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Stamps Exempting Payment of Postage
In a number of countries, many official bodies, societies or individual persons were exempt from the payment of postage. For this purpose, special stamps, printed without any indication of value, confirmed the exemption of postage. The catalogues do not always list these stamps in the same manner. In the sections dealing with some countries, they are listed according to the year of issue together with other postage stamps; in other cases they are listed at the end of the country amongst stamps issued for special purposes. There are also differences between catalogues. Some of them do not list these stamps at all, although they are stamps of a philatelic nature and value. Such stamps were issued for purposes such as the following:
Spain (1869) – for the authors of works on postal history, to enable them to distribute the book free of charge
Switzerland (1871) – for interned French soldiers who crossed the Swiss frontier during the Franco-Prussian war
Afghanistan (1882) – for postal services
Spain (1895) – for Members of Parliament and later also for Senators
Portugal (1899) – for all sorts of societies
Italy (1924) – for public institutions
Spain (1938) – for the official philatelic office
France (1939) – for Spanish refugees
Surcharge stamps do not have a franking value, but they are on sale at post office counters and the income from their sale is usually destined for welfare purposes. The sender can affix them to mail in addition to the normal postage, and they are generally cancelled with the normal handstamps. In some cases, their use is obligatory. If the sender did not use obligatory surcharge stamps during the period set for their use, the post collected the surcharge from the addressee with the help of a postage due surcharge stamp. The following type of surcharge stamps known:
Portugal (1911) – charity tax stamps
Turkey (1911) – surcharge stamps for the Red Crescent and Child Welfare; their use was obligatory on twenty-three State and religious holidays during the year and they could be used voluntarily on other days
Greece (1914) – surcharge stamps for the Red Cross
Guatemala (1919) – surcharge stamps for the building of new post offices
Portugal (1925) – surcharge stamps for the collection of funds for the building of war memorials
France (1927) – surcharge for the amortization of the State debt. No surcharge stamps were used, but the surcharge was collected by means of an overprint on a normal stamp
Portugal (1928) – surcharge stamps for the collection of funds to enable Portugal to participate in the Olympic Games of Amsterdam
Greece (1939) – surcharge stamps for the benefit of postal employees suffering from tuberculosis.
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