Overprinted Stamp

Governments have produced postage stamps in various forms, for a wide range of purposes. In this subcontinent the British rulers had introduced India postage stamps, mostly bearing the portraits of their British reigning monarch. Even before Independence, the question of introducing Pakistan postage stamps on the day of establishment of Pakistan (14th August, 1947) was examined. Due to complications accompanying the designing and printing of new postage stamps and the limited period then available, it was decided that the postage stamps and postal stationery to be used by the Government of Pakistan should, in the first instance, be distinguished by over-printing Indian postage stamps and stationery with the word “Pakistan”. They were over-printed by the Government of India Security Press, and later on by the Government Presses in Pakistan.

On October 1947, the Government released its first stamps, being from the British India King George VI Stamps of 1940s, overprinted with the word Pakistan, known as Nasik overprint.