Evening All. (At least it is evening here, in the far North!) I have these two stamps in my collection and I was wondering if somebody here might be able to help with some identification? So far I have managed to figure out that they are most likely from some country in Asia . . . . . and that's about it. I think they have an 'overprint' on them too. Here they are:
Before they were overprinted the blue stamp was a $27 airmail issued in 1946 showing an aircraft flying over the mausoleum of Sun Yat Sen, the founder of the Chinese Republic. The red stamp was a 30c airmail issued about 1940, showing a plane flying over the Great Wall.
After the end of WW2, with a civil war going on, there was hyper-inflation in China. So on 30th June 1948 these two stamps were reissued overprinted with a denomination of $10000.
the late 40s are a fascinating philatelic period in China, very similar to the post-Csarist period in Russia. While there was a "China" before Mao's Communists took control, it was more a conglomoration of loosely tied warlords, not unlike current day Afghanistan
  1 Member likes this post. Login to Like.
"Save the USPS, buy stamps; save the hobby, use commemoratives"
Thank you all kindly for the wonderful education again! In addition its great to learn the correct terminology too, so thank you michael78651. Just curious, $27 seems a pretty high price back then for an airmail stamp. Would that have got you international air mail service, or just within China? Thanks,
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 07 Aug 2015 01:15:32pm
re: Asian Stamps With An Overprint?
There are Belgian Stamps overprinted "-10%" which I suppose would be a negative surcharge ?
Is their a neat word for a discounted overprint ?
Login to Like this post
".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
In case anybody was wondering, the "-10%" surcharge is on Belgium #365-367(1946) in the Scott catalog. The Leopold III stamps of 1944 were surcharged to reflect the reduced post-war postage rate. Scott only assigns 3 catalog numbers. But because of the local overprints, there are actually over 10000 documented surcharge varieties.
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 07 Aug 2015 08:37:58pm
re: Asian Stamps With An Overprint?
"..... the correct philatelic term for that is a "discharge." ....."
Hmmmm, that sounds gross.
I wondered about a good antonym for surcharge, but didn't consider "Discharge" since it seems to imply disposing the entire charge, rather than a part. "Semi-discharge" might be closer to a 10% reduction, but that seems even more gross.
Is "discharge" in common use ?
Login to Like this post
".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 09 Aug 2015 06:06:35pm
re: Asian Stamps With An Overprint?
I guess I loft off the smiley face.
  1 Member likes this post. Login to Like.
".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
I already had some trepidation about my post in the first place, and then when I thought it was being taken seriously, I thought it would be be best for me to just delete the whole thing.
(And then I hoped with the server migration that maybe this thread would just fade into oblivion.)
All's well that ends well!
Login to Like this post
"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"