I have heard that there is an official government reprint of the Mei Lan-Fang souvenir sheet, #628. Why isn this listed in any catalogue, and how can I tell the difference from the original?
This item is not really an “official” reprint in the same sense that other earlier PRC were officially reprinted and sold as postage. According to our sources, in 1963, a year after the printing of this issue, the Chinese government discovered that it had printed too few of these sheets to meet the demand. To try and placate collectors they made full color, same size, imperforate reproductions on a large sheet (20.8mm by 24.7mm) leaving a white border all around with a vertical Chinese inscription running vertically in the right margin. Whether these were sold or given away we do not know, but they basically laid around for many years until recently. Finally, a year or two ago, a couple of these reproductions surfaced and were sold at auction for prices in the $900 range! This called attention to their existence and then more began coming out of the woodwork. In today’s market (Spring, 1999) these are bringing about $200 each. The problem with these reproductions is that apparently som
