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| (PHILIPPINES, Scott #NO5, complete sheet of 64 stamps with Plate No. 139333 at bottom) Nice example of the complete sheet. |
Hello everyone! For those regular visitors, I apologize for my very long absence from this blog. Sometimes it only takes a simple item to regain my focus.
Today I received this very nice sheet of Philippine Japanese Occupation Scott NO5, issued August 28, 1944. This is the 5-centavos Official Issue (Second Official Issue), surcharged in black on the 6-cent regular issue of 1939, with the small "commonwealth" overprint.
Although individually these stamps are very common (approximately 500,000 having been printed), complete sheets are not often seen nowadays. The wonderful thing about complete sheets is that a specialist collector can find examples of known constant varieties of a stamp by checking the position, or location, of that stamp on the complete sheet.
Eugene A. Garrett's book, "A Postal History of the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, 1942-1945", lists the minor overprint varieties of this stamp, some of which are very minor and would probably not be noticed otherwise.
However, one overprint variety occurs in position 32, or the last stamp on the fourth row, which is quite distinct from the others. On this stamp, the top bar of the overprint is noticeably misaligned. Also, the "K" in "(K.P.)" displays a short downstroke. These features are unique to this one position on the sheet.
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| (PHILIPPINES, Scott #NO5, enlargement of position 32 on the sheet, last stamp on the fourth row) Distinct variety showing a strongly misaligned top bar and short downstroke of "K" in "(K.P.)" |
