- £125.00
Portuguese Colonies. (Azores). 1911. Charity Tax overprinted 'ASSISTENCIA' SG C218, 10r grey-green and unissued Charity Tax 20c red overprinted 'SPECIMEN' (perhaps issued for telegram usage but not listed by Stanley Gibbons) and 1913 Charity Tax SG C250, 1c deep-green and 2c rose red value issued for use on Telegrams overprinted 'SPECIMEN'.
Stamps of the Azores were received by the Rhodesia Post Office from the U.P.U. in Berne and applied with their own gum to pages from a commercially bought stamp album and the 'SPECIMEN' type R4 hand-stamp applied.
Charity Tax stamps overprinted 'ASSISTENCIA' with unissued stamps for Telegram use with receipt date and dispatch number written alongside. The 'Specimen' hand-stamp is the fancy type R4 listed by Marcus Samuel and James Bendon unique to Rhodesia and certainly on the stamps of Portuguese Azores.
These unique 'SPECIMEN' stamps were 'Liberated' from the Rhodesia Post Office in early 1980's and have just appeared on the market.
