1944 PHILIPPINES/US VICTORY Rare Quezon Oath Taking Scott #458 Used Cleaned

Description

Philippines February 8, 1940
President Quezon Oath Taking
US458
2c Dark Orange
Type 2 VICTORY Overprint in Purple
After the return of the government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, with General MacArthur, to Leyte, on 20 October, 1944 President Osmena went about organizing his government. Much of the task fell upon the Chief of Staff, Carlos P. Romulo and the Commonwealth Treasurer, Andres Soriano.
The re-establishment of the Post Office was a priority because of it's long range propaganda potential, and the Bureau of Posts building in Tacloban was selected as the logical site to start from. Pre-occupation stamps were retrieved from storage, some were overprinted "COMMONWEALTH" and some were not. A simple rubber hand stamping device was made, and the stamps were hand stamped with the word "VICTORY". The first of these hand stamped stamps went on sale in the Tacloban Post Office on 8 November 1944.
After the initial group of overprints went on sale, the Post Office allowed anyone who had pre-occupation stamps to bring them in and sell them to the postal authorities. This may account for the large variety of issues overprinted and the limited quantity of some items. Subsequent issues were released on 3, 14 and 28 December 1944. During the early hand stamping the device was broken and repaired, leaving a slightly different overprint for the later issues. The stamping device in its original condition produced overprints with the letters in a straight line, designated as Type 1
After the break was repaired the first three letters were not aligned with the rest and the "T" had a "bite" out of the stem, it is designated as Type 2,
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