Great Britain Postage due stamps lot MNH/MH

Great Britain Postage due stamps lot MNH/MH

Great Britain’s Postage Due stamps are a distinct and historically significant area of British philately. They were not issued to prepay postage but rather to indicate and collect the amount of money owed by the recipient for underpaid or unpaid mail.

Key Characteristics and History

• Purpose: To show the deficiency in postage that the addressee had to pay. The charge was typically double the deficient postage.
• Introduction: The first official British Postage Due stamps were issued in 1914.
• Discontinuation: Great Britain stopped issuing and using Postage Due stamps in the year 2000, shifting to other methods for collecting surcharges.
• Design: The designs are typically simple, focusing on functionality rather than aesthetics, and feature a large numeral indicating the value (the amount due).
  • Unlike almost all other British stamps, they do not feature a portrait of the reigning monarch—a feature that often puzzles collectors. The simple, non-portrait design remained virtually unchanged from 1914 until the final issues.
  • They are also some of the few British stamps that sometimes bore a form of the country’s name (though the main definitive stamps do not).
• Coloration: The earliest issues were monochromatic, with the color indicating the value (e.g., green, carmine, chestnut, blue).

Major Series of Great Britain Postage Due Stamps

The stamps are generally classified by the watermark and the monarch’s cypher (initials) incorporated into the design, even though the monarch’s portrait is absent: