Circles Of Charkha State

also known as fixer stamps for the amount of gambling that took place on these

Or like these



and then

i know you like to tell a good story so how about telling us about the betting and match fixing episode that went on with these and whats the going rate for these stamps?

OK, I'll rise to the fly dangled in my face

First, though, I should apologise to those who've seen all this before elsewhere. You may go off and play quietly among yourselves until it's gone away again.

The set itself:



SG 45-53

was issued in 1931. Gibbons says this about it:
'This issue was the subject of speculative manipulation, large stocks being thrown on the market cancelled-to-order at very low prices and unused at less than face value. The issue was an authorised one but was eventually withdrawn by the State authorities.'

It is certainly readily available (for an Indian States issue) CTO quite cheaply, and even mint at fairly modest prices, considering the face value of the set. All sorts of errors are also available, often at very low prices. The printers, the Batliboi Litho Works of Bombay, were probably involved with the 1935 set of Orchha (SG 8-30), which was even more 'manipulated', which is rather suggestive.

Nevertheless, the set makes quite an interesting little study. Most values come in a good range of shades, unlisted in Gibbons or elsewhere AFAIK. All values also come perf 11, 11½ or 12, and I've found many of them in compound perfs as well. Most of the perfs are are common to very common, although there are one or two that are a bit harder to find.

Bearing in mind Rodney's suggestion that I put some more meat on the bare bones, I went off in search of details of the scenes on the stamps ... and came up largely blank. Neither my invaluable 1949 edition of Murray's Handbook for Travellers in India ... nor the Lonely Planet India volume thought Charkhari worth mentioning.

However, a bit of rummaging on the Web did throw up this video montage, without captions, of Charkhari Town

http://bundelkhand.in/portal/Video/...ttar-Pradesh

where many of the scenes appear to be those on the stamps.

So, to some of the stamps.

The ½ Anna, SG 45, has an error I've never seen anywhere else: gummed both sides, on an imperf horizontally block:



The 1 Anna value has the cheapest imperf between errors:



SG 46a (£11 in Gibbons), and



SG 46b (£8.50 in Gibbons)

The set was actually used for postage as intended, but examples are rare. Loose, they can be recognized by the fact that they don't have the typical CTO cancels, like those above. On cover, like this 2 Anna, SG 47, they're distinctly scarce



(Gibbons suggests a multiple of 100x for these stamps on cover. That would value this cover at a massive £10: not enough to prise it away from me.)

Here is a mint block of the 4 Anna, SG 48



My only other cover of the set is this blatantly philatelic contrivance of the 8 Anna, SG 49



I really rather doubt whether Charkhari was sophisticated enough to have poste restante facilities ... and if they did, I rather doubt they used the US term 'general delivery' Still, the cover does seem to have been genuinely postmarked at Charkhari. I suppose you can't have everything

The 1 Rupee value often turns up with misplaced perforations, and seriously misplaced centres - curiosities, but not worth more than a 10% markup. Here is an imperf between pair, SG 50a:

Great video ! good music and not a plastic bottle or a Coca Cola sign in sight.

Nothing much to show of the 2 Rupee, but the 3 Rupee more than compensates with the missing centre



SG 52 and 52c

and the inverted stamp

IMG]http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/...ck600dpi.jpg

SG 52 and 52b

The 5 Rupee, SG 53, has a fine example of an offset of the frame



and the front of the block



There's a particularly nice shade variety of this value, too:



Neither is particularly rare, though Gibbons price of 50p for the used is a little bit unflattering.

After this brief excursion into the world of pictorials, Charkhari settled back on the strictly utilitarian designs



SG 39-41

it had been using previously. Shame, really

whats bundelkhand doing on the C state?

and while your story is amazing we still havent heard the full match fixing episode. you dont need pics just give us one or 2 long paragraphs on the match fixing. I want to know the juicy bits :)

Well, far be it from me to teach an Indian Indian geography, but Charkhari State was in the Bundelkhand.

As to the full story, the only thing I can add is that it seems most likely that the Batliboi Litho Works, later the Lakshmi Art Printing Co., probably ran off a few sheets to cover their own expenses, and may have been a bit lax with the quality control, so that some printer's waste walked out the back door at 5:00 each day.

They weren't Robinson Crusoe in that regard, of course. Perkins, Bacon suffered the same problem in their work for Bhopal



and even the Indian Security Printing Press at Nasik did, too

you really dont know whats happening at nasik and its best you dont. although I have a feeling you will put 2 and 2 together pretty soon. as for bundela raj they are not doing too well their latest raja works as a tv actor.

which reminds me one of those kings from micronesia I think invited me to their court for freebies and I told him as much as I like his invitation one king does not go to the other for freebies. he was impressed with that.

oh I digress but bundel was so small its hard to see how another staate could fit into that but then again bombay had 7 kings all with their own stamps which reminds me you havent showed us any of those I suggest a new thread for those