British Bechuanaland 1887 1/2-P - Hand Drawn Overprint Or Fake?

Good Afternoon,

I have a 1/2 penny Great Britain stamp overprinted with "British Bechuanaland" from 1887. The overprint is pretty bad... I'm wondering if this is something special or what... And if it's fake, why in the world would someone ever take the time to do something like this... Thanks for looking! Trying to decode the stamp cancel now...




High Contrast:

Sorry, but this is a really awful creation. Like you, I wonder why anyone would take the effort (and a very little effort at that) to make this monstrosity.

The canceller is not Bechauanaland as this type was never used. Maybe somewhere in the U.K.? This is where the basic stamp came from.

The town is Stevenage, England. LOL

Well done! It's a dismal dump of a town, not worth a visit at any cost.

1887 Scott 10 1/2p vermilion "Victoria"
Black Overprint on Great Britain Scott 111

I think this one is real.


Note the barred oval numeral cancel No. 638? This was in use from the opening of the Mafeking Post Office in 1885 until absorption by Cape Colony in 1895.

Thank you everyone for your replies and help!

Bumping this older thread.

I am just getting into Bechuanaland, and purchased a few recently. My latest is a Scott 7 (SG 6). This seems to have a much wider overprint than my Scott 5 (SG 4), both of which are shown below. I passed over several other 2p, all of which had narrower overprints.


Notice how the B and S in British are a bit "high" compared to the other letters. The top of the S seems squished. The t also seems to have quite the hook in it.


A width variation is not listed in SG. I am voting on a Fake overprint. Any comments?

Here, different fonts are mixed together. Letters do not match the 1/2d. You might get a letter or two in a wrong font in some overprints (which are errors or varieties), otherwise no. This is a pretty terrible forgery.