The 3s. stamp was overprinted with the words "one penny" in one line of small capitals. The overprint was applied to a complete pane of 60 stamps at a time, so that the entire sheet of 120 was surcharged at two impressions instead of four, as in the ½d. on 2s. 6d. stamp. The only varieties which have been recorded of this one penny overprint are of slight defects, possibly occurring only in particular impressions. It, however, exists with the overprint double.
The issue of these two Provisional overprints, following upon the appearance in 1905 of the 5d., 7½d. and 10d. stamps, brought a good deal of censure from philatelists, who considered that the Colony was descending to undignified means of increasing the revenue by the sale of stamps to collectors. At the instance of Lord Crewe an inquiry has lately been held into the reasons for the emission of various Colonial postage stamps, and the report of the Governor of the Gambia is quoted in the printed report of the Commission:—
"The Governor of the Colony states that as the supply of the ½d. and 1d. stamps had been exhausted before the arrival of a new supply which had been ordered, no [regular] stamps of these denominations were available from the 2nd to the 10th April, letters requiring such postage being stamped 'Postage Paid.' The surcharged stamps were on sale from the 10th to the 24th of April, the date on which the new supply became available. A surplus was left over, which was destroyed with proper precautions."
The unsold balance of the Provisional ½d. stamps on hand was destroyed "under direction from the Secretary of State and by a special Board appointed by His Excellency the Acting Governor" on October 16, 1906. How small the "unsold balance" was is not stated.
