Best Collection
Red Color Revenue Stamps Converted into Postage St
The introduction of the money order and parcel service after installed the Imperial Postal Administration will give rise to an urgent demand for stamps of high value. As an emergency measure, in additional to surcharged the Small Dragon and Empress Dowager’s Birthday Commemorative Issue stamps of Imperial Customs, more than 600,000 pieces of original 3-cents Customs revenue stamps then in stock in the Customs Statistical Department are surcharged or overprinted by Shanghai Posts in batches. These overcharged stamps are overprinted with Chinese characters “Imperial Chinese Post”, “Surcharged as x dollar(s)”, or “Temporarily Surcharged as x cent(s)” in black ink as ordinary postage stamps. Whole set of surcharged stamps are consisted of 8 denominations and are released from February 2, 1897 (the 1st day of the 1st month of the 23rd year of Emperor Kuang Hsu). The original 3-cents Customs revenue stamps are supposed to become the receipt of tax revenue by Imperial Customs, now are used and overprinted as the postage stamps of National Postal Administration, which was upgraded from Imperial Customs Post, and become the “Hero of Imperial Posts” accidentally. These overprinted stamps now become one of the philatelic products that the philatelists are lovely to collect.
