Hi,

ULTRAMAR overprint were applied by Portuguese authorities on sample stamps given by UPU countries to Portugal to be distrubuted to the Portuguese Colonies.

Elvis Velez

My understanding is.....

These are the equivalent of "specimen" overprints applied on stamps that have been submitted by member countries, to the UPU (Universal Postal
Union).

In the case of ULTRAMAR overprints, they were applied to stamps that were distributed, by the UPU, to Portugal for onward distribution to the
Portuguese Colonies. They were overprinted in Portugal by postal authorities. When sent on to the respective Colonies, they were placed
into books arranged by country of issue. In some cases, instead (or maybe even in addition to) of ULTRAMAR overprints, the stamps were 'canceled'
to the books' pages by various official handstamps (not normal postmarks).
I don't remember the act number of Portuguese Colonies involved at the time, but I think it was between five and ten; thus there can exist only
up to that quantity so overprinted. As these Colonies broke away, the books were usually "lost" from the postal archives, to eventually show up
in the hands of philatelists. It seems that most of these books found their way into the hands of dealers and auctions in London; the individual
stamps or parts of pages are sometimes valued very highly by those owners.

Value depends largely on the demand by collectors of the respective issuing country. For example, Icelandic stamps with these overprints are
probably much more highly valued than stamps of some other countries.

The whole purpose of this UPU distribution scheme is so that member countries could recognize the appearance of legitimate stamps of other
countries. Of course, the scheme often took longer to distribute the stamps than the speed that letters traveled, thus it was possible for a
newly issued stamp to show up on a letter to a distant country and *theoretically* for that country to charge postage due on the letter
because they did not know that it was a genuine stamp. I have never seen such a postage due letter.

It is also interesting to note that some countries (Iceland in 1904, for example) REPRINTED stamps (that had been completely sold out) specifically
for this distribution scheme. In the case of Iceland, they created some very scarce stamps in the process!

Jay Smith

Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 10:21 PM
Subject: Re: [PC] Help needed with "Ultramar" overprints

When I first read the posting I thought perhaps they were revenue overprints for use by a firm called "Ultramar". Howvever, that's not viable since they all appear unused and one is on an official stamp. From the random positions and evident lack of care, they could be from soneone fooling around with a rubber stamp. I will be interested in seeing what solution others have.

Regards to all.
Jeff Alamogordo