Henry Kraemer Fake Postcards

Updated and republished 19th March 2023 after adding 2 more postcards to my collection.

I cannot find a lot of information about Henry Kraemer other than the fact that he was was a stamp dealer in Manila. Oh, and he created these bogus first day post cards. Interestingly, these have started to attract attention lately amongst collectors – a bandwagon that I’ve also jumped on. I have seen them start to increase in value with auction results usually being somewhere between $10 and $20USD each.

Each postcard is self addressed via a neat rubber stamp in green ink. All of the affixed postage stamps are totally legitimate stamps. However, the hand stamps indicating “Passed by Censor Japanese Military Police” and the “Manila” cancellation are both totally bogus.

Many of the Japanese Occupation stamps of the Philippines are still readily available in mint condition even today. It’s therefore hard to know how many different stamps were used on these postcards and in what quantities the postcards were produced. I’ve also not been able to find definitive information on when these were produced but it must have been after WWII. My assumption is also that Kraemer’s target market was more international then local to the Philippines – but that is just my assumption.

I have the 6 above in my collection but I have also seen the following doing the rounds (there may well be others):

• 2c green rice planter (PH N13)

Personally, I find these to be quite interesting – especially given the shroud of mystery and the many unanswered questions that surround them.

If you have other varieties or have additional information on Henry Kraemer then please reach out to me.

Thanks for reading, happy hunting and have fun with your collection!