Unknown China Stamps

I found these in a packet bought in Hong Kong some 30 years ago on liberty. They are early China and after hours of SC searching cannot come up with a SC# or value.

Left to Right:

#1 Is a light red & #2 is a chocolate brown. Neither has a numerical value but I believe the lower left box has the Chinese numerical character. I do not recognize the portrait figure in any of the SC illustrations. #3 is an overprint 3.00 of 5.00 (blue on blue) similar to China SC#917 (which is similar in design but 3.00 over 50.00). any

First an second are Postal Saving stamps.
I don't think they are in Scott.
Issued in 1944 in the province of ChungKing and have the portrait of president Lin Sen.

Thank you jorgesurcl. Appreciate the information. I think I can find the numeric character translation in the Scott.

Second Try: Subject matter Stamps still an issue for me. Can anyone help with catalog # and value. It would be greatly appreciated.

The last one is Revenue Stamp Surcharged as "Gold Yuan " Postage Stamp.

The picture is blurry, but the stamp at right does look like $3 on "$50", not $5. Please look at it under a magnifier -- the blue surcharge may be playing tricks with your eyes. You should see 50 followed by a smaller elevated and underlined double zero. If the surcharge is blue, then your stamp is Scott China #916, not #917(black surcharge).

The 2 Lin Sen postal savings stamps on the left are 50c and $5 denominations (from left to right). You are missing the $1 and $2 stamps. They are fairly common, as postal savings stamps go.

k

khj:

Thanks you for the info on the savings stamps.

As for the right surcharged I looked under the glass and it is a $3 over $5 in blue. The last 00's are small raised-under-lined with the overprint in 'navy' blue (but really appears black.) I have the $3 over $50 and that definitely appears more black than blue. I appreciate the assist and information but still left with the mystery. I will scan both stamps later and post to this thread in the future.

There are several revenue values for that stamp that are not in Scott (since Scott doesn't list non-postal revenues). Since you looked at again, I guess the surcharge was playing tricks on my eyes. The unsurcharged $5 does exist.

Since the stamp was originally a revenue stamp, there is a possibility that it is a revenue surcharge (i.e., not valid for postage, only for revenue use). I don't have a revenue catalog and I can't make out the text in the overprint. I can check Yang's liberation area catalog to see if it might be a regional surcharge.

I flipped through my Yang Volume 2 (6th Edition) and did not see any $3 on $5 Transportation surcharges in it.

Nor do I see it on the China Revenue website (but that site does not give a complete listing).

Hopefully someone with a revenue catalog, a more specialized catalog, or the knowledge can chime in.

Interesting stamp, never seen a $3 on $5 one; thanks for posting the pic (yes, it would be nice if you could post a clearer pic).

k

I hope this can show the 2-types more clearly. I believe the $50 is BLACK and the $5 overprint is close to black, maybe NAVY BLUE??

Those "3's" in the $3 look surprisingly different. I've got a few at home that I will look at this evening.

Partime: Good eye-didn't see that. The $50 '3' is a rounded top and the '00's look fatter (?) than the $5 '3', which has a 'flat-top'. I noticed in the beginning that the over-print was crisper in the $5 type, but I thought that was from a newer plate and a relatively new inking of the plate.

Just as a note of purchase history, I purchased these in 1971 from a stamp shop in Hong Kong (still under British)for short $$s. But this was significantly before the resurgence of CHINA (PRC) collectables. I stored them in their original glassine and a cigar box until this past spring. Scott has some good info but really not enough to identify completely. I am hoping that there is someone in the Forum (especially Asia/China collectors) that could enlighten me as to SC# (or other reference) and value.

OK, I found the following in Grandma's collection. I believe that these are China, Scott 916 and 917 which are Blue on Dark Blue, and Black on Dark Blue. Note that they are definitely both 50_00 stamps ... not 5_00. However, my Scott's doesn't explain the difference in the "3". Scott's value in 2012 was only US$0.20 each.

I also have one that I cannot locate anywhere. The date seems to indicate 1949, but I just can't tell. Any ideas?

Partime, your $5 stamp is East China #5L13(Apr1949). The normal stamp has the black overprint; the error stamp has the overprint missing and there is a uncommon purple overprint variety.

The stamp is already a valid postage stamp, so the postal overprint was not used to convert a revenue stamp to postage stamp. Rather, the overprint was used to mask the Japanese flag that had been included at the top of the tower.

Partime, you correctly identified the two transport revenue surcharges as #916(left) and #917(right) in the Scott catalog. The stamps were printed by several printers. Your two stamps were made by different printers. Although I don't know the exact history, I would assume that the different printers were also authorized to make the overprints -- hence differences in the border, font, spacing... of the surcharge.