Overprints On Stamps and the Need for Quick Action!

Many think of postage stamps as being static—they are printed, put on letters, and either wind up in a collection or get thrown out. There is sometimes more to it than that. In various times in the past countries have found it necessary to print on top of an original new stamp. The overprint could be an increased value or provide new information. When time was of the essence it was easier to overprint an existing stamp than to start from scratch.

Russian 20 ruble stamp with a 1922 overprint of 5000 rubles

German 200 mark stamp with 2 million mark overprint

A common reason for overprints was inflation. In the case of hyperinflation governments sometimes could not keep up with new stamps all the time and would resort to overprinting on previously issued stamps to reflect current costs. Hyperinflation has occurred in recent times but with advances in printing technology governments have been able to keep up. Not so in the past. In the first years of the RSFSR (predecessor to the USSR) rampant hyperinflation ravaged the Russian economy. 

The classic example of hyperinflation, however, is that which occurred in Weimar Germany in 1922-1923.

1923 German 500 million note overprinted with 20 billion marks.

At its worst a single postage stamp cost as much as 20 billion marks.  The post-war German government could not keep up with the rate of inflation that had spiraled out of control and resorted to overprinting stamps. At times it even became necessary to overprint money.

Austro-Hungarian stamp from 1914 with 1919 Yugoslavian overprint

 

Ukrainian overprint of Russian stamp

Overprinting stamps has sometimes occurred the end of a war with changes in government. Some new governments supplied postage stamps to their populations by overprinting stamps from a previous government.  This happened in post war Austria. In the newly formed Yugoslavia the new government overprinted stamps from the old Austrian-Hungarian empire’s annexation of Bosnia, deliberately printing over the face of the old emperor Franz Josef.   In newly formed and independent Ukraine, the new government overprinted stamps from Czarist Russia with the Ukrainian trident.

Old Austrian stamp overprinted by the new Austrian government

Italian overprint of Austro-Hungarian stamp

After WW I Italy occupied parts of the southern section of the former Austrian-Hungarian empire and used old military post stamps as seen here. 

Russian overprint of old stamp with semipostal surcharge for flood relief

The Russian Federation’s postal system printed vast numbers of stamps which became outdated, and overprinting with new values became necessary . Even after the period of hyperinflation  ended overprinting was a useful practice.  In September 1924 Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) experienced devastating flooding. The government responded to the need for relief by issuing semi postal stamps with the standard value plus a surcharge to raise money for relief efforts.  They used leftover stocks of stamps from the period of hyperinflation and overprinted new values.

There aren’t many recent examples of overprinting, a practice which has become a thing of the past with the decline in mailing letters as the principal means of communication.  The USPS has eliminated the need for printing stamps with new values by introducing the “Forever” values on first class stamps--the price goes up but the stamps remain.