The Hong Kong 'China' Overprints

British Post Offices in China from 1917 - 1930

Requisition Letters

During the period December 1916 through April 1929, there were a total of 11 requisitions. The first consignment of the first issue, dated December 1916 was unmarked but succeeding requisitions were lettered A through E. Requisitions for the second issue, from February 1922 onwards were lettered F through J. From Postal records, it is known that Requisitions were made for the denominations listed below, however, no examples have ever been reported to exist for many of these denominations.

	A Nov 1917	B Jun 1919	C Apr 1920	D 1920/1	E 1921	F Feb 1922	G Nov 1923	H Apr 1927	I Nov 1927	J Apr 1929
1c	Reported	X	X	Unique	Unclear	Reported	Reported	X	X	Unknown
2c	Unknown	X	X	Unclear	Unclear	Reported	X	X	Shown	X
4c	Unknown	X	X	Unclear	Unclear	Shown	X	X	Shown	X
6c	Reported	X	X	Unclear	Unclear	Shown	X	X	X	X
8c	Unknown	Unknown	X	Reported	Unclear	Reported	X	X	X	X
10c	Unknown	Unknown	X	Reported	Unclear	Reported	X	X	X	Unknown
12c	Reported	X	X	Unclear	Unclear	X	X	X	X	X
20c	Unknown	X	Reported	Unclear	Unclear	Reported	X	Unknown	X	Unknown
25c	Reported	X	X	Unclear	Unclear	Shown	X	X	X	Reported
30c	Unknown	X	X	Unclear	Unclear	X	X	X	X	X
50c	Unknown	Unknown	X	Reported	Reported	Unknown	X	Shown	X	Unknown
$1	Unknown	Unknown	X	Unclear	Reported	Reported	X	Unique	X	Unknown
$2	Unknown	X	X	Unclear	Unclear	Reported	X	Unique	X	Unknown
$3	X	X	X	Unclear	Unclear	X	X	X	X	X
$5	X	X	X	Unclear	Unclear	X	X	X	X	X
$10	X	X	X	Unclear	Unclear	X	X	X	X	X

Plate Numbers

Only one plate was used for the entire printing and the sheets were identified by a number “1” in the selvage. Examples of these plate numbers that are shown in this exhibit are listed below.

	1c	2c	4c	6c	8c	10c	12c	20c	25c	30c	50c	$1	$2	$3	$5	$10
1917	S
1922	S	S	S	S		S			S		S	S	S	n/a	n/a	n/a

Reported	At least one example has been reported to exist
Shown (S)	An example is shown in this exhibit
Unique	This is believed to be the first time an example of this requisition in this denomination has ever been shown and believed to be unique
Unclear	There are no existing GPO records showing what denominations were ordered on requisitions D and E.
Unknown	GPO records show a requisition was placed but no example has ever been recorded to exist
X	No requisition was ever made for this denomination
N/A	Not applicable

Requisition D dated 1921/1922
According to Perrin, the denominations of stamps ordered under requisition D are unknown and only examples of the 8c, 10c, and 50c have ever been reported. This is believed to be the first reported example of the 1c denomination and believed to be unique.

D 1 Cent

Requisition F dated February 1922

F 4 Cent

F 6 Cent

Requisition I dated November 1927
In addition to being a rare multiple of the 2 cent green, this block also shows an example of the "Broken 'N'" variety of the setting of the overprint.

Plate Number 1