Century -Old Valentine’s Day Postcard

Happy Valentine’s Day to all,

Sharing this circa 1905 Valentine’s Day postcard which we were able to buy few years ago in a popular online site. This was on SALE for just a couple of bucks with handwritten note at the back. The featured drawing was two cupids ( mailman ) calling each other with the use of another state of the art form of communication- telephone.

Valentine’s Day Postcard

Valentine’s Day is widely celebrated all over the world. Postcards and greeting cards were popular an inexpensive medium to communicated and the first Valentine’s day greeting cards were issued in the late 18th century.

Valentine’s cards which soon became immensely popular. It is estimated that by the mid 1820s, some 200,000 Valentines were circulated in London. While postcards soon were issued in Great Britain and the United States of America.

Hallmarks soon printed thousands if not hundreds of thousands of greeting cards by early 20th century. The personalized postcards are highly desired by collectors since they are not produced in mass quantity.

2021 Valentine’s Day stamp from Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPOST)

While stamps which celebrates the occasion were issued by several postal authorities and Philippine Postal Corporation also issues Valentine’s Day stamp. The 2021 Philippine Valentine’s Day stamp was issued few days ago in virtual launching held at the Manila Central Post Office main building on February 10, 2021.

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Vintage Christmas Greeting Card Issued by Cadwallader Pacific Company

Cadwallader Pacific Company is one of the international company which had offices in Manila and Cebu. The company issued some Christmas Greeting Card and were given to their customers, employees and friends.

Cadwallader Pacific Company Christmas Greeting Card

Cadwallader issued photo postcard with Igorot in native attire and a drawing ( caricature ) of Filipino couple in native costume at the back of a carabao. The woman wore a balintawak dress with native salakot ( native woven hat)

The male escort (presumably her suitor or husband) wore a traditional barong with native woven hat (sombrero) typical of the late 1950’s or early 1960’s life in a barrio.

The design is simple and a good example of mid-century Filipiniana theme greeting card. To save the cost of sending this greeting card, This can be directly mailed to the recipient without additional cost for envelope. Just like postcard. Cadwallder’s local P.O. Box 285 was address at the Manila Central Post Office.

These greeting cards were printed in small quantities and some collectors would covet these types.

PostcrossingPH Leap Year Meet-UP at Manila Central Post Office

PostcrossingPH had a special leap year meet-up get together at the Philatelic and Resource Center within the Manila Central Post Office.

PostcrossingPH members

A special postcard was created by some members of the group to commemorate the special meet-up with thousands of postcards send to friends and postcard collectors in every corner of the globe.

February 29, 2020 is a leap year and it only occurs once every four years. Some of the members came all the way from Laguna, Antipolo, Bulacan and other parts of Metro Manila.

In this age of internet and social media, There are still people who still cherish getting a postcard or greeting card with all the traditional hand writings, stamps and postmarks.

 PostcrossingPH Meet-Up

courtesy of Ms. Ali Lao

Prof. Wil Monzon together with Ms. Ali Lao

There were at least 35 members who came in full force and a traditional jack en poy contest was held.  At the end of the game Ms. Ali Lao from Binondo won the postcards.

Ms. Erika Jacolo

I also met Ms. Erika Jacolo who sells different kinds of postcards and other collectibles.

Mr. Xian Lim

There was also a television series shooting entitled ” Love Thy Woman”  inside the post office lobby were celebrity Mr. Xian Lim was there.

Filipinas Stamp Collectors’ Club Meeting and Salu-Salo

Filipinas Stamp Collectors’ Club had their last meeting and get together for 2019. I have 3 mail bidders which send their bid only during the day of the meeting.

I have to travel to the post office to check the items for auction. It was quite surprising to see some new faces and club members.

Meeting

There were about 500 items for bid, ranging from stamps, stamp magazines, specimen stamps, coins, banknotes, papel sellado, postcards among others.

What is exciting on this stamp club meeting was the on the spot raffle and salu-salo. It is good that someone gave electric flat iron, mugs, lock and locker tumbler and multi-purpose swiss knife.

item 40 -United States Philippine Islands 1921 postal card with 1906 2 centavos stamp

The author was quite lucky to have bid this item, This was listed under #40 and starting bid was just Php 80.00 or roughly around US$ 1.58. The postal card was written around August 25th 1921 and send to Mr. Hashi Kawa of #617 Camba street, San Nicolas, Manila by Assistant Secretary Hermo Cruz of Bureau of Labor.

The office was under the Department of Commerce and Communications ( Bureau of Labor) which was situated along 662 Rizal Avenue in Manila.

It is rare to see a correspondent postal card with English and Spanish words printed.  Another unique way to affixed the stamp within this postal card it was inverted.

The author is quite lucky to have gotten this postal card correspondence without much bidders interested.  A lot of them might have paid attention to the other items.

Php 5 pesos banknote ( circa 1987) with overprint San Lorenzo Ruiz canonization Serial number JC555555 ( item 253)

The Php 5.00 paper bill issued during President Corazon Aquino sometime in 1987 with overprint of San Lorenzo Ruiz canonization and with solid serial numbers initial bid was just Php 700 but a male banknote collector outbid everyone and reach an outstanding Php 3,600 !

The quality of the banknote is almost MINT condition and it is collected not because of the condition but the serial numbers and overprint. The banknote collector might be a newbie in the collecting world, since solid serial numbers would only reach around Php 1,000 outpost.

1 peso 1974 error coin off center with blank and clip planchet ( item 273)

The 3 pieces 1 peso Rizal coin had minting error. The starting bid was Php 700 and the lot item reach final last bid of Php 1,800 ! In the normal quality and security procedure in the MINT. These coins were normally re-minted or re-cast. Somehow, one of the person behind the mint might have got hold of these coins and collected them for over 30 years before selling them in local bourse or coin market.

one centavo coins ( item 274)

The item above were three pieces 1 centavo coins ( Marcos regime) with obvious error in the minting process with black clip planchet. The item starting bid was Php 700 and a coin collector was quickly to bid the item.

Salu-salo

chicken empanada

peachy-peachy from Arny Dading

 After the bourse / auction the members got to taste several late afternoon snacks which consisted of peachy- peachy from Arny Dading, Kikiam ni Aling Upeng, Sushi rolls from Suki Market and Chicken empanada.

sushi rolls from suki market

Gat Andres Bonifacio shrine near Manila Cityhall

Christmas tree at the Andres Bonifacio Shrine and Manila Cityhall clock tower

Everyone enjoyed the hearty afternoon snack, We decided to visit the Andres Bonifacio and Manila Cityhall to see the beautiful evening Christmas lights and went to nearby Manila Cathedral for the start of the anticipated misa de gallo.

Stamp Art and Pop Memorabilia Exhibit at the Manila Central Post Office

Postal heritage tour participants, general public and stamp and postcard collectors were delighted to see the two ongoing exhibits at the Manila Central Post Office in Liwasang Bonifacio, Ermita, Manila.

The pop memorabilia exhibit was opened in presence of the families, friends and fans of the three pop music icon last November 15, 2019.

l-r Makati Councilor Ms. Tosca Puno-Ramos, daughter of Rico J. Puno; Mrs.Valerie Garcia, widow of Rene Garcia and Mr.Beebop Smith, son of Pepe Smith were presented with PHLPost’s Pinoy Music Icons during the launch. (Photo courtesy of PHLPost)

Pinoy Music Icons first day cover

A special stamp and first day cover was issued to pay homage to these three music icons.

Pop Icon Memorabilia

The pop icon memorabilia included photos, album covers, dress and even guitars used by the three Filipino pop icons.

photos

The three Filipino pop music icons included Mr. Rene Garcia of the iconic Hotdog band. He either wrote or co-wrote songs like “Annie Batungbakal,” “Bongga Ka Day,” “Beh, Buti Nga,” “Bitin Sa ‘Yo,” “Ikaw Ang Miss Universe Ng Buhay Ko,” “Dying To Tell You,” “Langit Na Naman,” and many more. Garcia passed away on September 2, 2018 at the age of 65.

Mr. Rico J. Puno memorabilia items includes his jacket, cd and shoes

Mr. Rico J. Puno aka “The Total Entertainer” also passed away on October 30 of the same year at 65. Puno, a pop singer and a pioneer-promoter of Original Filipino Music (OPM) rose to stardom after channeling American superstars to forge a distinctive brand of local soul music in the 1970’.

t-shirts for sale

He also ventured into dance-friendly songs like “Macho Gwapito,” but music listeners here and abroad would prefer his easy-listening croons in Filipinized versions of “The Greatest Love of All,” “One Last Memory,” and more so with his catchy, memorable ballads such as “Kapalaran,” “Buhat,” “Ang Tao’y Marupok” and “Lupa.”

Mr. Pepe Smith the “Mick Jagger of the Philippines” and the Father of Philippine rock passed away on January 28, 2019, at the age of 71.

There were about 60 participants in the talks and tour which was in joint partnership with Philippine Philatelic Federation, walkwithchan, Pilipinas Philately and Philippine Postal Corporation.

Art and History Exhibit

different art works and sketches

stamp exhibit frames at the left side of the post office

postal heritage talk participants

Pop Music Icon Memorabilia and Art and History exhibit will run until November 29, 2019.

For those interested in the upcoming FREE talks and tour, The next activity will be held on December 21, 2019 Saturday from 9:00 am to 12:00 nn.