Overprinted stamps Suriname 1945 (part 2)

On June 26, 1945, two additional overprinted stamps were issued by the Surinamese Postal Service. These were the 1 cent stamp with a ½ cent overprint, type 'Scheepje', and the 10 cent stamp with a 7½ cent overprint. This is actually a bit strange, because on March 12, 1945, the 7½ cent 'Scheepje' stamp had been overprinted with a value of 2½ cents. Had the Surinamese Postal Service made a mistake with that overprint, and was the stock of 7½ cents (virtually) exhausted as a result? The stock of overprinted stamps with values ​​of 25 cents and 5 cents issued on March 12, 1945, including the two new values, was sold out within three hours! Each person was allowed to purchase only 2 sets. On June 26, 1945, people stood in line during the night before the sale began. The first two stamps were announced by Decree of February 20, 1945. They were put on sale together with the airmail stamp, also with an overprint, of 22½ cents, which will be discussed in Part 3. The sale of the stamps from June 26, 1945, was announced by the Administrator of Finance, under whose jurisdiction the Surinamese Postal Service fell, as follows: 'The undersigned announces that, effective from June 26th, 1945, overprint franking stamps of ½ on 1 cts. and 7½ on 10 cts. will be sold primarily at the stamp counter in Paramaribo. The print run of each is 200.000. To each buyer, a maximum of 1 sheet of 100 pieces of each may be sold.' A maximum of 20.000 will be available for sale daily, of both ½ and 7½ cents. However, if insufficient stamps remain available for postage, a maximum of 25.000 units may be reserved for the postal service. One would almost start thinking of speculation! But back to the issue itself. The overprints were applied in Paramaribo by the JH Oliveira printing house. On the ½ cent stamps, two types of bars can be distinguished: a single complete bar and a bar consisting of two parts. Furthermore, a distinction can be made between the letter c of ct: large and small type. The strip of three pieces shows that all three variants can occur in the sheet, even next to each other. The printing plate consisted of 100 separate clichés. This also applied to the value of 7½ cents. The various overprint forms were first described by a few American collectors. They were also able to indicate the sheet positions of the individual overprint forms: ½ cent – ​​small c in the 10th vertical row; – straight c, stamp 59 in the sheet; – left foot of the numeral 1 broken off, stamp 24 in the sheet; – right foot of the numeral 1 broken off, stamp 48 in the sheet; – normal (complete) bar, 75 times in the sheet; – bar consisting of two parts of 2 x 8½ mm each, 23 times in the sheet; – bar consisting of two parts, one 6½ mm and the other 11½ mm, stamps 90 and 100; 2½ cents – no noticeable errors; 5 cents – the tail of the numeral 5 is pointed, stamps 27, 33, 38, 39, 49 and 76 in the sheet; – small c, stamps 1, 2, 3, 4, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 and 100 in the sheet; – bar complete and in two parts; – furthermore many minor deviations such as thin and thick letters, broken 5 and broken t 7½ cent – ​​small c, stamps 2, 8, 24, 28, 34, 35, 38, 46, 62, 89 and 99 in the sheet; – straight c, stamp 53 in the sheet; – horizontal stroke of numeral 1 on stamp 12 in the sheet; – long break line on stamp 1 in the sheet; – short break line on stamp 33 in the sheet; – numeral 7 without stroke on stamp 2 in the sheet; – differences in the bar, two sections of 4 mm each on stamps 47 through 65 in the sheet – furthermore, many minor deviations such as thin and thick letters, broken letters, etcetera. A wonderful opportunity to track down and collect all those little mistakes. Even though it was already said back then: you’d better buy a complete sheet of every value, then you are guaranteed to have them all!