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GB Overprints Society

Country list

 

The following countries have used British stamps overprinted for postal use:


Click on the country name for a list of the stamps.

Perforations and watermarks are not mentioned unless needed to differentiate issues. "Cancelled" and "Specimen" overprints are not included.

The images and illustrations are not to scale, nor should the scanned colours be taken to be a guide to shades.

Some other countries have overprinted postal matter other than stamps, and so only appear under Revenues (eg Barbados, Jamaica, Solomons, Trinidad & Tobago), Stationery (eg Gold Coast), and Postal Orders (many countries, including New Zealand, South Africa etc).


Note: for much of the historical background I am indebted to Tom Current

British postage stamps have also been officially overprinted for the following uses:

The following cachets and markings have often been mistaken for overprints:

Some stamps have been overprinted for political or other propaganda:

or phantoms just for fun:

or (presumably) to deceive collectors:


Not included on these pages are the large numbers of private overprints applied to the margins of stamps and miniature sheets, or the covers of stamp booklets, purely for souvenir purposes by event organisers or philatelic speculators.

Postage stamps overprinted with the names of companies as an anti-theft device were often used fiscally on receipts, and outside the scope of these pages (see COSGB); however with the abolition of stamp duty on receipts at the time of UK decimalisation companies were permitted to use them up for postage from 15 February-31 December 1971, though this too is outside the scope of these pages.

Some stamps do not have overprints, but look as if they do.

Some of the above countries have issued commemorative stamps to mark the centenary or other anniversary of the issue of GB Overprints. See "GB overprints on stamps on stamps"


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page last updated: 3 May 2007, 21 December 2010, 2 May 2012, 14 August 2012, 10 September 2014. 20/6/2019

gbos: GB Overprints Society