A specimen stamp is a

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

postal stationery A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related serv ...

indicium In philately, indicia are markings on a mail piece (as opposed to an adhesive stamp) showing that postage has been prepaid by the sender. ''Indicia'' is the plural of the Latin word ''indicium'', meaning distinguishing marks, signs or identifyi ...

sent to postmasters and

postal administration This is a list of postal entities by country. It includes: *The governmental authority responsible for postal matters. *The regulatory authority for the postal sector. Postal regulation may include the establishment of postal policies, postal rat ...

s so that they are able to identify valid stamps and to avoid forgeries. The usual method of invalidating the stamps is either overprinting in ink or perforating the word ''Specimen'' across the stamp and where English is not the common language, the words ''Muestra'' (Spanish), ''Monster'' (Dutch), ''Muster'' (German) or ''Образец'' (Russian, 'Obrasetz') have been used instead.

History

Specimen stamps have been in use since the earliest issues and in 1840 examples of the Penny Black, Two penny blue and the Mulready Letter Sheet were sent to all British postmasters. These stamps were not marked in any way, but when the first British one shilling stamp was produced in 1847, examples sent to postmasters were marked with the word ''Specimen'' in order to prevent their postal use. Since 1879, members of the

Universal Postal Union The Universal Postal Union (UPU, french: link=no, Union postale universelle), established by the Treaty of Bern of 1874, is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to ...

have supplied stamps to each other through the UPU's ''International Bureau'' and stamps supplied this way have frequently found their way on to the

philatelic Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is possi ...

market. Specimen stamps have no postal validity so postal administrations are free to distribute them as widely as they like and this can include to stamp dealers, philatelic magazines, government bodies, embassies and as promotional items for philatelists. As many specimen stamps are worth more than the originals, they have often been forged. Inversely, many genuine specimens have had their overprints removed to make them resemble the much more expensive base stamps. The use of specimen overprints is not restricted to postage stamps. It has also been used on

revenue stamp A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, ...

s and

, including International Reply Coupons. A unique use was by the Portuguese U.P.U. officials at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries when they hand-stamped postal stationery from Cuba with the term "ULTRAMAR" (overseas) to prevent postal usage.Tyx, Mark R.; ''Mystery Solved: "ULTRAMAR" Handstamps on Cuban Republic Envelopes''; ''Postal Stationery'', Journal of the UPSS, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1983.

References

External links

{{commonscat, Specimen stamps
James Bendon's specimen stampsUPU Specimen Stamps of the British Commonwealth
Philatelic terminology

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links