“Help Me Stop Smuggling” Overprint Errors
“Help Me Stop Smuggling” – was it a hidden cry for help from the most corrupt president the Philippines has ever seen?
Ferdinand Marcos first won the presidency in December of 1965 and was quick to focus on his major campaign objectives of redeveloping public infrastructure, revitalizing the judicial and national defense systems, implementing land reforms, fighting government corruption and fighting smuggling (yeah, there’s some irony in that list). This article will focus on the last point – smuggling.
On 24th February 1966 executive order No. 11 “Creating the Anti-Smuggling Action Center” was signed. This was a special intelligence center focused on gathering data on smuggled goods and smugglers, they worked closely with law enforcement and provided evidence required to support prosecution. The term smuggling mostly refers to “technical smuggling” or the falsification of invoices and customs documentation which results in massive erosion of tax revenues. It is reported that 100 smugglers were arrested in 1966 with another 5,000 between 1966 and 1968. Up to 80,000 government officials and employees were also fired – indicating the true extent of the countries smuggling and corruption problems. It has also been noted that military personnel who were involved in smuggling were forced into early retirement. The success of the Anti-Smuggling Action Center was put forward by Marcos in January 1967 where in his State of the Nation address he advised that customs revenue had doubled when compared to 2 years earlier.
On the 1st May 1966 a simple message was overprinted on an existing postage stamp – “HELP ME STOP SMUGGLING Pres. MARCOS”. There was no surcharge, no additional tax to be taken (as with semi-postal stamps), it appears to just be a message to drum up public support for his cause. The overprints were done on PH 857a which was originally released in 1964 and features an image of Jose Rizal in green. Surplus stock of the stamp was then surcharged down to 5s and released on 4th June 1973.
The stamps in the order they appear above:
- PH 857a – released 19th June 1964
- PH 946 – released 1st May 1966 with red overprint
- PH 1209 – released 4th June 1973 with red overprint and 5s surcharge
Overprint Error Stamps
I’ve managed to collect a few error stamps when it comes to the overprinting:
The stamps in the order they appear above:
- Scott PH 946 – the regular overprinted issue (not an error)
- This is a fairly well known error where the the red overprint is upside down (inverted) and is the same as the block of 4 to the right
- Major alignment issue of the overprint showing part of this stamps message and part of the message intended for the adjacent stamp on the sheet
- An interesting error with both the regular overprint and the inverted overprint on the same stamp
- I do not believe this to be an error stamp, rather a proof or trial print using black ink
I’m sure there are many other errors out there to do with perforations, colors, etc. (all of the usual suspects). If I find more errors to do with overprints I will circle back and add them in. If you have or know of others then please share.
Thanks for reading, happy hunting and have fun with your collection!