There was a statutory requirement for all UPU members to provide examples of all new stamps to the UPU in Berne for distribution to all other member countries. Great Britain and Commonwealth stamps valued at 1 shilling and above were overprinted 'Specimen' until 1920. These were provided to the member countries in strips of 5 (later 3). Specimens for all the different Portugese colonies were sent to Lisbon and were usually split into singles which were marked with 'Ultramar' until 1925 when they were marked 'Colonias'.

MCCA Specimens and Registration Sheets

Upon printing and approval of the first Requisition, four sheets of each denomination were retained by the GPO as registration specimens. In accordance with the GPO Order to Somerset House in July 1916, the higher value denominations from 50c to $10 were overprinted SPECIMEN in accordance with Universal Postal Union requirements, which required 382 specimen copies of all new postal material and adhesives issued. The SPECIMEN overprints were all printed in black ink unlike the normal Hong Kong series, where the 50c was printed in red.

Specimen Overprints 1st Issue

What is interesting is that the SPECIMEN overprint on the 50c denomination was in a different font to that of the rest of the issues with the 50c being in small upright letters and measuring 2 x 12 ½ mm and the rest in a small italic font measuring 1 ½ x 10 mm.

One example of the 50c with a double Specimen handstamp has been reported. In this instance, the additional 'Specimen' handstamp is not the same as other examples and could well have been applied by a receiving country.

Another interesting thing is that on all of the italic specimens, the specimen print is perfectly aligned but on the 50c, particularly visible on the Madagascar sheet, the overprints are not in alignment. Does this mean they were handstamped or was there a block used as the final specimen is the one out of alignment?

What is curious is that a full set of sheets of all denominations (including the lowest) bearing the SPECIMEN overprint remain in the possession of the British Library but we know that the lower denomination SPECIMEN stamps were not sent to the UPU. The Madagascar GPO sold much of its archive in the 1970's and this unique file sheet from those archives clearly shows the higher values with the SPECIMEN overprint along with the lower unmarked denominations.

Somerset House provided one full set of specimens (all values) of the Nil requisition to the Colonial Office, which are in the possession of the British Library (IR List 4 Vol 6 P12) The link here shows the letter from the Crown Agents sending over the registration sheets.

MSCA Specimens and Registration Sheets

It is unclear why Specimens of the second issue were prepared. Full sheets of all the denominations with a specimen overprint are in the British Library and the letter from the Crown Agents sending these to the Colonial Office referring to this is here. An additional set of registration sheets was also provided to the Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum as shown here.

In March 1927 for the H Requisition of April of that year, the GPO ordered an extra 130 sheets of the 50c on deep emerald paper with emerald back 'to cover demand from dealers and for registrations, etc. specimens'. The reason given was that 'it will have a different watermark to the last overprint' This was, as discussed earlier, because the issue of the 50c issued in Requisition F, along with the other denominations on Script CA paper, was printed on the MCA paper previously used.On 5th April 1927, the Crown Agents sent a sheet of this 50c issue, overprinted specimen to the Colonial Office as shown by the letter here. Again, another sheet was provided to the British Museum collection as shown here.

Distributed Specimen overprint on 50c

Madagascar Specimens

In addition, the GPO retained five sheets of the 2c and 4c November 1927 printing for Requisition I for 'registration etc. specimens' of which imprimatur sheets are retained in the British Library and 2 each of the 2c and 4c are in the possession of the British Postal Museum and Archive. The two sheets in the BPMA do not have the Specimen overprint so it appears that one sheet each of the 2c and 4c were overprinted 'Specimen'. Perrin stated that a single copy of the 2c had been reported but this was a typographical error as he meant the 4c. Only that copy has appeared at auction and examination of the imprimatur sheets at the British Library shows that a couple of the 2c and 4c were removed, which, presumably accounts for this. What is curious, however, is that the Madagascar archive appears to have only contained copies of the 2c and 4c stamps of the second issue, although they were not overprinted. One example of the 2c appeared in the Zurch Asia HK025 auction in April 2013. Questions have been raised however about its authenticity and at present no further information is known.

The holdings of the British Postal Museum and Archive consist of the following:

Req. Nil 1c - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil 1c - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil 4c - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil 6c - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil 8c - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil 10c - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil 12c - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil 20c - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil 25c - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil 30c - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil 50c - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil $1 - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil $2 - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil $3 - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil $5 - 1 full sheet
Req. Nil $10 - 1 full sheet

Req. F 1c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 2c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 4c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 6c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 8c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 10c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 20c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 25c - 1 full sheet
Req. F $1 - 1 full sheet
Req. F $2 - 1 full sheet

The F sheets all have the letter but no number so we can possibly assume that the sheet numbers were printed last?

Req. I 2c - 1 full sheet
Req. I 4c dated 23 Nov 1927 1 full sheet

The holdings of the British Library consist of the following:

1 set of the Nil Requisition under List 2, Voume 1 pp 36-51 and another full set under List 3 Volume 2 page 174 on where 9 stamps are missing from each sheet (Of these, 6 are in the Libraries Plate Block album and the annotations reads 3 to CS)

Req. Nil 1c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil 1c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil 4c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil 6c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil 8c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil 10c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil 12c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil 20c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil 25c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil 30c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil 50c - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil $1 - 1 full sheet and another with 11 stamps missing
Req. Nil $2 - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil $3 - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil $5 - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing
Req. Nil $10 - 1 full sheet and another with 9 stamps missing

Req. F 1c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 2c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 4c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 6c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 8c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 10c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 20c - 1 full sheet
Req. F 25c - 1 full sheet
Req. F $1 - 1 full sheet
Req. F $2 - 1 full sheet

Req. I 2c - 1 sheet with missing stamps (Number I 0003)
Req. I 4c - 1 sheet with missing stamps (Number I 0004) (BL Folio 174)