
<p>
In March, 1864, there was a protest made by commercial firms, parish priests, and government officials in reference to scandals in handling the sales and the 

high cost of printing. In February, 1863, the printing of 700 stamps cost $85.00; but from this date until 1898 all stamps were printed in Madrid and forwarded 

to the Philippines. Furthermore a new fractional currency came into use in the form of copper coins called marivedies and new rates were made necessary for 

carrying ordinary letters which was 2-4/8ths centimos about 3-1/2 cents of our present currency. 
</p>
<p>
But the amounts varied with the distance the letter went and its importance, running as high as $1.50 (Mex.) for from 15 to 20 sheets of small folio paper. At 

first stamps were retailed outside the main post offices by small cigar stores called <i>estanquillas</i> in Tondo, Binondo, Quiapo, etc., but thefts and losses 

made for their abolishment in 1870. In 1875 there were only twenty-eight post offices in the Philippines, three in Manila, sixteen in Luzon, six in the Visayas 

and three in Mindanao, showing the small use of the mails. Compare this today when the last report gives 1257 post offices in the Islands. 
</p>
<h3>
Stamps of the Revolutionary Government 
</h3>
<p>
The stamps of the Philippine Revolutionary government issued in 1898 and 1899 are known as <i>Aguinaldos or Katipunans</i> the first from Emilio Aguinaldo and 

the second from the designs used, the triangle, sun, and the three stars, said to represent Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The three K's on each stamp are said 

to stand for <i>Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang Katipunan</i>. They were issued by order of the Revolutionary government sitting at Malolos, Bulacan. As the 

retirement of the Spanish government in 1898 had left postal affairs in a chaotic condition, and as the American forces only held Manila and Cavite after 

August, 1898, awaiting the outcome of negotiations in Paris, the conveyance of the mails were a very vital and necessary function in those troubled times. Some 

say that the printing of the Revolutionary issues was done in Barasoin in Bulacan, but this does not sound reasonable as Manila had both the workmen and the 

facilities for doing the work. It may be, however, that the first designs were produced there. 
</p>
<div class="image-550">
<a href="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/revolutionary-stamps.webp" rel="lightbox">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/revolutionary-stamps.webp"  alt="Stamps of the Revolutionary Government" />
</a>
<div>
(Stamps of the Revolutionary Government)
</div>
</div>
<p>
The designs bore the Katipunan triangle, the sun, and the stars in various combinations with the values in the currency of the times. They consisted of a 1 

milisima newspaper stamp in black, the 2 centavos correos in red, and the 8 centavos registration stamp in green. With these were issued a 2 centavos violet and 

a 50 centavos blue telegraph stamps, a brown revenue for receipts, 10 centavos, and a red-brown revenue, without value, for livestock documents. There are a set 

of five large judicial stamps existent also. There are no means of finding out the quantities issued, but these must be large, stocks being still held in 

Hongkong and China, but in the main, being contraband, they were destroyed. Covers that did duty in the mails are not too common. The undersigned when with the 

U. S. Army in Cavite captured a supply of the 2 centavos stamp to the face value of over P60,000, with a half dozen cases of Mabini money printed on newspaper 

stock, but was ordered to burn the booty by higher authority. The issue existed perforate and imperforate and there were two types of the 2 centavos red 

correos, one with deep red burelage and very rare, worth 300 francs, the other bearing the legend <i>"Correos y Telegrafos"</i>, instead of <i>"Correos"</i> 

only, and today worth about 50 francs. 
</p>


First issues of Philippine Postage Stamps