Make up stamp

In Australia, six different 30¢ make-up stamps, three showing kangaroos and three depicting koala bears, all inscribed “Adelaide 2016” at the bottom, were on sale for just two days in January 2016.[1] At the end of 2015, Australia Post decided that from 4 January 2016, they would increase the domestic rate from 70¢ to $1.50 but introduce a new rate for "standard letter", a slower service which was $1.00, 30¢ more than the previous first class rate. The supply of regular 30¢ Crocodile definitive stamps that customers could use to make up the new $1.00 rate were in short supply, so the Adelaide general post office pressed into service a slow 22-year-old CPS machine normally only used annually for stamp show souvenir stamps, etc., to print a quantity of 30¢ peel-and-stick stamps. The only retained machine was in Adelaide though all states had them from 1994.[1]

Several of these 2016 Australian make-up stamps have been offered for sale on eBay at up to 1,000 times face value as well as used copies on covers.[1]

Also in 2014, Canada Post issued a make-up stamp denominated 22¢ to make to allow use of the previous rate 63¢ stamps when the rate was increased to 85¢. It joined the existing definitive insect issue which did not have this value at that time and was printed in panes of 50 stamps.[2]

Deutsche Post added two Internet-only make-up rate stamps, valued €0.02 to their website to allow customers to use up their Internet-purchased €0.58 stamps when the rate was increased to €0.60 for domestic mail and a €0.10 for registered mail and some international rates on 1 January 2014 but were no longer available after 31 March 2014.[3]

United States Postal Service issued a new 3¢ definitive stamp, illustrating a star with red and blue points, specifically as a make up stamp in June 2002.[4] All first-class and postcard stamps issued since 2010 are Forever Stamps, meaning that no make-up stamp is necessary to use them after a rate change.