Commercial Overprint Society of Great Britain

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Vol. 1 No. 5; November 1, 2003

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The Oxford Union Society

by Jon Evans

The Oxford Union Society was formed in 1823 as a debating society within the University of Oxford. When stamps were introduced the society issued them free to their members, a practice that was open to abuse. Thus in 1859 they adopted the practice of overprinting their stamps, a practice that seems to have been tolerated by the Post Office although it was unofficial.

Upwards (Normal)		Inverted

The overprint took the form of the society's initials within two wavey lines. It was normally printed with the text in the upwards direction, however occasionally the overprint was inverted.

Un-official.		Official.

From the middle of the 1860's many firms adopted the practice of un-officially underprinting there stocks of stamps. These were usually in a black ink printed over the gum. However in 1867 the Post Office made arrangements for the stamp's printers (Perkins Bacon & Co.) to underprint stamps before the gum was applied, in a colour that matched the colour of the stamp. The Post Office took the opertunity to instruct the OUS to move their overprint to the back of the stamp.

This they did, a new die being used in which the vertical wavey lines were wider spaced. Very few companies took advantage of the official underprint. This may well have been due to the emergence of the Perfin in 1868, although the official underprint was not withdrawn until 1882.

However it appears that the OUS deserted the official overprint before it was discontinued since they returned to using the original overprint die to underprint some of the last Penny Reds, as well as the later 1d Venetian and 1d Lilac stamps of 1880. This underprint can be found in a variety of shades ranging from carmine to purple.

It is not clear exactly when the OUS ceased to underprint their stamps other than the over/under prints only appear on issues of Queen Victoria, whose reign came to an end in 1902. The society itself continues to this day.

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1		2		3		4
(2 vs. 4 corner letters)

Unofficial Overprints
Stamp 1	Upwards	Plates 27, 34, 36, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, (47), (48), 49, 50, 52, 55-62, 66, 68, R15, R16
	Inverted	Plates 46, 47, 52, 57
Stamp 2	Upwards	Plates 71-74, 76, 78-107, 109-119, 121, 123, 125, 129-134, (135), 137, 139, 140, 142
	Inverted	Plates 95, 97, 101
Official Underprint
Stamp 2	Upwards	Plates 119, 124, 130, 134, 135, 136, 146, 150, 155, 156, 159, 160, 162-166, 169-171, 174, 177, 179, 182, 183, 185, 197, 199, 204, 205, 208, 212, 213, 215, 218
	Inverted	Plates 134, 143, 150, 156, 205, 212, 213
Unofficial Underprint
Stamp 2	Upwards	Plates 199, 200, 223
	Inverted	Plates 199, 200, 202, 205, 208, 218, 221, 223, 225
Stamp 3	Upwards
	Inverted
Stamp 4	Upwards	Note there are two versions of this stamp with different numbers of dots in the corners (14 in left image, 16 in right image). Both types exist with the underprint upwards and inverted.
	Inverted
Covers

Covers are not too difficult to obtain, although they are usually found with a contemporary manuscript at the left edge of the envelope.

Things Worth looking Out For

For a short time, Oxford used the incorrect number '613' in its cancellation instead of the correct "603". This fact can be overlooked by dealers more concerned with the over- or under-prints.

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References
1)	The OUS home page http://www.oxford-union.org/
2)	Stanley Gibbons specialised stamp catalogue volume 1

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