France Stamp 1946 Unknown Over Print

Welcome mass, to the forum.


The amount of knowledge and ability to find information on this site is fabulous.

It appears to me that mass' comment (or question) was not a joke after all. Rather a serious inquiry to help identify the puzzling overprint. He at least had knowledge of the overprint as being Japanese.

It is a Sunagawa seal, but not the Sunagawa seal. This seal differs in certain respects from the seal of the Japanese official in Malaya, so it would belong to another person named Sunagawa. Sunagawa isn't an outrageously uncommon name.

Personal seals are used as alternatives to signatures in Japan, and owners of seals register impressions with the government for evidentiary purposes.

Thanks for the info, Tony!

k

A couple of years ago, I did a job for a Japanese university (which shall remain nameless ) They wanted a receipt for my payment, and refused to accept one with my signature. Fortunately, I already had a Chinese seal, and stamped that on the receipt. They were perfectly happy with this compromise

Your Japanese university experience is quite the same here in Guatemala. For many documents, legal or business, a signature alone is insufficient. A rubber stamped seal, whether authoritative or ornamental is what validates a document. The signature and the stamp must intersect at some point to "prove" authenticity of the signature. Some Guatemala lick and stick revenue stamps, the person's signature must pass over the stamp or it is not a legal proof of payment.

Isn't bureaucracy wonderful!

Dear friends

thank you for welcoming me
this stamp for other person he asking about this over print
and we know Sunagawa seal in Malaya 1942 but its not same shape and stamp date 1946
Is that France has returned to South Vietnam after the withdrawal of Japan\And sent troops in 1946 and the Vietnam War broke out the French continued until 8 years
Until 1954
But the possibility and there is no confirmed

Thank you again

I saw somewhere that there was a French foreign legion battalion from Corsica fighting in Vietnam circa 46. That would give heed to a Corsican stamp bearing a seal from the area. Definitely a puzzler. The seal may have been a left over from the Japanese occupation that they thought was legal or made the document/envelope it was attached to legal.