Bangladesh বাংলাদেশ 500 Different Mint NH 1971-74 Overprints on Pakistan Stamps

Description

Old 1970's new issue dealer's lot of . . .
500 different 1971-1974 Bangladesh বাংলাদেশ
Overprints on Mint Pakistan Stamps
Commemoratives, Pictorials, Definitives, and High Values
500 different 1971-1974 Bangladesh Independence Overprints on Pakistani Stamps, from an over 40 year old new issue stock of Fatoullah & Lazar we purchased at auction in the late 1970s and put away untouched. These provisional stamps are all mint never hinged. Very many are not readily obtainable elsewhere, with the scans as an example. The lot ships in glassine envelopes.
The brutal and bloody war for the independence of Bangladesh ended on December 16, 1971 with the unconditional surrender of Pakistan to the combined forces of India and Bangladesh. An estimated 10 million Bengali refugees had fled to neighboring India, while 30 million were internally displaced. Casualty estimates vary greatly from 300,000 to 3,000,000. Stamps for millions of daily communications were needed immediately. Most Bengali officials (including Postmasters) of the Pakistan Government defected at first opportunity. Some districts bordering India were liberated before December 16th and the head post offices in those districts started functioning immediately. For example, the Jessore Head Post Office started functioning on December 8th and since no Bangladesh stamps were available, the postmaster in charge machine printed (not rubber stamped) an overprint on nine stamps of Pakistan available in his stock and put them to public use through his subordinate post offices.
Internally and internationally, they were no longer Pakistani. Just three days after the surrender, on December 19, 1971, the new government issued a circular to all Bangladesh post offices to use their own initiative in making and using rubber stamps to impress all Pakistan postage stamps and postal stationary available at their disposal. Such overprints are the core of this collection. The postal transition from the name "Pakistan" to "Bangladesh" was consistent with the new government's general handout that instructed all offices to strike out the word Pakistan from all printed papers, signboards and names wherever applicable and replace it by Bangladesh. The postal authority realized that it was impractical to instruct about specific or common design, type size of the rubber stamp, and color of prints to be used. The designs and colors of the rubber stamps varied considerably. The most common color was purple (violet), then black, with less in red or blue and a few in green. Not only did these instructions required hand-stamping of the overprint, they also banned further machine pre-printing of overprints but permitted the continued use of those stamps already pre-printed until February 4, 1972.
Stamps with Bangladesh rubber-stamped overprints remained valid for use until April 27, 1974, with overprinted postal stationery valid until October 7, 1974. At the end of the validity period, the post office called in the rubber-stamps. It received 186 different ones, though a few had already been destroyed. Over the past 50 years since, evaluations of stamps and covers have found that perhaps up to 232 different hand-stamped overprinting devices had been in use throughout the country.
Free local pickup at a mutually agreeable time, or we ship by U.S. Postal Service with USPS Tracking by close of the next postal business day from payment. We can combine multiple items purchased the same day into the same package to save you on shipping.
NOTICE
: Since insurance covers only the goods but not the costs of shipping them, the buyer agrees that once we have proof of delivery of the package to the post office, that if it is lost in the mails and not delivered or is damaged in shipping that the refund is limited to only the purchase price and any sales tax (if applicable) and does not include a refund of the shipping. For international buyers, we label our customs tags as "merchandise" and you are responsible for all customs, duties or other import fees into your country.
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