Page 3 - Pakistan: Beyond the Catalogue

• I have used the words “handstamp”, “overprint”, and “surcharge” rather
indiscriminately. No significance should be given to their particular deployment.
• In these notes I shall give an overview of the material exhibited and draw particular
attention to the more interesting and scarcer items.

FRAME 1. IT MUST BE STRESSED THAT THE LOCAL OVERPRINTS WERE “LOCAL” ONLY TO THE
EXTENT THAT THEY WERE MANUFACTURED LOCALLY. THEY WERE JUST AS VALID FOR
POSTAGE, BOTH WITHIN PAKISTAN AND INTERNATIONALLY, AS STAMPS IN THE OLD CURRENCY,
THE MACHINE PRINTED OVERPRINTS MADE BY PAKISTAN SECURITY PRINTING CORPORATION
AND TIMES PRESS, AND THE DEFINITIVES IN THE NEW CURRENCY GRADUALLY INTRODUCED
THROUGHOUT 1961.

After a brief introduction, three pages of ATTOCK illustrate that at this location the handstamps
were rather clumsily applied. Inverted overprints are frequently encountered.

The LAKKI MARWAT handstamp is particularly distinctive. It is rarely struck in a level upright
position. Note the mint block with double overprint, the first in an incorrect denomination. The
Type 2 handstamp with all letters in small case is scarce. As the display continues you will
become very familiar with the idea of un-overprinted stamps in the old currency being used in
conjunction with the local handstamped issues.

FRAME 2. With the DADU overprints we encounter for the first time items of a dubious nature.
Suspicion fell upon this issue almost immediately and enquiries were made of the authorities
which confirmed that the (quite scarce) Service stamps were perfectly genuine but that the
overprints on Ordinary stamps were bogus. The two pages of mint stamps only take us up to
the 13 Paisa / 2 Annas value. There are plenty more! The “2 Pasia” error apes a genuine
variety on the stamps overprinted by Times Press. Taken in isolation the covers addressed to
Haskim Mia Abdul Kader look quite convincing until another half dozen similar items posted on
the same day are produced.

FRAME 3. My belief is that the Type 1 handstamp assigned to DERA GHAZI KHAN should be
relocated to Naushahro. All of these handstamps are rare and the Type 2 example is probably
the only example recorded. The Type 1 TANK, Waziristan, handstamp is also very scarce.
Whoever manufactured it certainly had an artistic bent. The Type 2 overprint, struck in various
colours on both Ordinary and Service adhesives, is perhaps the boldest of the local issues. It is
relatively common and there are some spectacular mis-alignments.

FRAME 4. This Frame is devoted exclusively to GUJRANWALA, perhaps the most commonly
encountered handstamp. The Type 1 overprint in a single line is quite scarce and may be a
prototype for type 2. Unfortunately too few dated examples have been seen to confirm this.
Although a very wide variety of adhesives were overprinted there are no suspicions regarding