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Surely yes - some catalog covers these overprints. On Exponet, there is one-frame exhibit of my friend:

http://www.japhila.cz/hof/0699/index0699a.htm

While this is totally out of my area, I do believe a catalog has been published, although I am sure there remains a lot of work to be done.

Surely yes - some catalog covers these overprints. On Exponet, there is one-frame exhibit of my friend:

http://www.japhila.cz/hof/0699/index0699a.htm

pothbhola, I know that a small handful of Stampboarders have a large selection of these (I only have the tiny handful scanned below) and plan on making a research project on them sometime in the next 50 years. It is a gargantuan project as I suspect that there were so many different handstamps, so many different locations, and no official records, that without a comprehensive collection of full covers with clear dates and locations, it is the philatelic equivalent of Hercules trying to clean out the Augean Stables.

I wish you well in youre endeavours.

Does a catalogue exist on these Bangladesh opt. on Pakistan (1971) or Pakistan opt. on India (1947-48)?

pothbhola, I know that a small handful of Stampboarders have a large selection of these (I only have the tiny handful scanned below) and plan on making a research project on them sometime in the next 50 years. It is a gargantuan project as I suspect that there were so many different handstamps, so many different locations, and no official records, that without a comprehensive collection of full covers with clear dates and locations, it is the philatelic equivalent of Hercules trying to clean out the Augean Stables.

I wish you well in youre endeavours.



Norm

There is also a catalogue of post-liberation postal stationery:



Postal Stationeries of Bangladesh, Manik Jain, published by Bishash Gupta for Stamp Digest, Calcutta, November 1972.

It's a bit basic. It lists at the front 41 different overprints without any classification by place of overprinting. It also does not classify them by type, so has English only, Bangla only, English over Bangla, Bangla over English and ones that have more than just "Bangladesh" all mixed up together. It also does not give any sizes or colours for the 41 overprints.

The rest is in the main a list of what Pakistani stationery he has encountered which has been overprinted - ie a basic list of Pakistani stationery issued before the end of 1971. It is divided by type of stationery, with the first Bangladeshi issues added on to the sections for postal cards, envelopes and aerogrammes.

Its main fault is that, as mentioned above, none of the overprints are characterized by size or colour. A lot of items therefore look like number whatever in Jain's catalogue, but might be bigger or smaller or in violet, red or green instead of black, if indeed his original was in black. You have no way of telling.

All the best to you with your project.

Your specimen are all forged I am afraid.

Just wondering why anybody would forge these? It's not like they are worth anything, and they turned up in a junk lot so they cost me nothing in the first place.

Norm

INTRODUCTION
When Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan in 1971, remaining stocks of Pakistani stamps were overprinted for use in the new country. Gathering all existing stocks of Pakistani stamps from over 2,000 post offices for overprinting at a single site was unreasonable, if not impossible, so the post office department ordered each office to devise its own overprints. Overprint style and color were not specified. Each post office and several government departments, banks, and large commercial entities produced their own overprints or, in some cases, multiple styles of overprint. Prior to the announcement that overprints were to be handstamped, the postmaster at Jessore had had stamps mechanically overprinted, so their use was allowed until late January 1972. The Jessore overprints were not applied to the malaria issue. Several hundred overprint devices were prepared. The number of different devices used on the malaria issue is unknown. Numerous forgeries likely exist.

Although Bangladesh P.T.T. tried to make a record after the fact, only about 200 of the overprinting devices were accounted for, as many were by then destroyed. One person reported seeing on stamps on a cover a black handstamp with Bangladesh in a box, but in a deformed shape. The device may have been deformed due to local weather conditions.

Release dates for the overprinted stamps have not been published, and they likely vary per office. First day covers are therefore essentially unknown. The earliest reported postal use of an overprinted variety of Pakistan’s anti-malaria issue is April 28, 1971, but the order allowing the overprints was not issued before December 20, 1971. The last day of allowed use was April 29, 1973. Postally used examples of overprinted malaria stamps have seldom been reported, and postal use covers are scarce.

American philatelist Charles W. Drake collected overprint stamps and prepared a list. Though he did not publish a listing, an amount of his work is included in a 1974 issue of The American Philatelist. German philatelist Wolfgang Tornow prepared a catalog illustrating and describing nearly a thousand overprints, most of which appeared on stamps other than the malaria issue. [Hopefully, someone will translate the catalog to English.] Some of the overprints presented here are not listed in Tornow’s work, and some may be fabrications created after the proper period of provisional use.

Issues with overprints that are likely bogus – privately overprinted after the period of authorized use – are identified in Notes. Some of these are obvious. Less obvious are the fake examples created by using images from Tornow’s handbook to create new handstamping devices. Although some post offices reportedly supplied a certificate of authenticity on request at the time the overprinted stamps were sold, the editors have not seen an example.

Just wondering why anybody would forge these? It's not like they are worth anything, and they turned up in a junk lot so they cost me nothing in the first place.

Norm

This is my only cover with these:





Dated 3 APR 73.