Cuba 1910 - Scott 239-46 - (EDIFIL 181MT-88MT) SPECIMEN OVERPRINTS
Scott 239-46 for the regularly issued stamps. Full original gum and never hinged. These are Specimen overprints from the archives of the American Banknote Company, originally sold by Christie's of New York in 1990. Stamps are overprinted with small Specimen in red and security punched to prevent postal usage. Of the 1c and 2c values, two additional stamps with large SPECIMEN overprints are also included. Of this issue, only 200 complete sets were found in the Archives of the ABC. Besides, making the printing plates, the ABC also did the printing of these stamps. When they originally shipped these stamps to Cuba, they kept Specimen sheets of all the values. Later on, as the Cuban Post Office ran out and reordered more stamps of some of the lower values, SPECIMEN sheets of those reprints were also placed in their archives. That is the reason why there are two different versions of the 1 centavo and 2 centavos stamps, with large and small Specimen overprints.