Specimens
There was a statutory requirement for all Universal Postal Union (UPU) members to provide examples of all new stamps to be distributed to all other member countries. This requirement asked for 382 specimen copies of all new postal material and adhesives issued.
Great Britain and Commonwealth stamps valued at 1 shilling and above and printed for this purpose were overprinted 'specimen' until 1920. These were provided to the member countries in strips of 5 initially but this was later changed to 3.
MCCA Specimens and Registration Sheets
Upon printing and approval of the first requisition, four sheets of each denomination were retained by the GPO as registration specimens. In accordance with the GPO order to Somerset House in July 1916, the higher value denominations from 50c to $10 were overprinted ‘Specimen’ to comply with UPU requirements. The ‘Specimen’ overprints were all in black ink unlike the normal Hong Kong series, where the 50c was printed in red.
Below are the 1st issue of ‘Specimen’ Overprints
Interestingly, the overprint on the 50c stamps was in a different font than the rest of the issues; it is in upright letters measuring 2 x 12.5mm, while the rest are in an italicized font and measure 1.5 x 10mm.
There is one reported example of the 50c with a double ‘Specimen’ handstamp. The extra handstamp does not match either of the other examples, so it may have been applied by a receiving country.
The italic ‘Specimen’ print is aligned on all of the issues that include it except for the 50c where the overprints are not aligned. This could indicate either that they were handstamped individually or that that
particular block was out of alignment. The misalignment is particularly visible on the Madagascar sheet shown below.
A full set of all denominations, including the lowest values, with the ‘Specimen’ overprint remain in the possession of the British Library but the lower denomination stamps were not sent to the UPU. The Madagascar GPO sold most its archive in the 1970s and the unique file sheet from those archives shows the higher values with the ‘Specimen’ overprint and the lower values without.
Somerset House provided one full set of specimens of the Nil requisition to the Colonial Office, which are now in the possession of the British Library (IR List 4 Vol 6 P12). The letter from the Crown Agents sending over the registration sheets can be found here.
MSCA Specimens and Registration Sheets
It is unclear why Specimens of the second issue were prepared. Full sheets of all the denominations with a ‘Specimen’ overprint are in the British Library and the letter from the Crown Agents sending these to the Colonial Office referring to this is here. An additional set of registration sheets was also provided to the Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum as shown here.
In March 1927, the GPO ordered an extra 130 sheets of the 50c on deep emerald paper with emerald back to be printed with the H Requisition of that year “to cover demand from dealers and for
registrations.” The reason given was that “it will have a different watermark to the last overprint.” This was because the issue of the 50c in Requisition F, along with the other denominations on Script CA paper, was printed on the MCA paper previously used. On 5 April 1927, the Crown Agents sent a sheet of this 50c issue with the ‘Specimen’ overprint to the Colonial Office as indicated by the letter here, as well as to the British Museum collection as shown here.
Distributed Specimen overprint on 50c
Madagascar Specimens
Additionally, the GPO retained five sheets of the 2c and 4c from the November 1927 printing for Requisition I. The imprimatur sheets are retained in the British Library and two each of the 2c and 4c are in the possession of the British Postal Museum and Archive (BMPA). The two sheets in the BPMA do not have the ‘Specimen’ overprint, so it seems that only one copy of each was overprinted.
Perrin stated that a single copy of the 2c had been reported but this was a typographical error and he meant the 4c. This copy has appeared at auction and examination of the imprimatur sheets at the British Library shows that a couple of the 2c and 4c were removed which presumably accounts for this. Curiously, the Madagascar archive appears to have only contained unoverprinted copies of the 2c and 4c stamps of the second issue. One example of the 2c appeared in the Zurich Asia HK025 auction in April 2013, however its authenticity is questionable.
- Req. Nil 1c - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil 1c - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil 4c - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil 6c - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil 8c - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil 10c - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil 12c - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil 20c - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil 25c - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil 30c - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil 50c - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil $1 - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil $2 - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil $3 - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil $5 - 1 full sheet
- Req. Nil $10 - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 1c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 2c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 4c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 6c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 8c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 10c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 20c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 25c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F $1 - 1 full sheet
- Req. F $2 - 1 full sheet
British Postal Museum and Archive Holdings
The F sheets all have the letter but no number so we can possibly assume that the sheet numbers were printed last.
- Req. I 2c - 1 full sheet
- Req. I 4c dated 23 Nov 1927 1 full sheet
The holdings of the British Library consist of the following:
1 set of the Nil Requisition under List 2, Voume 1 pp 36-51 and another full set under List 3 Volume 2 page 174 on where 9 stamps are missing from each sheet (Of these, 6 are in the Libraries Plate Block album and the annotations reads 3 to CS)
- Req. Nil 1c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil 1c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil 4c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil 6c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil 8c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil 10c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil 12c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil 20c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil 25c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil 30c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil 50c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil $1 - 1 full sheet and another with 11 stamps missing
- Req. Nil $2 - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil $3 - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil $5 - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. Nil $10 - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
- Req. F 1c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 2c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 4c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 6c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 8c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 10c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 20c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F 25c - 1 full sheet
- Req. F $1 - 1 full sheet
- Req. F $2 - 1 full sheet
- Req. I 2c - 1 sheet with missing stamps (Number I 0003)
- Req. I 4c - 1 sheet with missing stamps (Number I 0004) (BL Folio 174)