MALTA½dGeorge V · WAR TAX halfpennyImage unavailable
1917–1918
Authentic colour front scan; illustrative design/value match, not authentication of watermark, paper, perforation or exact shade
1917–1918 / Heritage
Edward VII · WAR TAX threepence
War Tax overprints — 1917–1918
Denomination3d
Issue date1917–1918
Only this release range is established; the individual issue year remains unverified.
The story behind the issue
Two overprinted royal portrait stamps served wartime tax purposes. Identifiable examples show George V on the halfpenny and Edward VII on the threepenny. Printing and packing dates are documented, while exact release dates remain under review.
Technical details
- Issuing authority
- Malta Post Office
- Postal purpose
- Postage
- Currency
- GBP pre-decimal
- Designer
- Not documented
- Printer
- De La Rue (base stamps and WAR TAX overprint)
- Printing process
- Not documented
- Stamp dimensions
- Not documented
- Perforation
- Not documented
- Watermark
- Not documented
- Paper
- Not documented
- Colour
- Grey and purple
- Quantity
- Not documented
Sources & verification
Partially verifiedThe portrait is Edward VII, confirmed by an inspected specimen and the packing record's King Edward series wording. A 31 December 1917 packing date is not an issue date. Individual release date and watermark remain unassigned pending stronger evidence.
- Peter Fernbank, War Tax Plate — Bent Leg of X Flaw, BWISC Bulletin No.201, June 2004, p.27, Crown Agents packing records ↗
- British Empire World War I Tax Stamps — exhibit PDF p.12, original Malta specimens and differing chronology ↗
- Spink, 2019 sale 19029 lot 893 — physical mint/used and cover collection of the War Tax pair ↗
- The Canadian Philatelist, September–October 1964, printed p.217 — War Tax identities ↗
Image & attribution
British colonial stamp artwork; scan by Stan Shebs, August 2005, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain — expired UK Crown copyright (PD-UKGov), explicitly declared on exact Commons file page; pre-1949 colonial artwork
The two basic denomination/portrait combinations only. Dates are explicitly unresolved within 1917–1918; no shade, overprint, plate or watermark varieties are counted. A tax's effective date and a printer's packing date are not treated as a stamp's release date.