page_title: Melita issue
section_title: Sale and collecting
hierarchical_section_title: Melita issue / Sale and collecting
caption_attribution_description: English: Malta 1930 AR cover to United States.
context_page_description: The Melita issue is a series of dual-purpose postage and revenue stamps issued by the Crown Colony of Malta between 1922 and 1926, depicting the national personification Melita. They were commemorative stamps since they celebrated the islands' new status as a self-governing colony following a new constitution in 1921, but also a definitive issue intended for regular use over an extended period of time.
  Designed by two leading Maltese artists, Edward Caruana Dingli and Gianni Vella, the issue consisted of stamps in various denominations from ¼d to £1; Caruana Dingli's designs were used on the pence and pound values and Vella's design on the shilling values. The designs were poorly received when they were issued, and Caruana Dingli himself criticized the execution of the design. In subsequent years, however, Caruana Dingli's design came to be regarded as one of the most iconic Malta stamps, and his design for the figure of Melita formed the basis of the Maltese lira banknotes of 1989–2008 and gold bullion coins minted since 2018.
context_section_description: In 1922–23 the Post Office recorded an increase of £1920. 19s. 9½d. in revenue when compared to the previous year. This increase was attributed to the sale of stamps to philatelists "owing to the issue of new design stamps". A massive increase of £27977. 16s. 6½d.  in Post Office revenue was registered in 1925–26 when compared to 1924–25, and this was attributed to "an abnormal quantity of stamps sold to collectors for philatelic purposes" along with increased use of stamps for postal purposes. In 1926–27, another massive increase of £24870. 8s. 2d. was attributed to "large sales of stamps overprinted "Postage"."
  Due to the criticism at the colour scheme of the 4d value, that stamp was reportedly withdrawn by the postal authorities soon after it was issued. Some believed that the stamp could become a rarity and examples of it were sold for as much as 30/-. After a couple of days the stamp once again became available at post offices, and it is no longer scarcer than the other stamps in the issue. Today, the 1922–26 stamps are not rare, and the lower values up to the 2/6 are relatively cheap. The higher values are more expensive, with the most valuable stamp being the original £1 value of 1922 with a sideways watermark.
  Although the 1926 Postage overprints were only on sale for about one week, the bulk of the stamps were sold to stamp dealers and collectors so most of them remain common. However, some values sold out soon after they were issued and stamps with the denominations of 4d, 2/-, 2/6 and 5/- remain scarce today. Since they were only in use briefly, most of the 1926 overprints are more valuable in used condition. The "POSTAGE" overprint has also been forged, particularly on the 2/- and 2/6 denominations and on the 3d with inverted overprint.
  The Malta Study Circle, a group of philatelists who study Malta's stamps and postal history, has produced a number of publications relating to the Melita issue. Two study papers which related to the original 1922–26 issue and the 1926 Postage overprints were published in 1970, and they were combined into a single paper in 1972. A rewritten paper was published in 2006. The Study Circle's newsletter which is published three times a year is also entitled Melita.
caption: 1½d and 3d Melita stamps with the "POSTAGE" overprint used on a 1930 AR registered cover to the United States. The cover was sent by Rupert Forbes-Bentley, a stamp dealer.[15]
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