1980 Pope John Paul II Visit – Rare Set
Karol Józef Wojtyła (Cardinal Wojtyła) was elected to Pope on 15th October 1978 and took the name Pope John Paul II. He was the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years. To commemorate a planned visit to the Philippines, the Philippine Postal Administration commissioned a set of stamps to be created. The commissioned stamps would be large and bright and celebrate the Pope’s first visit to the Philippines. Each stamp measured 6x4cm in size and an additional souvenir sheet measuring 7.5x9cm was also produced.
All pretty normal so far….
That is until the Popes visit was postponed from 1980 until 1981.
The set of stamps above was ordered to be destroyed and reprinted with 1981 instead of 1980. Southern Stamp Services destroyed the 1980 dated stamps but some sets were leaked and eventually made their way onto the market. It is not known exactly how many leaked, but it can be assumed that stamps bearing the 1980 year are quite rare.
On 17th February 1981, the “Pope John Paul II Pastoral Visit” series of stamps were issued bearing the 1981 year – the actual year of his visit.
Cachets were also released and were postmarked to align with places that the pope visited:
- 17th February: Manila
- 19th February: Cebu City
- 20th February: Bacolod City, Davao City, Iloilo City
- 21st February: Legaspi City, Bataan (Morong Refugee Center)
- 22nd February: Bagiuo City, Manila International Airport
There are a number of different sets of cachets available, another one of interest has more photo-realistic images printed on the cachet. I may put these up if I manage to get the full set as well.
It’s amazing to have the complete set of very rare 1980 stamps in my collection (along with the readily obtainable 1981 set). Keep your eyes open – you never know when an amateur stamp collector might pop a 1980 on eBay without knowing what it is.
Thanks for reading, happy hunting and have fun with your collection!