In 1920 older stamps surcharged with lower values were issued as lower value stamps were destroyed by the damp heat. At least such were the arguments...
Engraving: Leonard Vincent Phillips
Design British stamp: J. Giraud ♦ French Rade de Nouméa: H. Vollet, Typography J. Puyplat
Printing: Thomas De La Rue & Co., Ltd. ♦ French stamp: not known
Surcharge printing: Government Suva - Fiji
First Day: 7(?) June 1920 ♦ first day recorded: 11 June 1920 ♦ French stamp:25 May 1920
Perforation: 14
This series does not exist with an official overprint "SPECIMEN".
Quantities: 1d on ½d: 15,000 ♦ 3d on 1d: 20,000 ♦ 5d on 2½d: 20,000
Quantities: 5c on 50c w/o COND.: 300 ♦ 5c on 50c: 20,000 ♦ 10c on 25c: 60,000
Some earlier hammer prices for the 300 copies only stamp: June 2000 Australia: 700 US$; Sept. 2003 Paris: 618 €.
Please see some fakes at left.
The First Day 7 June is not certain anymore as I found an image of a pair of 5c stamps in an Australian Stamp Forum (Stampboards.com) with a clear and very genuine looking cancel of 25 May 20.
The 1924 British provisional overprint stamps handstamped SPECIMEN



The seriffed word "SPECIMEN" is applied diagonally reading upwards. The stamps are believed to have originated from a UPU archival source. Not recorded by Hals & Collas. (Klinger coll.)
