1899 5c Ulysses S. Grant, Blue, Double Line Watermark, Philippines Black Overprint

This stamp was created by overprinting an existing United States postage stamp featuring Ulysses S. Grant for use in the Philippines following the Spanish American War. After the American battleship Maine exploded in Havana Harbor and the United States declared war on Spain, the conflict ended by August 1898 with Spain's surrender, and the United States assumed administrative control of the Philippines along with Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The American military government began issuing overprinted stamps in the islands on June 30, 1899, and this stamp served as a temporary solution during the early years of that occupation, before stamps designed specifically for the Philippines could be printed and distributed.

The overprint reads "Philippines" diagonally across the design, converting the stamp from general United States postage into an issue valid specifically within the islands. This example carries a double line watermark, a designation collectors use to distinguish among the paper varieties found among the Bureau Issue stamps used as the base for these overprints. These overprinted stamps drew from existing supplies of United States postage on hand at the time, repurposed quickly to meet the practical demands of running a postal system in newly occupied territory.

The provisional overprints remained in use until 1906, when American officials in the Philippines introduced the first stamps designed specifically for the islands, featuring engravings of Filipino, American, and Spanish figures.