Papua New Guinea: Surcharged Stamps

1960 ( 1Mar) Postal Charges 6d overprint on 7½d

SG D1

957-1958 Papua New Guinea Stamps Pictorial Definitives Surcharges

Overprint 2½d to 4d

Papua New Guinea 29 Jan 1957

SG17 7d on 1/- Lakatoi yellow-green

PNG 1994 "Emergency" Overprints

Provisional Overprint of the Spine Cheek Anenomefish
65 toea over 70 toea, was issued on the 28th November, 1994.

The print run quantity was 125,000.

SG 737

ASC 539a...the eleventh stamp overprinted in the emergency

PNG 1994 "Emergency" Overprints

Provisional Overprint of the Tomato Clownfish 
21 toea over 35 toea, was issued on the 16th March, 1994.

the print run quantity was 1,750,000.

ASC 538a... the first stamp overprinted in the emergency 

PNG 1994 "Emergency" Overprints

Provisional Overprint of the Bainings Dancer 
5 toea over 35 toea, was issued on the 5th August, 1994.

The print run quantity was 500,000.

This stamp was overprinted to cover previous 5 toea increases ending on 27 November 1994 and also the proposed 5 toea increase in postage for the Zone 1 & 2 twenty gram letter rate - levied on 28 November, 1994.

SG 730

ASC 600a...the third stamp overprinted in the emergency

PNG 1994 "Emergency" Overprints

Provisional Overprint of the NZ Stampex Mask - 10 toea over 35 toea, was issued on the 3rd October, 1994.

The print run quantity was 70,950.

ASC catalogue value in 2007 was AUD50 (MNH), however present value is about AUD85.

This is due to the large number despatched to regions with very high domestic usage. This culminated in one stamp being abundant (ASC626a) and the other being rare. Additionally, they were both surcharged upvalues - used to make up postage for use in other postal rates.

SG 732

ASC 620a the seventh stamp overprinted in the emergency

The availability of this stamp limits the number of sets of thirteen (13) which can exist.

PNG 1994 "Emergency" Overprints

50 toea over 35 toea Gogodala Mask inverted overprint

SG 736a

was purchased at the PostOffice in Kainantu PNG in February 1995.

PNG 1994 "Emergency" Overprints

Provisional Overprint of the Census - 65 toea over 70 toea, was issued on the 28th November, 1994.

The print run quantity was 50,000.

ASC catalogue value in 2007 was AUD5 (MNH), and present value is about AUD5. At this point in time, I do not know why that is so! You would think the very small print quantity would mean that they should be very expensive to buy!

This is a very interesting stamp - with the sheet of 50 having 50 variations. Every one is different.

SG 738

ASC613a the tenth stamp overprinted

PNG 1994 "Emergency" Overprints

Provisional Overprint of the Wawoi Waterfall - K1.00 over 70 toea, was issued on the 28th November, 1994.

The print run quantity was 75,000.

ASC catalogue value in 2007 was AUD20 (MNH), and present value is AUD20.

SG 739

ASC610a the twelfth stamp overprinted in the emergency

Hi René Papua an New Guinea stamps were highly prized by royalty and world leaders. Stamps of Papua an New Guinea tell the counties history very well.

The collecting area of New Guinea is very extensive. It comprises German New Guinea, British New Guinea and Dutch Indies as well as New Guinea, Papua, Dutch New Guinea, Papua New Guinea, UNTEA, Irian Barat and Indonesia.

Even a relatively small collecting field like PNG is rich in special items, be it covers, stamps or postmarks.

Barry

PNG Emergencies – Birds of Paradise

The ongoing financial and constitutional crises in Papua New Guinea led to further indecision and no decision on a stamp charge rise meant that the original 21 toea overprinted stamps were rapidly depleting, so even more stamps for domestic usage were required for a mail hungry public who were still consuming approximately one million stamps each month at this time. The Philatelic Bureau decided to overprint 1,402,000 Birds of Paradise stamps using four (4) different stamp varieties with a thin font). These were the 3rd printing of ASC647 having 1993 at the stamp base and a lower-case "t" in the denomination (ASC 647c) and the 1992 upper-case "T". (ASC 647d) And also the second printing of ASC649 having July 1993 and a lower-case "t" (ASC 649a), together with the stamp having 1992 at the base and an upper-case "T" (ASC 649b). Further confusion exists as the Australian Stamp Catalogue of 2007 refuses to acknowledge the four (4) 1992 upper-case T" stamps (more on that later). I refer to these as BOP1's or First Printing of BOP's.


Confused?

Well, let's move on to the Second Printing of BOP's - or BOP2's. Approval of increased postal charges have still not been approved by the PNG Government and another 515,000 thick fonted Freshwater Fish overprints have been printed but look like running out - so arrangements are made to overprint the same four (4) stamps that were used for the BOP1's. However, sheets of two (2) other varieties were inadvertently added and delivered to the printers with them. Thus, there were now six (6) varieties involved - not four (4). Additionally, the Philatelic Bureau directed the Printer to overprint them "the same as the last ones" - meaning the thin-fonted BOP1's. However the same printers had last printed the Freshwater Fish and thought that a thick font was required for the BOP2's - and that's what got printed! 24,950 of them! Catalogue numbers for the four were ASC 647e, 647f, 649c & 649d. Not long after they were issued (04 August 1995), several sharp-eyed entrepreneurs noticed that the dates on some of both the small "t" were not dated 1993, but 1992! Rumours abounded that there had been an additional third overprinting of the BOP's. For ASC 647g had to be the first printing of ASC 647 & for ASC 649e it also had to be the first printing of ASC 649. It is not politically correct, but I call these BOP3's...

This was not fraud or deception - it had simply arisen out of a clerical error.

We may never know how many BOP3's were printed, but an estimate by the three members of the Lae Troika (who had bought up most of them) made it 1,800 (36 sheets of 50) of ASC 647g and 1,200 (24 sheets of 50) of ASC 649e. We can summarise this last lot of 1994/95 Emergency Overprints as below:

BOP2 - ASC 647e - 7,550
BOP2 - ASC 647f - 3,200
BOP2 - ASC 649c - 7,700
BOP2 - ASC 649d - 3,500
BOP3 - ASC 647g - 1,800
BOP3 - ASC 649e - 1,200
TOTAL - 24,950

These stamps have a thicker font than the BOP1's and far fewer were printed. These stamps are currently being sold off at insane prices - I assume because they are not in fashion - or because of the way dealers and carpetbaggers basically "cornered" the market with the end result that they became worth far less on the open market. But I suspect that the real reason is about the number of sets that are able to be collated due to the low numbers of upper-case 1992 "T' stamps which were actually printed. And then this situation is exacerbated by the inadvertent printing of the 1992 lower-case "t" stamps in even lower quantities. This means that there can only be a maximum of 1,200 sets if the estimate is correct. But that does not mean that collectors are unable to buy the stamps they can afford and then dream about the others.

On the 15th September 1995, the domestic postal rate is increased to 25 toea and is finally gazetted.