Hong Kong Queen Victoria 96c Olive-Bistre

Hong Kong · 1865 · 96c

This definitive stamp features the diademed profile of Queen Victoria, a common design for British colonial issues of the era. The stamp is printed in a distinctive olive-bistre color and has a face value of 96 cents, an unusually high denomination for the time. It was printed by De La Rue in London on paper with a Crown Colony (CC) watermark.

Issued during the early period of British colonial rule in Hong Kong, this stamp was part of the first definitive series. The 96c value was intended to pay the postage rate for a half-ounce letter to the United States via Marseilles, but the rate was changed before the stamps arrived, rendering them largely unnecessary.