Shanghai Overprints

I wanted to post my Shanghai Overprints. Many U.S. collectors are not familiar with them. I have also linked an interesting article on the subject.

http://www.stampnotes.com/Notes_from_the_Past/pastnote432.htm

 

Hochstrasse:

Very nice mini collection! The article was helpful, too. The reasons for overprinting stamps such as these, by the U.S., or other countries has always puzzled me a little. Why was an overprint necessary when the postmark on anything mailed from foreign post offices would identify the source of the mailing. It's also my understanding that these overprinted stamps were valid for postage if used in the continental U.S. as well.

I suppose it might have been considered a security measure to identify stamps that might have been stolen from the U.S. Postal Agency in Shanghai. I think that may have been the motive for overprinting the Kansas-Nebraska stamps when there was a series of post office robberies in the 1920s & 1930s.

Any other speculation?

Don

 

Don you are certainly correct that the Kansas-Nebraska stamps were overprinted for security reasons, but I think the foreign mail system was more of a way to channel the mail business into a particular country or perhaps expedite it. Since no hand off to another country's mail system would occur, an American businessman doing business in China could get faster delivery. Because these stamps could only be used from the Chinese foreign office it was a de facto security arrangement with respect to the stamps.
I am not aware of these stamps being used in the United States, but you may be correct Don. They were after all sold off by the Philatelic Agency of the USPOD subsequent to 1922. Wouldn't it be great to find a cover with a Shanghai overprint used in the United States with a contemporaneous cancel?

 

Hochstrasse:

I think you are absolutely right, and I wrong about usage in the US.. If they were valid in the U.S. we would see a lot of covers using them here. However, I am surprised there weren't some posted just to see if they would be delivered,

These stamps were not only overprinted, but also surcharged at twice their original face value. From what I have read the surcharges were intended to be revalued in Chinese currency to equal U.S. postage rates. See the following quote:

"The Shanghai Overprints of 1919

​

In 1919, the U.S. Dollar was worth almost exactly twice the value of the standard currency in Shanghai at the time. The U.S. postal agency in Shanghai would accept payment in U.S. currency only, making it difficult for non-American patrons to send letters via the U.S. mail system, resulting in a loss of revenue. By placing a surcharge on a portion of its stamps, the U.S. Agency in Shanghai could still offer the non-surcharged stamps at face value when payment was made in dollars."

It thus appears that the overprinting and surcharge allowed those who did not have U.S. currency to buy stamps and use the U.S. postal system from Shanghai.


Don

 

Very interesting Don, I have wondered how non-Americans who didn't have dollars to buy these stamps, like Chinese businessmen who wanted to send mail to the States, bought these stamps. Some other countries with foreign offices had overprinted stamps in the local currency.

 

As I read the quote that I copied above, those wanting to buy stamps with Chinese currency got the overprinted/surcharged stamps at the surcharge price. Those buying stamps with U.S. currency got stamps without the overprints/surcharges. To buy surcharged stamps with U.S. currency one would be paying twice the needed amount.

Don