Thank you to Mike Lean, Club President and Historian for sharing this article
Here’s a very nice piece about collecting from US Stamp Dealer Steve Zirinsky.
Well worth a read. Steve has a wonderful stock of philatelic items, with sensible prices. Check him out at zirinskystamps.com
Dear Collector:
One stamp isn’t a collection. Two stamps aren’t a collection. But three stamps? Suddenly you’re not just accumulating you’re building something.
As a dealer, I see the full spectrum: the well documented classics, the predictable modern issues, and then the material that makes me pause and think, “Why does this exist?” That’s the material I chase not the known, but the unknown. And here’s the twist: the unknown isn’t only in the early colonial period. Some of the most interesting overprints of the last few decades come from countries you wouldn’t expect.
Zambia modern overprints with real purpose
Within the last 40 years, Zambia has produced: Provisional surcharges during postal rate changes
- Emergency overprints when stocks ran out
- Commemorative overprints for exhibitions and events
- Printer specific varieties from Format, Questa, and local government presses
These aren’t obscure because they’re old they’re obscure because they were used briefly, locally, and never properly documented.
Tanzania a union state with constant postal improvisation
Modern Tanzania (post 1980s) has:
- Surcharges on older definitives during inflationary periods
- Overprints for new postal rates
- Revenue-to-postage conversions
- Local post office overprints in Zanzibar and Pemba
Collectors often assume overprints ended with Tanganyika and Zanzibar’s earlier eras. They didn’t.Tanzania has been quietly producing fascinating modern provisionals for decades.
Barbados five printings over 40 years of revenue stamps
Barbados’ revenue issues are a long running detective story:
- Multiple printings
- Multiple government reorders
- And almost no official documentation
Put enough examples side by side and you start seeing patterns and varieties that simply aren’t recorded anywhere. So yes three stamps are the start of something. They’re the start of a question. And when you follow that question across Zambia, Tanzania, and Barbados, you end up in parts of philately where discoveries still happen.
If you’ve come across modern overprints from any of these countries especially the odd, the provisional, or the “why does this exist?” I’d love to hear about them. The unknown is always more interesting when explored together.