Help Requested With Nyassa And Its Overprints

Hi there,

I'd be grateful if anyone is able to provide assistance on what I'm afraid is a very specific area - the overprints on Nyassa's giraffes/camels stamps in 1903.

Here's what I know to be accurate :

1. Nyassa issued its first set of its own definitives (ie. not just overprint on Mozambique's stamps) in 1901 - a 13 value set featuring 7 giraffe stamps and 6 camel stamps.

2. In 1903, 5 stamps from that set were overprinted - three camel values (8r, 150r and 300r) were overprinted with new values ("65 reis", "115 reis" and "130 reis" respectively) and two giraffe values (15r and 25r) were overprinted with the word "Provisorio". It's widely considered that this overprinting took place first locally (ie. in Nyassa) and subsequently in London in much larger quantities.

3. At least as far as the three camel stamps are concerned, there are therefore two different styles of overprint - the local overprinting, where the word "reis" is in small letters, and the London overprinting where it is in capital letters.

4. For the giraffe stamps, however, there seems to be some confusion. I have been of the opinion that there were still two different styles of overprint - the local overprint where the word "Provisorio" is in small caps - ie. the "P" is larger than the "rovisorio", and the London overprint where the word "Provisorio" is in all caps - ie. all the letters are the same size. I'm basing this on a combination of sources - firstly a contemporary article from 1910 (http://www.philatelicdatabase.com/a...e-1898-1911/) which says, of the local overprinting, "(t)he word PROVISORIO was in small capitals". I'm also basing it on another source (http://catalogue.klaseboer.com/vol2...portunya.htm) which distinguishes between two different overprints on the giraffe stamps - one saying "Overprinted "Provisorio" locally", the other saying "Overprinted "PROVISORIO"".

5. Just to confuse matters, there are also instances of the local overprinting where the Provisorio, in small caps, runs vertically, rather than horizontally, although a number of those appear to be fakes from the 1920s. It may be, therefore, that the second source cited in the paragraph above is talking about those vertical overprints when is says "Overprinted Provisorio locally".

Someone I've been in contact with recently, however, doesn't think that there are any local (ie. small caps) Provisorio overprints that are horizontal - just the vertical ones. Whilst I hesitate to question their knowledge, as I'm sure they know more than me, I'm sure that I've seen them in the past on ebay and others, but can't track them down at the moment.

So, to cut a long story short (too late!), are there three classes of Provisorio overprint on the 15r and 25r giraffe stamps? The local horizontal, the local vertical and the London? Or just the two - the local vertical and the London?

Thanks in advance for any light anyone can shed.

GS

EDIT - since a picture may help, below there's an image of the five stamps overprinted with the London overprint - as you can see, the camel stamps have the word "reis" in capital letters, and the "provisorio" is horizontal in all capitals.

for a dead country, Nyassa certainly produced beautiful stamps

GS-

Just to make sure we're on the same page, do you think the 3 stamps pictured in the cited phildat article under "Fourth Issue" are (left to right) London, London, and local, and the stamp under "Fifth Issue" is London? That is my take on them. I don't have a printed catalogue available to me until I get home, and in any event I can't think of anything I have that will delve into these beyond whatever level of detail will be found in the Scott Classic.

I have a fair number of these Nyassas tucked here and there, and you've piqued my interest to revisit what I have. I'll certainly post anything I find that doesn't fit the model already established in that article.

Collin

Colin,

Yes, that's right - London, London and local.

The one under 5th issue is London, but I don't think that there was a local overprint for the 5th issue - as the article says, the stamps used for the 5th issue were almost certainly ones which had been overprinted (in London) with Provisorio by mistake as part of the 4th issue, so when the 5th issue came around the printers saw the chance to use up this otherwise useless stock by adding the new value to it and sending it out as the 5th issue.

As a result there shouldn't (although I'm open to being corrected!) be a local overprint - I've certainly never seen anything from the 5th issue with anything over than London-style overprint (capital letters, and all caps).

GS

GS-

I looked at many of my Nyassas, which aren't as organized as they should be, and I did a little looking in print and online. I didn't find any evidence of a horizontal local overprint. I think if I ran across one now, after doing this checking, I'd have to consider it suspect until I found some confirmation.

Like you, I feel like I've seen a horizontal local overprint, and I would have bet I had one or two, but my mind could be playing tricks on me. If I run across anything to the contrary I'll come back to this thread and give it a bump.

Good luck with your hunt.

Collin

Colin,

Many thanks - will carry on digging for a bit, but otherwise will chalk it up to my imagination and revamp my list!

Cheers

GS

I thought a follow-up might be appreciated...

Through ebay I managed to track down an exceedingly kind gentleman who, it transpired, owns the entire Waterlows archive for the various Nyassa printings, including 177 complete order sheets, die proofs, etc. He very kindly provided me copies of a number of exhibitions that he's prepared over the years, the majority of which, I have to confess, went straight over my head.

The definitive answer, though, is that there are no horizontal, local, "Provisorio" overprints - all of them are vertical. He also taught me how to identify real from fake varieties - in short the genuine ones must come from a specific printing, the first printing, as that was the only printing released to Nyassa post offices which was then overprinted with the word Provisorio. All other printings must be forgeries.

He also told me that what I'd been calling the 5th issue was, in fact, dreamt up by Waterlows to make money out of the collector, and was completely spurious - they were printed and released to the London philatelic market and never went near Nyassa - a fate shared by a number of the issues. In fact, as late as 1922 Waterlows were reprinting the 1901 issue (including "genuine errors" with inverted centers) and releasing them to the London market.

Interestingly, on a side note, I've today seen an auction on ebay for "a complete set" of 12 of the 1901 issue with inverted centers. That's despite the fact that there are 13 stamps in the set (all of which were issued with inverted centers) and they're being described as "exceedingly rare" despite the fact that Waterlows deliberately, in 1922, printed inverted sheets in large quantities (1000 of each value) to take advantage of the demand created by an earlier, actual, error in 1903 when a smaller quantity (50 of each value) was released to the market inverted.

Hope that helps. It's certainly helped me to clear a number of things up!

Fascinating story GS, thanks for taking the time to post.
I bet your colleague enjoyed sharing his knowledge as well.

I've said it before; the depth of knowledge here is amazing.

Certainly one for the files...thanks!

Collin

Great stuff. I collect knowledge :)