I think the fantasy explanation can't be ruled out, and it's the most economical answer, but it has a flaw: it's based solely on the rarity of the stamp, without any solid red flag to draw on. Nor could it explain why the cancellation mark is above the violet one (or so it seems...).
On the other hand, the option of a shipment from the US to the Philippines during the Spanish administration, as Zebraman suggests, seems more consistent with the fact that the violet mark was approved by the postal authority that issued it and could be below it. It's also consistent with the use of an archaic Spanish term in an Anglo-Saxon context to refer to the Spanish administration. It's just a theory, because I don't really know what the shipping process to the Philippines from the US was like at that time, but it is known that stamps related to the Philippines ended up bearing the overprint "Philippines". Another detail, not entirely conclusive, but the stamp doesn't appear in Philippines or US; it appears in Spain among old abandoned albums, mainly containing Spanish stamps from the 1930s to the 1970s… |
Posted Today 17 Min ago
