Gold Coast Surcharged With" Ghana". 1957

Hello
Any informations about this surcharge please. I read that it was used for few days after independence. TIA

It would be helpful to share the source of the information you read.

@NSK. I'll search among the albums and take a picture of what is written.

The stamps are actually Ghana, not Gold Coast, because of the basic overprint. Seems odd to be further overprinting them.

That is the part I did not understand either. They are the independence issue that already has the new name of Ghana in the overprint. Why then handstamp them "Ghana"?

The 'usual' sites do not list them either.

Klaseboer mentions "GHANA" overprints on postage dues, but not on ordinary stamps. Typically, he would mention such oddities whether fake or real.

Edit:
As I expected, one catalogue has a similar overprint with a clear cancellation dated five months after the issue.

https://www.lastdodo.nl/nl/items/79...ankelijkheid


This site is the biggest place for philatelic nonsense on the web.

It may be a minor point, but they are not overprinted, they are hand stamped. Since the process of changing the underlying stamps was actual printing it seems unlikely that a post office would make the effort to have someone sit and stamp each stamp especially since it is a redundant marking with the underlying overprint signifying Ghana. My WAG is that someone created something for the philatelic market, or a collector was whimsical.

I will quibble with the "minor point". I contend that an overprint (noun) may be applied by overprinting (verb) in a variety of methods, whether by hand or mechanical device such as a press. Regardless of the method, it is "printing over" by some means.

The handstamp appears to be the same on all stamps. They share the spacing of the "H" and "A" as well as the somewhat smallish-looking "G". A creation for the philatelic market seems likely but there might also be politics behind this.

One shows a cancellation for July or June, one for August. The original issue was in March. They have cancellations from different towns. If those are genuine, it is intriguing.

I agree with you John that an overprint can be done by hand, and Scott so defines the term.

As others have said, these were handstamps. Examples have been seen from around 40 different post offices and they do vary greatly in size and font. The latest date I have recorded is 7 September 1959 from Nkonya Ahenkro.

I believe the intended use of these items was to cover the "Gold Coast" inscription in postmarks.





There are plenty of philatelic examples of the Labadi handstamp.

Information from Anderson & Quirk, "Ghana Postal Markings from 1957" - still available from the West Africa Study Circle if anybody is interested.

Phil

Here are a couple more examples, from Manso Amenfi and Apinaman, showing different fonts.





Phil

@ flip138 thank you very much.

@flip138

That appears a very good explanation. It then appears some postmaster either did not understand the instructions, or, maybe on request, tried to create a philatelic item by applying the stamp incorrectly as in the examples OP posted.

Love it when a mystery is solved! Agatha Christie would be proud.

A similar suggestion here:

https://www.zeboose.com/collections...a19570306022