The Shades is that area of Ankh-Morpork which sits behind the docks on the River Ankh. The Merchants Guild tourist information describes it as 'a folklorique network of old alleys and picturesque streets, wherre exitement and romans lurke arounde everry corner and much may be heard the traditional street cries of old time also the laughing visages of the denuizens as they goe about their business private.' In common parlance this means “Beware”!

The background to these stamps and a description can be found in this briefing. ‘Owing to recent disturbances in The Shades, the Post Office was obliged to make an additional farthing charge for letters destined to that district, to cover the costs of the armed guards required to accompany the postmen about their duties. Due to the sudden onset of the unrest, Teemer & Spools were unable to create a new three farthings stamp with sufficient expediency, and lighted on the strategy of overprinting the halfpenny. Craftsmen that they are, it took Messrs Teemer & Spools a considerable time to register the stamps for overprinting to their satisfaction - some would be slightly misaligned, some smudged, and many sheets ended up on the printing floor from whence they were gathered up for safe-keeping by Stanley Howler. Happily, order in The Shades, was soon restored when it was all found to be a misunderstanding over the wording on a ban of ‘edged weapons’. However, this left the Post Office with several discarded sheets of overprinted stamps which Mr Howler considers to be of particular interest to the dedicated flatalist.’

The stamps were distributed in blocks of four, although some vertical strips of four also became available.

The stamps were printed in their own special sheets of 55, five wide and eleven deep. This seems an odd arrangement when they were supposed to be offered in blocks or strips of four. It states ‘These halfpenny stamps supplied with the overprint of a farthing surcharge for deliveries to The Shades’. You should be able to identify the position of your stamps on the sheet from the pattern of the overprint. I reckon the block above came from rows 5 and 6 columns 1 and 2. The strip seems to be column 3, rows 1 to 4.