Who Needs A Security Printer ... Again

... when you can print your stamps in the local jail?

Jaipur State in India had its main State printing works in the Jaipur Jail for a number of years. Gibbons used to forthrightly show the jail as the source, but a few years ago succumbed to pressure to adjust their listings. They now read 'Jaipur State Press', which is quite true - as far as it goes. But the 'Jaipur State Press' was inside the Jaipur Jail.

The first issue was a little, what shall we say? Unadventurous? It was set up from loose type, in sheets of six stamps, and consisted of four values:









So far, so good.

Those crazy maharajahs, always trying to upstage one another. "You have a security printer? That's nice. I have a maximum security printer."

However, the printing was going on inside a jail, and the inmates seem to have taken a fiendish delight in making as much of a mess of the business as they could. Spelling errors abound on the two low values, the ¼ and ½ Anna stamps:

If you look more closely at the first (¼ Anna) sheet, you'll see that the '¼' in the second stamp on Row 1 is inverted, and the full stop is missing after 'STATE' in the first stamp on Row 3.

Double prints are common. Here is a doubly printed sheet:



Things were even messier with the ½ Anna. If you look at the sheet above, you'll see an extra large 'J' in Jaipur at stamp 2 Row 1, and the missing stop after 'STATE' again.

There was also another setting of the ½ Anna, which produced two more errors - in the sheet of six:



1/3 for ½ at bottom right, and 1½ for ½ at bottom left

And of course, these can also be found printed double.

Then there are the shades to collect: Gibbons lists the ¼ Anna in green and greenish-yellow, the ½ Anna in ultramarine and grey-blue, and the 2 Anna in greyish green and deep green. The ½ Anna grey-blue is the most expensive, at £3.25, followed by the green ¼ Anna and the greyish-green 2 Anna at £2.75 each; on the other hand, the ¼ Anna greenish yellow and the ½ Anna ultramarine are 30p each.

Sheets of the two low values aren't hard to find. Once upon a time, you had to fight them off with a stick, and they still turn up regularly on ebay. Sheets of the 1 Anna are bit harder, and sheets of the 2 Anna are quite scarce.

Used copies of these aren't too uncommon, but definitely scarcer than the mint. You may have to settle for a CTO copy of the 2 Anna.

Covers are also scarce. This is the pride of my Jail Press printings:



with the ½, 1 and 2 Anna stamps paying the registered letter rate of 3½ Annas

And I'd like to get my hands on the barbarian who removed this sheet of the ¼ Anna



from its envelope

So, for anyone contemplating dipping a toe into the waters of the Uglies, the Jaipur Jail Press printings offer a relatively inexpensive and fun way to do it.