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Manchurian Local Overprints (MLO's) 1946 to 1947 On 8th August 1945 Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded the state of Manchukuo. The state was quickly over-run by Russian, Nationalist Chinese and Communist Chinese Troops and a great amount of chaos ensued until the Communists gained full control in 1947. From the start of hostilities in 1945 until the decisive victory by the Communists in 1947 special measures had to be taken (often at a local level) by postmasters, to ensure the continuation of postal services and to provide revenue to pay themselves and their staff. The only stock of stamps available were those provided by their former employers the Government of Manchukuo. Postmasters made "Chops" out of various materials and overprinted the stamps they had. These chops usually read "Chinese Republic, Temporary Use" or similar. The stamps of Manchukuo were also overprinted for use in the Kwantung Leased Territory, which included Dairen and Port Arthur. It was not just the existing GPO that produced these chops, because there were so many designs it was easy for stamp dealers to produce spurious overprints for sale to philatelists, so much so that almost a third of all the overprints listed fall into this category. Some of the chops refer to towns and villages that cannot be traced. Forgeries are still being made today and to avoid these new fakes buy from old collections where possible. The change of regime also brought about a change in currency, and from 15th January 1946 the Manchukuo Yuan was replaced by the North-Eastern Yuan (a special currency issued by the Central Bank of China for use in the North East). The exchange rate was 1 Manchukuo Yuan to 20 North-Eastern Yuan. In 1948 this was replaced with the Gold Yuan at a rate of 150,000 North-Eastern Yuan to 1 Gold Yuan. When the change in currency took place the domestic letter rate was 10 Manchukuo fen, after 15th January 1946 this changed to 1 North-Eastern Yuan, essentially half the rate. This currency change is likely to be the reason for the many surcharged issues and would logically indicate that surcharged stamps date from after January 1946, this might or might not be the case. The bible for MLO collectors is a four booklet guide The Local Overprinted Stamps of Manchuria 1945-7 by Allen D Kerr (published 1978 and now out of print - although you can still find copies on eBay). See also Volume II of the Stamp Catalogue of China by Shui-Hon Chan. Both give a great amount of detail but as these overprints are hard to draw, copy and photograph it is often difficult to make an absolute identification of some stamps you may have. Ideally work from both books, Chan has the advantage of being in colour, but Kerr benefits from a useful indexing system making the chops easier to find. The majority of Manchukuo stamps were overprinted, including the 39f airmail stamp and even booklet panes. Kerr lists 482 different overprints, this section (at the moment anyway) just includes about two hundred and fifty so is intended as a sample, it will no doubt grow over time as new copies are acquired. Not all of these stamps are in my collection and if you would like to volunteer scans to add the this section they will be very welcome - my thanks to those who have already done so - keep em coming. |
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| Black Overprints inc Surcharges (lowest number of characters first) | ||||||
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| Shwang Cheng | ||||||
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Pin Hsien | |||||
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| Jao Ho |
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Port Arthur & Dairen | ||||
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Shwang Cheng | ` | ||
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Red Overprints inc Surcharges (lowest number of characters first) |
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| Hai Peh (red) |
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| Port Arthur & Dairen | ||||||
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| Hai Peh (crimson) |
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Purple and Violet Overprints inc Surcharges (lowest number of characters first) |
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Swe Fang Tai |
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| Port Arthur & Dairen | ||||||
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Pen Ki |
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Blue Overprints inc Surcharges (lowest number of characters first) |
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Pen Ki (Liaoning Posts) |
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Green Overprints inc Surcharges (lowest number of characters first) |
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Port Arthur & Dairen | |||||
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Stamps were not the only Manchurian Local Overprints |
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This is another example of philatelic material being re-used due to wartime shortages. These are Japanese military postcards that have been slightly reduced in size and overprinted by a Russian company for use as a cigarette wrappers. They will be contemporary with the M.L.O. stamps shown above and are no less interesting. |
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Banknotes also needed to be updated and this was done with a sticker. The example below shows a Guandong Bank adhesive stamp as applied to Red Army and Manchurian banknotes in 1947. They where used in the special joint Sino-Soviet (Military) Administrative Zone of Dalian (Luda). |
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The above stickers may be fakes from the period. |
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