While Peter is correct about the reason for most of the overprinted stamps of Suriname, the story here is different.
King Willem III died 23 November 1890, upon which his only surviving daughter, Wilhelmina, became queen. She had been born 28 August 1880, so she was only 10 years at the time. She did not become inaugurated as queen until she turned 18 in 1898. In Suriname there had been an issue with her portrait (as a 10 year old) in October 1892, but the stamps with the portrait of her father continued to be used in large numbers. By the time of her inauguration, this was beginning to be somewhat of an embarrassment, and the government decided to get rid of the existing stocks of the old stamps with values from 12˝ to 30 cents by overprinting them with a new value of 10 cents. This was a relatively common rate at the time (either basic letter rate to the Netherlands if transported directly there by a Dutch ship, but also the registration rate). When they were put on sale (at various dates in September and October 1898), they were instantly bought up by (reportedly) a single speculator. I found a contemporary newspaper article which describes a near riot at the postoffice when these were put on sale, with one potential customer suffering a broken rib.
When these overprints were declared invalid as of 31 December 1905, the public was allowed a month to exchange them for current valid postage stamps. It appears that over 90,000 copies were exchanged (fully one third of the issue). These were later sold as remainders.
In summary, these overprints were to get rid of an excess of stamps, not to deal with a shortage. As they were all bought by a speculator, they saw relatively little postal use.
In regards to your stamp, the perforations are very rough, but it appears to come from the first column of the sheet. I have a similar copy and will add a scan here so you can compare the overprints, but that won't happen for a few days.
Jan |
Posted 03/16/2021 1:55 pm
Thank you Peter 
