Page 82 - Pakistan: Beyond the Catalogue

MACHINE PRINTS; MASTUNG

Overprint inverted

The MASTUNG treasury surcharges were not carried out in any g:eat numbers, in fact
such was the shortage of adhesive postage stamps that part sheets and even odd
stamps were used up. It was through the use of such oddments that the above inver-
ted surcharge occured.
In the early 1960s~ W. Dudley Edwards was advised by the Pakistan P & T departe-
ment that only a handful of the 9 Paisa on 1t annas surcharges were ppinted and
these were not issued.
The somewhat ordinary and unimposing example above was discovered under other
postage stamps on a re-used economy official envelope. It was found in some kiloware
material which, by the number of cigarette ends and matches also found, had ob-
viously been collected from waste paper bins.
Separation from the covering stamp has not improved the appearance of the stamp
and the crease was caused by the re-use of the envelope.
However, this is the only recorded example of the stamp used or inverted.
It is possibly unique and may well qualify as Pakistan's rarest stamp - if it is
not THE rarest, it is certainly one of the rarest.
Used on 8 or 18 June 1961 it is very understandable how this overprint came to
be used. When the ~ast majority of sheets were ordered to be returned to the
board of revenue Lahore, one sheet, the overprint of which was badly-underinked
and very faint, was overlooked. Same sheet had, very probably, been issued for use.