Portuguese India – Surcharged

Between 1901 and 1905, the Portuguese Indian government issued several surcharged stamps featuring the portraits of King Luís I and King Carlos I. These were not new stamp designs but rather existing issues that were surcharged—meaning that new values or overprints were applied to earlier stamps to reflect changes in postal rates, shortages of specific denominations, or administrative updates.

By the early 1900s, changes in postage rates and a shortage of lower-value stamps prompted the authorities to revalue existing stock. The typical features of these surcharges included overprints such as ‘½ T’, ‘2½ R’, or other numerical denominations. Some stamps bore hand-stamped surcharges, while others were typographically printed. Certain combinations of overprints and base stamps are scarce today, especially varieties with errors or shifts in the surcharge. Some issues featured different font types, inverted surcharges, or double surcharges, making them prized among collectors.