Request

To my cover-exchanging friends, please try as much as possible to
(1) WRITE THE ADDRESSES USING YOUR OWN HANDWRITING
as these give a more personal touch to the cover
(2) PLEASE DO NOT USE TAPE OR STICKERS ON THE REVERSE;
the Philippine postal service damages the cover with scribbling that highly devalues the aesthetic value of the cover, which is what I am after
(3) PLEASE TRY TO USE COMPLETE SETS
or at least same themes when sending covers, but it is okay if this is not possible or if this would be expensive, and
(4) PLEASE USE SMALL ENVELOPES,
not too small, but maybe around 4"x6" or something like that; big envelopes are not very attractive unless they have many stamps.
Thank you!

14.6.10

Philippines

Here are some interesting covers from the Philippines:


Here is a cover that I sent to Poste Restante in Macau with the expectation of receiving it back since no one would be claiming it (it was addressed to me). Thanks to the dependable and efficient Correios de Macau, I received the cover back with the great chops that they apply at Poste Restante in


These two covers are almost identical, save for the addressee. These covers contained the payment that I made to eBay sellers. Thankfully, they arrived safely at their destinations, payment intact, and were returned to me by the friendly eBay sellers.


This cover is from way back in 2005, around the time when there was the anthrax scare and the fear of terrorism escalated to new heights. This cover was probably opened because it looked suspicious: brown envelope, thick, and thoroughly wrapped in tape! And, to add to that, it's from the Philippines, where the Abu Sayyaf Muslim Terrorist Organization is based! No wonder Border Protection opened it! I do not recall what the contents were, but I do remember that they were eBay items that I purchased shortly before moving to the Philippines.


On 14 April, I was lucky enough to be at the Manila Central Post Office on the actual day of issue of this IRRI set. I had not known of this issue beforehand since there are no announcements made other than at the bulletin board at the Philatelic Division - nothing online. As usual, the official FDCs were not yet ready so I decided to make my own and sent it to myself registered. The cover didn;t come out very well, but it's the thought and the memory that counts, right?

Happy Collecting!

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