South Vietnam, Postage Due Stamps 1974, October 1st, 1974, Michel Nr. SVN P21-24; The rapid change in postage rates also precipitated the need to overprint the 1968 postage due stamps. Nominals of 5D (on 3D), 10D (on 0.50D), 40D (on 1 D) and 60D (on 2 D) were overprinted in red.

Here is the mint set.

Mint half sheet of the 5D value.

Postally used block of four of the 10D stamp.

Genuine letters with these stamps are extremely rare. Saigon fell to the Viet long on April 30th, 1975. This means that these stamps could only be used about seven months. So fare the editor has only seen one genuine cover carrying one of these stamps. It is in the Dykhouse collection and consists of a single overprinted 10D stamp together with an older 20D postage due stamp on a cover from October 5th, 1974. So beware of forgeries! Below is a letter that was sent from Hong Kong to Saigon in September of 1974 and the 115 Dong worth of overprinted postage due stamps were added. Unfortunate the letter is a partial forgery. While the cover from Hong Kong to Vietnam is without question genuine, the postage due stamps were added at a later time by someone to defraud philatelists. This is based by an assessment of the Vice President of the Hong Kong Philatelic Study Society Ingo Nessel. The first class postage rate for a 1/2 Ounce letter from Hong Kong to Vietnam was in fact just 50C. Since the correct postage was paid there was no requirement to charge for any postage due. Had the letter been heavier than 1/2 Ounce the Hong Kong Post Office would have added a remark on the cover to alert the Vietnamese Post that the letter was under-paid. There were established regulations and markings to that effect in Hong Kong at that time. Clearly, Vietnamese postal clerks did not possess the knowledge of over 165 postal tariffs around the world to make a judgement if a letter was in fact under-paid. They always required the sending country to provide this information. Also, letters that were judged by the Vietnamese Post as under-paid received a black hand stamp “TT” in larger post offices or a manuscript “TT” in smaller ones to indicate to the delivering clerk that additional postage had to be collected. None of these markings are present on this cover. While the Vietnamese cancel on the letter is illegible beware of very similar covers that feature Vietnamese postage due stamps that carry a Saigon-Cholon canceler. The editor was offered a cover very similar to the one below that also carried a 50C Hong Kong postage, no postage due remarks and two of the overprinted stamps (5D and 10D). This cover was canceled by the Saigon-Chalon cancel with a date from February of 1975. So, clearly, someone is manufacturing these covers using a misappropriated or stolen South Vietnamese cancel. Many of these cancels were lost or stolen after the Fall of Saigon and are now obviously used to produce forgeries.

Registration Nr. 201445

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