Mozambique 1921 Ceres Surcharged 20c on 2½c

Mozambique · 1921 · 20 Centavos on 2½ Centavos

This stamp is part of the popular Ceres series, originally issued for Portugal and its colonies, which depicts the Roman goddess of agriculture. This particular issue was created by surcharging the existing 2½ Centavos stamp with a new value of 20 Centavos to meet updated postal rate requirements.

In the early 20th century, surcharging stamps was a common and economical practice for colonial administrations like Portuguese Mozambique to adapt their existing stamp stocks to new postal rates without incurring the cost of printing entirely new designs.