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Specimen stamp - Wikipedia When in doubt search Wikipedia! Hope this helps.  What is a SPECIMEN stamp and should I collect them? - The Stamp Echo  .                  The Fascination of Specimen Stamps | Mystic Stamp Discovery Center

Be aware that none of these articles address the type of modern Specimen stamps shown in the original post. They all deal with vintage specimen stamps, particularly the articles about Canadian and USA specimens.

See this modern Australia Specimen set in the original Philatelic Agency folder. It clearly shows that these are philatelic in nature and sold below face value to provide less expensive copies to philatelists, and that this has been a long standing practice.

   

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Roy