I came across this stamp while sorting through my great-grandfather's collection. I have found information on surcharged stamps online, but this stamp is the opposite: the original value of 1 franc 25 centimes was struck through and 50 c printed on the stamp.
If thee's a shortage of stamps, underused stamps from a previous issue may be surcharged. It makes sense to use a lower surcharge than the original value, as the opposite approach would be more likely to lead to forged surcharges to defraud the postal authorities,.
Of course, that makes sense! For some reason I thought surcharge marks usually increased a stamp's value, but now I see that I was wrong Thanks for the explanation.
They can do - eg on French and French Colonies' charity stamps such as the Red Cross issues at the end of the First World War, where the surcharge was an additional amount paid by the purchaser.
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Posted 01/17/2017 12:28 pm
