An Indian Question

And now that I find I can simply post my Photobucket images ... Well, not all Ugly collectors are as slow on the uptake!

Here are a few examples of the sorts of things that went wrong in Travancore-Cochin. First SG O11bb (imperf between vertical pairs)



and its colleague, SG O11cd (imperf between vertically and horizontally)

And here is the 'FOUB' for 'FOUR' error in the surcharge:

And finally, one Gibbons haven't yet caught up with. SG O10, perf 13½, in an imperf between pair

rod, are you missing this?

Hope your computer is up soon...

C.

P.S. Thanks for sharing these. Travancore is one of the more interesting states to me.

those aare all ugly stamps so there is no ned to look at them

i dont know anything about stamps so ic olect ugly stamps and I am in seventh heaven :)

I remember reading somewhere (and I'm blowed if I can remember where) that when these errors started appearing from Travancore and Travancore-Cochin, the great L.E. Dawson, doyen of States collectors 60 years ago, wrote a very stern letter to the Travancore authorities, saying that it had to stop. It was giving the State and philately a Bad Name. As the Indian States had sunk about as low as they could in popular esteem at that time, this might seem a bit like shutting the stable door etc.

Must say, I have no problems with collecting States stamps with very iffy reputations. I just love the Charkhari 1931 set, which was one of the Dune sets of its day, for little accidents in the printing works like this one



SG 52 + 52b

and the 1935 Orchha set, that Gibbons refused for years even to list. It was available at huge discounts off face value, in bulk. In despair, the State authorities stamped the State seal across the back of sheets of stamps sold for full face over the State Post Office counter. Some prize idiot actually paid 40 Rupees (a month's wages for a postman at the time) for this



as is proved by the seal on the back

The 1935 Orchha isn't in my edition of Scott Classic. The Orchha section is pretty thin, in fact.

I'm shocked at the CV listed in SG for that Charkhari 52b (225 pounds for the tete-beche pair alone in 2006)...even if it was only once per sheet, that seems high. Was that originally peddled as an error as opposed to an intentional tete-beche printing, as far as anyone knows?

[I'm guessing with two colors, they couldn't have claimed error for both plates, but I guess I shouldn't rule it out.]

SG is always a lil loose iont he head but I am nto complaining it keeps my collection fires burning if you are looking to dump these as well my basket is open

i must say things have completely changed since rod jubilee tony and cjd joined the forum

london has half converted the queen is already on the team along with puzzler soon we may have a whole section devoted to indian stamps. things are looking up

CJD, Scott is simply hopeless for the Indian States. I just lurve buying from North American ebay sellers who rely on it. Gibbons is the bare minimum for working with the Indian States ... and even then, if you want to tackle something like the Bundi Sacred Cows



(SG 46)

you need something rather heavier duty.

The Orchha set is really quite interesting. Lots of printer's waste about



but also more properly philatelic things to consider too. Ten different perforation gauges or combinations of gauges have been identified across the set, though no one value exists (or has yet been sighted) in all of them, as well as imperf. If anyone's interested, I have a tabulation of the known gauges for each value. Email me, and I'll be happy to send it. It's a one page Word document.

The Charkhari tete-beche is scarce because it was corrected fairly soon, though it did go through the missing centre stage for a while:



SG 52c

Most of the other errors are probably printer's waste. But they make a cheap and cheerful display of errors, so I love 'em.

There are in fact three gauges of perforation (11, 11½ and 12) used in the Charkhari set, too. I've been tabulating them, too, but so far all I've really found is that some values are common in one perforation and very common in another

Sure am Collin
I nicked my son's computer for 30 minutes for
a bit of a Captain Cook.
I'll never be able to catch up.
Tonymacg has gone whoopee

The family is sure humming along.
But wai till I rev up the $1300 beast
probably 5 more days till its built.

Young Rodney, as I remarked in another place, having run out of paid work for the moment, the alternative was doing something about the filthy state of my bath. Which would you choose, eh?

oh ignore the rodster we need to focus if you dont like any of your india stamps send them to me. rod will foot the bill if he can spend $1300 to build beasts he sure can spend some for stamps :)

Your bath probably reflects all the stamps you have soaked TonyMac,
That's not dirt, just old gum.

Spock 1k behave yourself,
or I'll be docking your pay.
Signed: Paymaster Romulan expats.

Soaking stamps? May my right arm wither and Barwani SG 15 develop bookworm before I let an Ugly loose near water! Just imagine



in water ... You fiend!

or you could just fry the rodster. he keeps talking about romulus? maybe he is romulan in mufti? :)