The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

n u m b e r 5 5 • 7 3and U.S. administrations attempted to control currencyexchanges through the use of military scrip, the AustralianBCOF contingent found a loophole (Figure 3).It is at this point that postage stamps became an instrumentto facilitate the black market.It’s All About Postage StampsThere were nineteen Australian military post officesin Japan. 7 The bases served the Australian military’smailing needs by selling then- current Australian regularissue postage stamps. The face values of the stamps thatwere stocked by the military post offices were those mostneeded for both concessionary and non- concessionaryrates and fees available to the military, that is, half penny,one penny, threepence, sixpence, one shilling, two shillingand five shilling values.Australian military serving in Japan could send lettershome to Australia by surface mail for free. This concessionaryrate remained in effect for the duration of theoccupation. Stamps were needed for airmail, registration,parcels, and non- concessionary overseas mail. 8Those members of the military who were engaged inblack market activities discovered they could convert theirillegal black market windfalls into currency by legally purchasingpostage stamps from the base post office usingmilitary scrip, then sending the stamps home to friends orfamily in Australia. Once the stamps arrived in Australia,the recipients could take them to their local post office and“cash them in” for face value, less 5%. This long- standingAustralia Post policy accommodated individuals and corporationsthat had acquired unneeded surplus postage.Thus, Australian postage stamps became a key ingredientin maintaining the thriving black market.By September 1946, BCOF command reviewed waysto eliminate the black market. Command’s idea was tooverprint all of the postage stamps sold by the Australianmilitary post offices, making the stamps invalid foruse outside Japan so they would have no exchange valuewithin Australia.In October 1, 1946, four proof sheets of overprintsconsisting of three lines of serif type and one proof sheetof san- serif type in three lines were made under militarysupervision at the Hiroshima Printing Company. 9Serif Type OverprintsTwo BCOF officers and the managing director of theHiroshima Printing Company co- signed and dated thefour serif- type proof sheets. Two of the four sheets wereprinted entirely in gray- black type. One of the sheets wasprinted in red type. The final sheet was printed with theleft “pane” in a color called “gold” but actually brownishand the right “pane” in red (Figure 4).a) b)Figure 3. a) One- shilling value British Military Authority payment certificate scrip note. Allied Occupation scrip notes produced by the U.S.government were also circulated by occupation personnel. b) Scrip tokens created by the Australian Canteen Services (ACS) were used by AustralianBCOF troops to purchase refreshments in ACS canteens. From the collection of Janet Klug.