Philippine Stamps of 1945

Japanese Occupation

Formats released this year: 1945 was the final year of Japanese Occupation of the Philippines during WWII. Only 3 stamps were released this year by the Japanese. An additional 14 stamps were released with “Victory Commonwealth” overprints after the United States successfully took back the Philippines from the Japanese (detailed in the section below).

The 3 Japanese occupation stamps of 1945 were released in imperforate format in values of 5s, 7s or 20s and depicted José P. Laurel – the Japanese appointed President of the Philippines in 1943. While these stamps were released to the public on 12th January 1945, First Day Covers were actually issued on 14th October 1944.

1945 - José P. Laurel
Sc#	Released	Type	Den.	WM	Qty	More
PH N37	1945-01-12	Commemorative Stamp	5c	-	750,000	[...]
PH N38	1945-01-12	Commemorative Stamp	7c	-	500,000	[...]
PH N39	1945-01-12	Commemorative Stamp	20c	-	350,000	[...]

U.S. Administration

Formats released this year: US forces regained control of the Philippines from the Japanese in 1945 – the official surrender occurring on 2nd September 1945. All U.S. stamps issued in this year were existing issues from 1935-1937 and were overprinted with the word “VICTORY” in a large font. 14 stamps were released during this year. 2 Special Delivery stamps (PH e10, e10a) were released each with a slightly different overprint. The e10a has an uneven space between the “V” and “C” in the word “VICTORY” while e10 does not (the “I” is noticeably closer to the “C”). While most of the these stamps are pretty common – PH 495 & 496 (Victory over Coat of Arms) are the more valuable in this year and are more challenging to collect along with the little known variation of PH 491.

1945 - Victory Commonwealth Overprints
Sc#	Released	Type	Den.	WM	Qty	More
PH 485	1945-01-19	Definitive Stamp	2c	-	-	[...]
PH 486		Definitive Stamp	4c	-	-	[...]
PH 487		Definitive Stamp	6c	-	-	[...]
PH 488		Definitive Stamp	8c	-	-	[...]
PH 489		Definitive Stamp	10c	-	-	[...]
PH 490	1945-01-19	Definitive Stamp	12c	-	-	[...]
PH 491	1945-01-19	Definitive Stamp	16c	-	-	[...]
PH 492	1945-01-19	Definitive Stamp	20c	-	-	[...]
PH 493		Definitive Stamp	30c	-	-	[...]
PH 494	1945-01-19	Definitive Stamp	1.00P	-	-	[...]
PH 495		Definitive Stamp	10.00P	-	-	[...]
PH 496		Definitive Stamp	20.00P	-	-	[...]
PH E10	1945-05-01	Special Delivery Stamp	20c	-	-	[...]
PH E10a	1945-05-01	Special Delivery Stamp	20c	-	-	[...]

Covers/Cachets and More

Note: The information below shows items from my personal collection – it is not intended to be a catalog of all other philatelic products that were released during this year. If you are looking for covers with the 1945 Jose Laurel stamps (PH N37, N38, N39) then please take a look at the 1944 pages (since the stamps were released in 1944 on first day covers but not officially sold in post offices until 1945).

1945 Cachets and First Day Covers

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1945 Postal Cards

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