Stocks of the ½d chestnut stamp, which had been in use since 1882, apparently ran out during August or September of 1896. As the new ½d yellow stamps did not arrive until early in 1897, there was the need for a provisional ½d stamp. This was obtained by overprinting existing stocks of the 3d ultramarine with the required value.
Initially, the stamps were overprinted with ½d in figures, but this seems to have been fraught with problems for some reason or other. Despite the short period of use, there are seven different varieties of overprint known, and double or even triple overprints are not uncommon. Most of these multiple overprints seem to have occurred when poor original impressions of the surcharge were 'repaired', probably by hand.
<to do - add images here of types A through G >
Double and Triple Surcharges
The image below shows positions 5 and 6 of a right hand pane (the top right corner) - the plate number ('1') is visible in the margin. The left stamp has a type 'A' surcharge and the right stamp a type 'B'. The right hand stamp also shows a double surcharge, type 'G'. Since this is inclined, and does not appear on the left stamp, it is obvious that it was inserted by hand once the sheet had been overprinted, presumably during some kind of inspection.
The ½d surcharge in figures seems to have been unacceptable - perhaps because of the high rate of errors and poorly marked surcharges - and was replaced by the surcharge halve penny in words. There were several typographically different settings of this overprint. The surcharges were applied separately to left and right panes and each contains different characteristic errors. The images below show typical copies.
The most common error in this issue is the set of minor varieties created by misalignment of the surcharge forme.
Most commonly, the forme was misaligned downwards, causing the bar to appear at the top of the next stamp down,
leaving the top row of stamps without a bar at all. This image of positions 1, 2, 7 and 8 from an upper right pane
clearly shows how the error occurred. Both upper stamps are without their blanking bar, which appears at the top
of the stamps in the next row. On the left of the centre margin can be seen the end of the blanking bar from the
stamps on the adjacent left pane, which are no longer present. The amount of displacement varies, giving rise to
stamps with the cancelling bar in a range of locations.
Occasionally, stamps not from the top row are found with no cancelling bar. This is due to under-inking of the forme, giving rise to a so-called 'albino' overprint. This can only be detected if the stamp in question is part of a block so that the row that it belongs to can be determined.
The change in surcharge created a number of minor errors, including one of my personal favourites, the so called 'peuny' error. This error resulted from the inversion of the first 'n' of the word penny, and is quite rare. It only occurred once on each left pane, in position 19 (row 4, column 1), and only for early settings of the surcharge. It is a reasonably obvious error and was therefore detected and corrected fairly quickly.
Positions 19 and 20 from an early setting of the left pane, with position 19 (on the left) showing the 'peuny' error.
Examples on cover are understandably quite rare; here are two that I obtained recently (Dec. 1999) at auction.
Another rare variety is the no stop after penny variety, which occured only in position 60 of the right pane (row 10, column 6, which is the very bottom right hand corner stamp). Again it is only found on early settings of the forme, having been corrected later, presumably at the same time as the correction of the 'peuny' error. The image below shows the missing stop variety on the right, with a normal stamp on the left. The blanking bar is also misplaced downwards, so the bar which should have been at the bottom of the row above appears at the top of the stamp.
Multiple overprints of this issue are very rare, with probably no more than two half sheets having been created. These were accidentally put back into the press upside down, thereby causing a double overprint with one inverted. An example is shown below.
None of these stamps are common, but the rarest are those with the 'peuny' error occurring as one of the two overprints. There can obviously have only been two of these per pane, position 19 having 'Halve Peuny' upright with the normal overprint inverted, and position 42 having an inverted 'Halve Peuny' overprint along with an upright normal impression. Two examples on (philatelically inspired) covers were offered for auction in the US in 1998.
Presumably the 'no stop' error also occurs in this way, but I have never heard of an example.
