Moire Overprints on WW1 British Honduras Stamps
Feb 17, 2021 14:48:20 GMT -5
kacyds, khj, and 1 more like this
Post by coastwatcher on Feb 17, 2021 14:48:20 GMT -5
Yesterday, I decided to sort through a large hoard of classic era British Honduras stamps that I have and identify them. The first stamp that I pulled out was a war tax stamp (Scott #MR2) and I noticed that the Scott catalog said that #MR1 had a “Moire Overprint.” I had never heard of a Moire Overprint and, since the catalog gave no further information, I hit the internet. I was able to find an article in Linn’s Stamp News that explained what it was.
During the early stages of World War 1, German Naval activity was very high in the Atlantic and Caribbean and Britain was afraid that a ship carrying stamps to the Americas might be captured. In 1915-16, they decided to use a Moire Overprints, a series of wavy lines, on several stamps from British Honduras (Scott #s 85, 86, 87, MR1), so they could be quickly invalidated should they be captured. The tide of the war at sea soon changed, though, and no more stamps were overprinted.
I quickly went through my accumulation of British Honduras stamps and was delighted to find that I have examples of all 4 of the stamps that had been overprinted. As I said, I had never even heard of these before yesterday. I think that’s one reason why I love stamp collecting, there’s always something new to learn and there are so many interesting and historic stories behind each stamp.
British Honduras Scott #s 85-87 from 1916 with Moire Overprints
British Honduras Scott #MR1 from 1916 with Moire Overprint
During the early stages of World War 1, German Naval activity was very high in the Atlantic and Caribbean and Britain was afraid that a ship carrying stamps to the Americas might be captured. In 1915-16, they decided to use a Moire Overprints, a series of wavy lines, on several stamps from British Honduras (Scott #s 85, 86, 87, MR1), so they could be quickly invalidated should they be captured. The tide of the war at sea soon changed, though, and no more stamps were overprinted.
I quickly went through my accumulation of British Honduras stamps and was delighted to find that I have examples of all 4 of the stamps that had been overprinted. As I said, I had never even heard of these before yesterday. I think that’s one reason why I love stamp collecting, there’s always something new to learn and there are so many interesting and historic stories behind each stamp.
British Honduras Scott #s 85-87 from 1916 with Moire Overprints
British Honduras Scott #MR1 from 1916 with Moire Overprint