Reply from my original post 10 years ago
from Mr. Dominique Stephan (Stamp designer?)
A French Focus.
Interesting article, here is my contribution about France.
When postal authorities decided to open schools
for future Postmen, they though at stamps
for practical lessons : currently available stamps
were overprinted "ANNULE" (cancel), they
were even used on test letters (and mostly
for unusual tariffs).
Philatelists were interested in this "ANNULE" ;
some bought them to students, some were angry
because they couldn't find them or had to buy
them a good price, so it was decided to
stop producing "ANNULE"...
They were replaced by "SPECIMEN" overprint...
What happen next ? Well, the SPECIMEN were
as much researched as the previous ANNULE !
So were introduced "Fictif" or "Simili" stamps
(just a border, a face value and a mention
"Sans Valeur" No Value), but even if
the design isn't appealing, they have collectors !
There is a Specimen
on the "Arc de Triomphe" stamps printed in USA,
it's a large manual overprint that go on 6 or 8
stamps, and is quite rare.
Other France Specimen were overprinted for
display at Post Office (well, only a 4 stamps
batch in 1936, as well as several stationaries in the
past 10 years), the purpose (and sometimes authenticity)
of other SPECIMEN is unknown.
Another story is about a special airplane journey
(First Fly ?). The letter could be posted anywhere
in France, but the stamps were normally canceled
only at a central site with a special postmark.
Some stamps were canceled with the normal
postmark... It was decided to cancel this
stamps (ANNULE), then put other stamps to
be canceled with the special postmark...
Regards
Dominique Stéphan
www.timbre-poste.com/ Timbres-poste d'usage courant
amisdemarianne.free.fr/ Cercle des Amis de Marianne
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Fascinating, thank you for sharing!One day I would love to exhibit, and it will probably have to do with SPECIMENS.....in the meantime I only have a few hundred SPECIMEN specimens, but the knowledge shared here is invaluable!!!!