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At
any rate it had become apparent by May, 1889,
that the stock of adhesive SELLO stamps on hand greatly
exceeded the demand for those stamps, while
there was at this time a shortage of certain other stamps.
Hence, on May 8, 1889, the Governor -General
issued a decree which authorized the use of l-peso and 2-pesos
Polizas de Bolsa (Clearing House Certificates) stamps as Derechos
de Firma stamps. It is evident from Article 55 of the
Decree of May 16, 1886, above quoted
that by Polizas de Bolsa stamps was meant adhesive SELLO stamps. On. July
II, 1889, the Governor -General issued another
decree authorizing the use of adhesive SELLO stamps as a substitute
for Derechos de Firma and Giro stamps. This
decree was as follows:
It is to be noted that, although they were not authorized by the Royal Decree of May 16, 1886, nevertheless, adhesive SELLO stamps of the 5-centimos, 10-centimos, and 40 centimos denominations were included in the series which was issued on January 1, 1888, This series consisted of the sane twelve denominations which war authorized for stamped paper by Article 1 of the decree, above quoted, of May 16, 1886. The “stamps for Polizas de Bolsa" mentioned in Article 1 of the Governor-General’s decree of July 11th, above quoted, were undoubtedly the adhesive SELLO stamps of the issue of 1888. By his decree of May 8 and of July 11, 1889, the Governor-General authorized the use, for purposes other than their original destination, of all except the two highest denominations of the adhesive SELLO stamps. Because of their very limited use, there was no further issue of adhesive SELLO stamps until 1898. The Royal Order of March 24, 1897, provided for the suppression, effective on January 1, 1898, of the special stamps for Recibos y Cuentas, Derechos de Firma and Pasaportes, and for the use in their place of the "loose stamps which under Article 1 of the Stamp Law now in force, have been ordered printed for the years 1898-99, and that said stamps be used in all cases where it is not indispensible to use stamped paper or paper for Payments to the State.” In conformity with this Royal Order, there were issued on January 1, 1898, a new series of adhesive SELLO stamps of ten denominations ranging from 25-centimos to 20-pesos with the label, Timbre Movil, on the margin of each sheet. But since the above decree required the use of adhesive revenue stamps of denominations less than 25 centimos there was also issued on January 1, 1898, a series of four Timbre Movil Especial stamps whose denominations were 1, 2, 5, and 10 centimos The. uses of these latter stamps have already been explained in the preceding chapter. Thus, effective on January 1, 1898, adhesive SELLO stamp and TIMBRE MOVIL ESPECIAL stamps ware substituted for the three kinds of stamps which were suppressed by the loyal Order of March 24, 1897. Hence, subsequent to January 1, 1898, adhesive SELLO stamps were used for the purposes for which Derechos de Firma stamps and the obsolete Pasaportes stamp, had hitherto been used, in addition to the uses provided for adhesive SELLO stamps by the Royal Decree of May 16, 1886, Adhesive TIMBRE MOVIL ESPECIAL stamps were substituted for Recibos y Cuentas stamps. Adhesive SELLO stamps continued to be issued and used after the American occupation of the Philippines, until about the end of 1904. Original documents still exist which bear SELLO stamps and which are dated as late as December 29, 1904, There were, in all, five new issues of adhesive SELLO stamps released after the American occupation of the Philippines, that last appearing in 1903 and remaining in use until the end of 1904. From August 20, 1898, until about the end of July 1899, the adhesive SELLO stamps of the Spanish-Philippine issue of 1898 remained in use. Each stamps was surcharged prior to sale and use, however. From August 20, 1898, until about the end of January 1899, the surcharge consisted simply of the initials, handwritten in red ink of the American Collector of Internal Revenue, his Assistant, or his Deputy. The same three sets of initials were used that were applied to both the Giro and to the Timbre Movil Especial stamps. These initials have already been described in the chapters on Giro and Timbre Movil Especial stamps. Although there are three types of initials, only one type was affixed to each stamp. Dr. Perry, writing In 1903, concerning SELLO stamps surcharged with those handwritten initials, said ".... all denominations exist in three types... .." The only variety which the writer has seen, however, are those which were found in Dr. Perry's own collection, as follows: Surcharged CHS - 25c, 40c, 50c, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, and 15p; surcharged CSH - 25c, 40e and 50c; surcharged CFM - 25c, 40c, 50c, 1p, and 3p. Dr. Perry’s collection also included the following 5-pesos provisional which is thus described by Dr. Perry, himself: "Owing to the exhaustion of the 5-pesos provisional stamps (red ink initials) and the necessity of 5-peso stamps on Chinese certificates, the 15 peso was reduced 5 peso by changing the series from 2 to 4 in the upper frame and canceling the figure "1" of its value in red ink.” |
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