Belgie Postage Stamp

Hi members,

I will like for members to let me know any information and if this stamp has any value. I have tried to search on the overprint on the stamp but I can not see any other stamps with the same overprint.
Will appreciate your most attention to this matter. Thank you.

Mara

That is not an overprint, it is a town cancellation. I think the stamp is Scott Q20 (not absolutely sure). If so, my 2013 catalog has value at 80 cents.

A q20 will have the numeral in black . This one is 25 cents

these octagonal railroad cancels are getting more popular - they will increase the value of the original stamp.

those are the normal cancel for these type of stamps, they are expected to be on - a different cancel is more likely to increase the value.

this stamp does have a nice centerered and clear cancel as well as a seemingly nice condition.

Belgium is one of the few countries that issued railroad stamps, stamps specially designed for mail sent by train rather using ordinary stamps, a little like airmail stamps. And there are a lot of them! Belgium is an interesting country for stamps. It has issued an enormous number of regular and commemorative stamps like many other countries, really far more than necessary. And it has also had a long history of issuing semi-postals, perhaps more semis than any other country, to raise funds for various causes over the years. And it also has its railroad/parcel post stamps for shipments by train. These "Q" numbered stamps are classic "back of the book" stamps, but are collected avidly by some collectors. They were first issued in the 1870s and I think they still issue a few today, though not nearly in the numbers of previous eras. So apparently rail mail is a big deal in Belgium.

"Chemins de Fer" is French for "train". "Spoorwegen" is the Dutch way to say the same thing. Belgium is bilingual.

Unfortunately, the designs are a bit bland. This one has an old-fashioned train on it, somewhat obscured by a rather silly flower-design in the center with the value tablet in the middle of it all. But the stamps are generally not expensive and I think they look nice on the page with all the town cancellations.

Some collectors focus on the postmarks which are from towns with railroad stations along the various lines. "Lichtaert" is a fairly small town. It would be possible to mount such stamps along with maps of the various train lines and even pictures of the railroad stations or towns where they were used. This is far more likely something a Belgian collector would do, of course, since they would know the locations.

The stamp is possibly worth about 10 times catalogue value as it appears to be quite a rare cancellation - Lichtaert it is not listed in Jones Railway Parcel Post Cancellations of Belgium as having a hexagonal cancellation but I note there are few on sale on Delcample