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:

  • Australia “CA”
  • Colombia “GB” overprint on Colombian stamps
  • Gibraltar, Las Palmas etc
  • Gough Island, Enderby Land, Tristan da Cunha
  • Great Britain “OHMS”, “Army HMS” etc
  • Guyane
  • PSNC
  • Transvaal

Some stamps have been overprinted for political or other propaganda:

  • Cauty (James) political protest gas mask “overprints”
  • Cornwall
  • Ireland
  • Jersey local post
  • Wales
  • World War II “Japan”, “India” overprints
  • World War II Nazi propaganda, “Liquidation of Empire” etc

or phantoms just for fun:

  • Lundy
  • Snark Settlements
  • Tristan da Cunha “local overprints”
  • Tristan da Cunha King George V Silver Jubilee
  • Stamp shop and stamp congress souvenirs
  • King Edward 8th anniversary

or (presumably) to deceive collectors:

  • Great Britain “War Tax”
  • Great Britain “V V” Victory
  • Great Britain provisionals and officials
  • Bechuanaland
  • Cyprus
  • Fiji
  • Hong Kong
  • Levant, “Constantinople”
  • Mafeking
  • Malta
  • Oil Rivers
  • Somaliland
  • Trucial states: Ajman, Fujairah, Umm Al Qaiwain
  • Zululand

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