Bhopal In The George VI Era

There were some nice perforation errors of the ½ Anna, and they're only known used, too:



SG O347a, and



SG O347b

The 2 Anna caused a few problems. The printer seems to have been a bit hit-and-miss with matching the colours when reprinting this value. Originally it was violet:



SG O348, then it appeared in bright purple in 1945



before being released in a wishy-washy mauve in 1947



The violet shade is also known imperf, used only:



SG O348a

The 4 Anna was more straightforward:



SG O349

and imperf pairs are known again, but once again, only used:



There is a further curious error, which I don't have: the 2 Anna, in the colour of the 4 Anna, and imperf. It's known both mint and used, but at £275 in either condition, it's still on my to-do list

I'm still waiting for my Bhopal SG O348e ... and a couple of other things as well.

BeeSee, I'm afraid it might be a bit of a

Rod is going to confiscate the last 4 Annas Bhopal because of the linseed oil in the datestamp.

Just let him try.

He's probably aware I live in Tigerland, even if Richmond may be a bit toothless at the moment.

At some point, I must post my turmeric stamps ...

i see the moment the emperor goes to sleep we have have all sorts of eyes on the empire

Rod is going to visit you? I will get him to make a nice packet of mnh from your collection. It has already been confiscated under the rules of the empire. I am also looking for a jedi night. maybe I can get BC to join.

Dear Tony,

youa re nto tos tore your turmeric stamps. they are meant as seasoning with the food. sigh

In 1944, Bhopal released a set of definitives closely modelled on the British Indian Wartime economy types.

The 3 Pies is quite common:



SG 350

and there's quite a nice double print:



SG O350c - there are plenty of stamps offered as the double print, but not so many with nice, clear doubling like this one.

The 9 Pies appeared in chestnut



SG 351, and orange-brown



SG 351b

The 1 Anna also appeared in two shades, well, colours really:

In purple in 1945



SG 352, and in violet in 1946



I can't imagine why Bhopal persisted with that violent 'purple' according to Gibbons, though I'd call it more a sort of eye-searing puce. Some Bhopali Arfur Daley must have unloaded buckets of it on the printers from the boot of his Jag, some time around 1940.

The 1½ Anna was more straightforward:



SG O353

But the 3 Annas again came in two shades: yellow in the first release



SG 354

and in orange-brown in 1949, just before the Bhopal post office closed down



(A difficult stamp in either condition, and more difficult used, I'm afraid)

The top value, the 6 Anna, is quite scarce used. This



is quite a nice copy as this set goes, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the postmark. (As it's a £20 stamp mint, and £50 used, there is a certain incentive to, shall we say, embellish.)

Bhopal's last philatelic gasp was a couple of 2 Anna surcharges on 1½ Annas. The first of the two is rather more highly priced used (£8) than mint (£2.50), but condition tends to be a problem with all these economy types. Used tend to be even tattier than mint.



SG O356

There is a missing stop variety; it occurs twice in the sheet of 81:



Not a howling rarity, but nice to have.

The last surcharge is a howling rarity, though. It has been forged, and if you're determined to have one, only buy it with a BPA Certificate. This copy has one, and it cruelly mentions a crease (which 'barely detracts from the fine appearance' as I will put it when I come to sell the stamp).



There is a perforated variety of this as well, which is even rarer.

That wraps up George VI Bhopal. I apologise to Jubilee for cutting George V off at the knees, but the 1935 surcharges aside, his time in Bhopal was not exciting.

Sheesh: closing it off with not so much as a "by your leave"!

Bhopal with lovely, nay, beautiful cancel strike (ICHAVAR)





Ichavar 1909

Well, I'd have been happy enough if Bhopal had continued, but as things stand ... I was just proceeding on the principle of starting at the beginning, and continuing to the end, and then stopping.

Some rather nice new arrivals to add to this thread:



and



These are black-and-white photographic essays. The first two were adopted, with the addition of the overprint SERVICE, and were printed in two colours:



as SG O336 and SG O337/8

The second group weren't adopted, but surely belong to the animals pair



SG O344 and



SG O345

There's no record of who designed these essays, or the finished stamps. If I had to guess, I'd say T.I. Archer, who designed a number of Indian and States stamps at around this time. There isn't any record in the India Study Circle Bhopal Handbook of the essays either.

That's some of the nicest wonkiest scans I've seen.

T.I. Archer, we have any juicy gossip on this fellow?

I've just been trying to find something about him in Another Place, Rod. Plenty of issued designs by him: the 1940 Indian definitives among others, and also the 6d value of the New Zealand 1935 definitives. Not one of his more inspired efforts, the latter.