Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Anyone heard of why this might be?
Thanks,
Bob
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The term escapes me for the moment.
However, many companies overprinted their names on British stamps to prevent pilfering and misuse by employees. This is similar to in the USA where companies used perforated initials and on pre-canceled stamps would print the company's initials on the stamps either above or below the pre-cancel.
My guess why a Canadian Rail Road would be using British stamps is that it probably had offices in the UK.
Nice item, I might add!
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Thanks to all for the information. It was very interesting reading. Now if I can find a SG catalog to see if the stamp has any value, that would complete my mission. Based upon the website, it is either SG 488 or 506 or 518.
Bob
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Hi Bob,
This is SG 506 if the watermark is normal, SG 506a if it is sideways and SG 506Wi if it is inverted.
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Note that stamps overprinted in this way were not valid for postal use, but only for revenue usage ( tax) on cheques (checks), receipts or other financial instruments. Only perfins were valid for postage.
The overprint was not only to stop pilferage but also to confirm the origin of the receipt -a Canadian Pacific Railway overprint on a North Thames Gas Company receipt would show that someone, somewhere was up to no good - at the very least re-use of the stamp but possibly false accounting - you could present a receipt for reimbursement ( to your employer for example for expenses) that had actually been nowhere near a financial transaction - especially in the days of handwritten receipts.
As revenue stamps they are worth considerably less than postally used, and as such the "better" varieties are arguably worth no more that the cheaper ones. Stamps on the original receipt or cheque have some interest to ephemera collectors
Malcolm
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Thanks, Malcom. I didn't know about the difference in usage between company name overprints and perfins.
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An interesting lesson in philately, Malcolm.
Ted
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They are actually very common ( or not so common as many have been thrown away as not collectible). The main users were gas,electricity and water companies, and local councils for receipting rates ( property taxes ). Latterly cheques issued by banks had a tax "stamp" printed or embossed on the actual document rather than postage and revenue stamps, but of course "in the day" ordinary people did not have bank accounts -only the middle classes and corporate bodies.
Originally 1d, the receipt tax was later raised to 2d (old money) in Queen Elizabeth's reign the tax was later abolished. There were other rates for different uses ( although not usually paid by overprinted stamps), which is why stamps were inscribed "Postage and Revenue", as they could be used for either purpose. As a matter of fact my birth certificate (1947) has the registration officer's signature across a KG6 stamp, which my Father would have had to pay for in addition to the fee for registering my birth ! It would be impossible to account for such uses today as the Post Office is no longer a Crown Department but an independent entity, and the accounting difficulties would be imposiible to resolve.
Some of the smaller utility companies prior to WW2 I would imagine might be quite scarce,however the number of collectors is very small. As an "I collect everything" man I have a number which I have retained from kiloware purchases some years ago, but I haven't seen any for a while. Most of them are for the large nationalised utility companies formed by amalgamation of the smaller private and municipal companies after WW2.
Incidentally when I said they were not valid for postage I am not 100% sure. I have read somewhere that remainders could be used for postage after the receipt tax was abolished, but I have never seen one, nor do I know of anyone else who has seen one, and I suspect that what I read may have been conjecture rather than hard fact. In my opinion the utilities would have exchanged them at the post office for new stamps rather than have the hassle of postal workers being doubtful about such usage.
It is one of the byways of philately which has never taken off, but it is not surprising as revenue collecting in general is not popular in the scheme of things, and this is a minority interest even for revenue collectors.
Malcolm
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09:28:13am
This is perplexing to me. The stamp is a common Great Britain definitive but it has a Canadian Pacific Railway Co overprint.
Anyone heard of why this might be?
Thanks,
Bob
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10:26:24am
re: Anyone see this before?
The term escapes me for the moment.
However, many companies overprinted their names on British stamps to prevent pilfering and misuse by employees. This is similar to in the USA where companies used perforated initials and on pre-canceled stamps would print the company's initials on the stamps either above or below the pre-cancel.
My guess why a Canadian Rail Road would be using British stamps is that it probably had offices in the UK.
Nice item, I might add!
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08:37:06am
re: Anyone see this before?
Thanks to all for the information. It was very interesting reading. Now if I can find a SG catalog to see if the stamp has any value, that would complete my mission. Based upon the website, it is either SG 488 or 506 or 518.
Bob
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re: Anyone see this before?
Hi Bob,
This is SG 506 if the watermark is normal, SG 506a if it is sideways and SG 506Wi if it is inverted.
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04:10:44pm
re: Anyone see this before?
Note that stamps overprinted in this way were not valid for postal use, but only for revenue usage ( tax) on cheques (checks), receipts or other financial instruments. Only perfins were valid for postage.
The overprint was not only to stop pilferage but also to confirm the origin of the receipt -a Canadian Pacific Railway overprint on a North Thames Gas Company receipt would show that someone, somewhere was up to no good - at the very least re-use of the stamp but possibly false accounting - you could present a receipt for reimbursement ( to your employer for example for expenses) that had actually been nowhere near a financial transaction - especially in the days of handwritten receipts.
As revenue stamps they are worth considerably less than postally used, and as such the "better" varieties are arguably worth no more that the cheaper ones. Stamps on the original receipt or cheque have some interest to ephemera collectors
Malcolm
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05:49:08pm
re: Anyone see this before?
Thanks, Malcom. I didn't know about the difference in usage between company name overprints and perfins.
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re: Anyone see this before?
An interesting lesson in philately, Malcolm.
Ted
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04:43:03pm
re: Anyone see this before?
They are actually very common ( or not so common as many have been thrown away as not collectible). The main users were gas,electricity and water companies, and local councils for receipting rates ( property taxes ). Latterly cheques issued by banks had a tax "stamp" printed or embossed on the actual document rather than postage and revenue stamps, but of course "in the day" ordinary people did not have bank accounts -only the middle classes and corporate bodies.
Originally 1d, the receipt tax was later raised to 2d (old money) in Queen Elizabeth's reign the tax was later abolished. There were other rates for different uses ( although not usually paid by overprinted stamps), which is why stamps were inscribed "Postage and Revenue", as they could be used for either purpose. As a matter of fact my birth certificate (1947) has the registration officer's signature across a KG6 stamp, which my Father would have had to pay for in addition to the fee for registering my birth ! It would be impossible to account for such uses today as the Post Office is no longer a Crown Department but an independent entity, and the accounting difficulties would be imposiible to resolve.
Some of the smaller utility companies prior to WW2 I would imagine might be quite scarce,however the number of collectors is very small. As an "I collect everything" man I have a number which I have retained from kiloware purchases some years ago, but I haven't seen any for a while. Most of them are for the large nationalised utility companies formed by amalgamation of the smaller private and municipal companies after WW2.
Incidentally when I said they were not valid for postage I am not 100% sure. I have read somewhere that remainders could be used for postage after the receipt tax was abolished, but I have never seen one, nor do I know of anyone else who has seen one, and I suspect that what I read may have been conjecture rather than hard fact. In my opinion the utilities would have exchanged them at the post office for new stamps rather than have the hassle of postal workers being doubtful about such usage.
It is one of the byways of philately which has never taken off, but it is not surprising as revenue collecting in general is not popular in the scheme of things, and this is a minority interest even for revenue collectors.
Malcolm
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