Lot 244
South West Africa. Tribal Taxes; Okavango. Registration card showing payments for 1937-39
Revenue & Telegraph Stamps of the World | S25005
Auction: 29 July 2025 at 14:00 BST
Description
Tribal Taxes; Okavango. Registration card showing payments for 1937-39 and 1938 using Penalty revenue stamps overprinted "Okavango". The years 1937 and 1938 are paid with 1933 5/- green and brown Penalty stamps (both with damaged corners) and 1939 paid with a 1933 2/6d red and grey with "Penalty" blocked out with a thick black bar and surcharged with "5/- Okavango" in black. The use of Penalty stamps on Registration cards is confined to Okavango and this "error" was officially sanctioned. Offered with original letter from the Native Affairs Officer in Tsumeb to the Chief Native Commissioner, dated 13/4/38, acknowledging receipt of 80 Okavango stamps with "PENALTY" under the word "OKAVANGO" and asking whether they should be used. The Chief Commissioner replied on 29/4/38 that "although the word Penalty should have been ruled through, there is no objection to their use as O.T.T Fund (Okavango Tribal Trust Fund) stamps". Very few cards with Penalty stamps used in this way have survived, the surcharged 2/6d Penalty stamp being particularly rare. Eleven cards from this tribe recorded, of which this is one of the finest; ex Oryx
