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Anti-TB Semi-Postal Stamps of the Philippines
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Christmas Stamps of the Philippines
THE 1946 MAVERICK YELLOW SEAL
The origin of this seal has not been clearly established. Immediately after the Second World War, a crudely designed yellow seal made its appearance, unannounced and hardly noticed. Its face design carried the texts ”HELP / Give Enough / The Philippine / Tuberculosis Society” together with the TB cross. The Philippine Tuberculosis Society has never acknowledged responsibility for this issuance.
A respected long time dealer / collector swore that he had personal knowledge that these seals were issued and used in 1946. This seems credible. It is improbable that the seals were issued in 1945, when everyone, including the Society, was just starting to recover from the devastation and dislocations wrought by the war. On the other hand, the year of issue could not have been 1947, because the Society has just issued its Christmas seals for that year. That leaves 1946 as the most plausible date of issue.
The seal is listed in Green’s Catalog under Philippine Islands as # 2A. Year of issue was blank, although other details were complete, including an accurate description of the “sheet” (#2A.x) as “3 x 2 tete beche with horizontal and vertical gutters. PMS4.”. Author has so far seen only one sample of this 4 ½” x 4 1`/16” pane. Even if one or more samples will later surface, this whole pane could still well be among the rarest of Philippine seals.
