Commemorative Overprints
Overprints have often been used as commemoratives, providing a faster and lower-cost alternative to designing and issuing special stamps. The United States, which historically has issued relatively few commemorative overprints, did this in 1928 for issues celebrating Molly Pitcher and the discovery of Hawaii. British stamps heralding the World Cup soccer championship (1966) were reissued after England's victory with the overprint "England Winners". Similarly, Guyana issued a set of 32 stamps showing team pictures of all the participants in the 1998 World Cup – after the tournament eight of these were reissued with an overprint announcing France's win.
In some rare cases, commemorative overprints have been applied to souvenir sheets. When these postal commodities are overprinted, they are always very carefully positioned for aesthetic appeal, usually on the blank outer border ("selvage") of the paper.
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Hong Kong, 1891: UK colonial stamp overprinted to commemorate the 50th anniversary of British administration.
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In 1928, "Molly Pitcher" was honored with an overprint reading "MOLLY PITCHER".
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Germany, 1933: Graf Zeppelin airmail stamp overprinted to commemorate the voyage to the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.
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USSR, 1935: Aviator Sigizmund Levanevsky with red overprint for his North Pole flight, Aug. 1935. Also includes 1 rouble surcharge.
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UK, 1957: For use in UK postal agencies in Morocco, commemorating the centenary of the British postal office in Tangier.
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