angore
Member 
Posts: 5,336 
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jul 27, 2019 22:36:01 GMT
I was transferring stamps from some album pages and noticed they are marked specimen. Does anyone know the story behind these? I did not see anything noted in my Scott catalog. Even if not valid, they fill a space since no intention on replacing them.  |
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brightonpete
Departed
Rest in Peace
On a hike at Goodrich-Loomis
Posts: 5,110
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Post by brightonpete on Jul 27, 2019 23:05:38 GMT
Tuvalu also had a large number of stamps overprinted in SPECIMEN. I just saw that as a cash grab, releasing different varieties to lure the collector. Much like the plethora of OFFICIAL overprints! I have a bunch of them.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,336
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jul 28, 2019 22:08:35 GMT
They have a new home.
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vikingeck
Member
Posts: 3,262
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Jul 29, 2019 8:22:45 GMT
Once the former British Colonies like Tuvalu, St Lucia etc stopped using the "CROWN AGENTS" for stamp issues they switched to Private companies such as IGPC ( Inter Governmental Philatelic Corporation) which produce commemoratives for all sorts of occasions, for about 80 countries .
These are issued by that agency and others, purely for profit whether the country needs such stamps or has any real connection to the topic issued.
As a marketing ploy from time to time, freebies overprinted SPECIMEN would be given away by stamp magazines .
These are not to be confused with the much earlier and scarcer pre WWII SPECIMEN overprints and perfins which countries were required to send to UPU members as reference items to show what stamps were legitimate issues. The early ones command a premium , the modern ones should be regarded as souvenirs only, and will not appear in any standard Catalogue , Scott, SG etc.
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