Security Measures
Overprints have been used as security measures to deter misuse and theft. In the nineteenth century, Mexico was plagued by thefts of stamps on their way to remote post offices. To address this, stamps were shipped from Mexico City to the local districts where they were overprinted with the district name – they were not valid for postage without the overprint. The United States used a similar strategy to deal with thefts in Kansas and Nebraska in 1929, overprinting the current definitive issue with "Kans." and "Nebr." before they were shipped from Washington, to make it more difficult to sell stolen stamps outside the indicated state.
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Mexico, 1856: Guanajuato district overprint.
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British Victorian stamps of 1891 oveprinted for use only on government parcels.
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USA, 1929: Kansas state overprint.
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Germany, 1948: Allied control mark for Berlin postage.
Read more about this topic: Overprint
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