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1932

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1938

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Seals & Labels

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Chinese Officially Sealed Labels with Provisional Overprints

In 1932 when the Japanese seized Manchukuo, Post Offices used existing stocks of blue/green 1916, 1923 and 1928 Chinese "Officially Sealed" labels. The seals were used on letters or parcels that were received unsealed at the post office, damaged in transit, or opened in error. The earlier labels have the words "CHINESE POST OFFICE" at the bottom, in later labels this was modified to simply read "POST OFFICE". All labels have the four central characters 封成局郵 meaning Post Office Official Seal. These seals were treated as post office forms and given the reference "(D-197)" this appears in the margin at on the top left hand corner of the sheet.

   1916-1922                                   1922-1929                                    1928-1932

A range of provisional overprints exist, these include chops with three, four or six characters' no bars, one bar, two bars, four bars or five bars and sometimes the overprints are applied sideways or twice on a label. These overprints appear either in vermillion, mauve or black and the chops were probably made locally. Most feature the three characters "Man-Chou-Kou" "國洲滿". The labels are associated with the towns of Harbin and Mukden and also Kirin Province. The overprints occur only on the above three types.

Above are two examples of the Kirin overprint on 1928 labels.

Harbin overprint on 1916-1922 label in purple (inverted) and on a 1928 label in red/brown.

Beware Forgeries

Genuine examples of the provisional labels are hard to find and expensive. Forgeries occur frequently on internet auction sites, of particular concern is a dealer in Beijing trading with at least two user names from the same premises. A sample of these forgeries can be seen here. It is hard to tell the real item from the many fakes so always deal with someone you trust.

This example is typical, in this case the Kirin chop has been applied to a Yellow Green Seal. Take a close look, these can be identified by the small corner triangle. There is no record of this seal having been overprinted and the above is a fake.

Manchukuo Officially Sealed Labels

Manchukuo started printing its own "Officially Sealed" labels in 1934. These items are poorly documented and much of the information in the West is based upon catalogues produced by Schumann. This information is incomplete and in some instances unreliable and means that much of the detail shown below is based more upon observation than hard facts.

Remarkably each issue of Manchukoan seals seems to be of a slightly different design, sizes and perforations also vary. The design is consistent in as much as it reflects the earlier Chinese issues with the same central characters reading 封成局郵 meaning Post Office Official Seal, and the six characters for  政,郵,國,帝,洲,滿 "Manchu State Empire Postal Administration" each enclosed within a star shaped design around the periphery. The order in which the characters is stars appear on these seals takes two forms up to 1936 the order was, top row "郵帝滿" and bottom row "政,國,洲", from 1935 this changed to, top row 帝,洲,滿 and bottom row 政,郵,國 the reason for this alteration is unclear. Further text is provided in English reading "OFFICIALLY SEALED" and "MANCHOUKUO POST OFFICE", all seals are shades of carmine in colour.

Issues from 1934 to 1936 were printed by the Central Bank of Manchukuo Printing Bureau in Hsinking, the 1937, 1938 and 1940 issues by the Manchukuo Government Supplies Division, Hsinking. All issues were litho printed on various types of un-watermarked white paper in sheets of 50. None of the seals had gum. Imperf copies in black and the normal carmine colour, printed on thin native laid paper are known to exist and these very rare items are thought to be proofs, although I have seen no evidence to confirm this.

A 1936 issue (Perf 9½ to 10 on thick paper) is reported to be the hardest to find, possibly due to the use of a "fugitive" ink. This ink is designed to run or change colour when exposed to water. Normally "fugitive" ink is used to stop customers from soaking off and re-using stamps, depriving the Post Office of revenue. However as these labels had no retail value, it must be assumed that the use in this instance was due to an accident or a shortage of the correct ink, and their rarity indicates that a low number were printed. I have not been able to verify this issue so it may, or may not, be genuine.

1934 Manchukuo Officially Sealed Labels

Labels printed in sheets of 50 be the Central Bank of Manchukuo Printing Office in Hsinking.
Size 51mm x 34.5mm,  Perf 10½ to 11, Issued on white wove paper without gum. Listed by Schumann.

Officially Sealed stamp, background lightly dotted, 1934 design with a small "r" to read "OFFIOrALLY", these also appeared with the revised corrected spelling "OFFICIALLY" - these are harder to find. Copies offset printed on the reverse are also known.

Schumann Lists these seals as having been issued in 1933, however as the seal shows the six characters 政郵國帝洲滿 "Manchu State Empire Postal Administration" it is unlikely that this seal was in production before early 1934 and certainly it cannot have been in use before March 1934 (when Puyi became Emperor and Manchukuo became an Empire).

The background is more heavily dotted than the first example and the central star breaks the lower frame of the design (see detail). The characters also differ slightly.

Officially Sealed Block of 4 with the bottom row showing the closing up of the "C" to read "OFFIOIALLY"

1934 Manchukuo Officially Sealed Labels

Labels printed in sheets of 50 be the Central bank of Manchukuo Printing Office in Hsinking.
Size 51mm x 35mm,  Perf 11. Issued on white wove paper without gum.

This example has a slightly heavier dotted background to that shown above, the main distinguishing factor is the central star which is be below the frame leaving the bottom frame-line intact.

Manchukuo Postal Insurance Seals

Size 21mm x 27.5mm,  Perf 12 x 12.5 with gum. Printed in sheets of 50, probably in Japan. These seals are unique in having two rows of central perforations (12.5) spaced 4mm apart, as an anti-tampering measure.

The above seals were applied to special envelopes, provided by the post office, for sending valuable documents or money, to a declared value stated on the outside of the envelope. The cost of sending these envelopes was 1% of the declared value plus the normal postage and registration fee. The maximum amount of money that could be sent this way was limited to 1,000 Yuan.

The seals have three rows of hard to read characters, translated as 封钱紙 Sealing paper, 保郵險件 Postal Insurance Documents,  交通部 Ministry of Communications.

The second example (block of 4) has an additional character 免 Miǎn meaning exempt, this has been applied in red. In Japan this character was applied to indicate official business, so it is probable that the same protocol existed in Manchukuo.

The seals were applied over a thread connecting five seals together, the sender then added his chop to each seal. The seals overlapped the flap of the special envelope and therefore any attempt to open the envelope would be obvious. The use of these seals on other types of envelopes is problematic, they may simply have been added by dealers to make an ordinary cover more desirable.      

The above recorded delivery First Day Cover was sent from Mukden on 15th September 1942 with the special cancel (Zirkle 73 - see 1942) to TsingTao in China and has an arrival postmark dated 19th September 1942.

The most interesting thing about this cover is that it has two green seals featuring auspicious clouds and an eagle carrying a letter, below the letter are the characters 邮人封缄纸 Postal Seal. The red cancel reads Jinguang Stamp Company of Mukden, this is also the return address printed on the envelope. The fact that the stamp dealers obliterator is used to cancel these seals implies that the dealer added the seals himself to dress up the cover. These seals are unofficial and are only found on covers dating between 1942 and 1943 supplied by stamp dealers.

Form (D.- 5), the remains of which are seen above the postmark, is a Chinese label glued to registered, express or insured mail and acted as a record of receipt. Once the customer had signed for the letter or parcel the form was torn off and retained by Post Office as proof of delivery. It is quite usual to see remnants of this form adhering to covers from this period.

Manchukuo Wartime Censor Tape

Bilingual (Chinese/Japanese) Tape, width 30mm with a pattern repeat of 83mm. No gum.

The Blue and White wartime censor tape meant that a letter had been intercepted by the Manchukuo Government Censor. The end of the envelope was slit, the contents examined and if necessary censored and then the envelope was resealed using this tape. Translated the Chinese characters read...

檢閱濟 (Jian Kai Qi) = Checked-opened Complete,.
满洲帝国邮政总局 (Manzhou Diguo Youzheng Zongju) = Manchurian Empire General Post Office.
依临时邮便取缔法第三条 (Yi Linshi Youbian Qudi Fa Di San Tiao) = According to the Temporary Postal Banning-law 3rd clause.

Small Packets Labels

Unused sheet of labels for Small Packets Labels No's 831 to 840, as used in Manchukuo.

The label size is 60mm x 35mm and they are printed on a thin coarse paper. Rouletting. No Gum

Part sheet of Manchukuo Small Packets Labels No's 831 to 840.

M.A.T.C. (Manchurian Air Transport Co.,) Airmail Labels

These are labels used to mark airmail letters, originally it was supplied as a tape which needed to be cut and later in a perforated, tear-off roll. The un-perforated tape which is 18mm wide was available from the start of the airmail service and can bee seen on a cover here. The two characters simply read 航空 "aviation".