A semi-postal stamp or semipostal stamp, also known as a charity stamp, is a postage stamp issued to raise money for a particular purpose and sold at a premium over the postal value. Typically the stamp shows two denominations separated by a plus sign, but in many cases the only denomination shown is for the postage rate, and the postal customer simply pays the higher price when purchasing the stamps.
Semi-postals became widespread in European countriesat the beginning of the 20th century. In many cases they have become standard annual issues, such as the Pro Juventute series of Switzerland started in 1913. Many countries issued semi-postal stamps to raise money for the Red Cross in World War I. The surcharges are typically a fraction of the face value; at one point the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie was officially boycotting stamps with surcharges greater than 50 per cent of face value, saying that such issues were exploitive of stamp collectors. The United Kingdom'sRoyal Mail, a relative newcomer to semi-postals, issued its first stamp of this type in 1975 with a p denomination and a premium of p for charitable causes making the total cost 6p, with funds going to health and handicap charities. The stamp issue was not considered a success and there have been few UK semi-postal issues since. Some non-European countries followed suit ; the New Zealand associated territories of the Cook Islands and Niue often issue Christmas or Easter stamps in two sets of values, with one set having a charitable surcharge. But semi-postal stamps are still predominantly European. By contrast, the United States is a newcomer to semi-postals, with its first semi-postal being the Breast cancer research stamp issued in July 1998. Through 2016 four additional stamps were issued, three for other causes and the fourth a reissue of the Breast cancer stamp. A subsequent law allowed five more stamps to be issued at two year intervals over the next decade. The first, for Alzheimer's disease, was released in November, 2017. Semi-postal issues are not always issued on a regular basis for health and similar causes; they have been on occasion issued as a means of raising funds for disaster relief. These are usually sold as charity stamps, though occasionally, as with the 1971 refugee relief stamps of India, the excess cost has been levied as an obligatory tax. One of the highest value semi-postal stamps is the Falkland islands' "rebuilding fund" stamp, issued in 1982 after the Anglo-Argentinian war over the islands. This was aimed primarily at collectors, and had a postal value of £1 with an added £1 surcharge. Charitable disaster relief stamps are commonly found in smaller island nations as a result of natural disasters, as in the case of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' 1980 hurricane relief issues, and Tonga's 1982 cyclone relief stamp. In these cases, existing issues are often used, overprinted with text indicating the reason for the surcharge.
