The Republic Stamp Issues of China (1927)

Postage Due Stamps
With the first general issue of Republican stamps issued in 1913, a set of eight Postage Due stamps was also issued. Their design (Type 11) is ornamental, and they were all printed in blue. The values of the stamps are: ½c., 1c., 2c., 4c., 5c., 10c., 20c., 30c. They were engraved and printed by Messrs. Waterlow & Sons, London. The stamps measured 17×25 mm., and were perforated 14. The paper was thick wove, unwatermarked.

In 1915, when the Post Office decided to print the stamps in China, a new issue of these Postage Due stamps appeared. The stamps were identical with those of the first issue, except that the perforation was changed to 14, 14½, and the paper was much thinner.* The printing of this second issue of Postage Due stamps was done by the Chinese Bureau of Engraving and Printing at Pekin. In each of these two issues the stamps were printed in sheets of 200 stamps, divided off into panes of 25 stamps.

On the 15th of November, 1925, the supply of Postage Due stamps at Hankow ran out, and for five days ordinary postage stamps, handstruck with one of three wooden chops, were used as Postage Due stamps.

The three chops (Types 12 to 14) were very roughly made, and the marks they leave on the stamps may easily be mistaken for ordinary postmarks.

Fiscal Stamps
During 1919, the Post Office issued two stamps overprinted perpendicularly in Chinese for “Exclusive use of the Savings Bank” (Type 15). The stamps thus overprinted were the 5c. and 10c. of the 1915 general issue.

They were sold to savers to stick on the special forms issued by the Post Office, much in the same way as the British Post Office Savings Bank issues forms on which to stick penny stamps. When the form is filled up with stamps, it is taken to the post office, and a sum of money, equal to the value of the stamps on the form, is credited to the account. The overprint was in red.

In 1920, these Savings Bank stamps were also overprinted horizontally with two Chinese characters (Type 16). These stamps served the same purpose as those of the 1919 issue, but they were only for use in the province of Kwang-tung.

In 1921 a series of eight Famine Relief stamps superseded the issue of 1920. The 1920 issue of stamps had a franking value, but this new issue had none. The design of the stamps shows wild geese in flight on the shores of the river Hwang Ho.

In 1913 there appeared a series of five Revenue stamps, the design being the new Republican flag flying from one of the towers of the Great Wall of China.

These stamps are often stamped by the local post offices, with hand-stamps indicating the province, and in some cases the town, in which the stamp was sold.

Many other Fiscal stamps have been issued in China since 1913, and the Commission of Taxes is responsible for the issue of most of them. Many of these Fiscals are Tobacco and Opium Tax stamps.