Who Needs A Security Printer ...

... when you have a soap works?

Kishangarh State in India burst on the philatelic scene in 1899, with a long set of definitives, famous or infamous as you like, for including the ugliest stamp portrait of all time



The salesman from Perkins, Bacon (printers of the Penny Black) latched onto this, and talked the Kishangarh authorities into having a 'proper' recess-printed set done:



This order must have been a pretty big one, because some of these stamps were still sitting in the State Treasury nearly 50 years later.

It was probably also a rather expensive business, so next time, Kishangarh decided to economize on the security printing. No more fancy London printers for Kishangarh! Buy local was the slogan.

There was, however, a small snag. Kishangarh was not a big place, and as it happened, it didn't have any security printers. It did have the Diamond Soap Works, though.

The first efforts of the Diamond Soap Works, in 1912-13, were a little on the rough side, although serviceable





and understandably enough, English was a bit of a challenge. This led to the 'OUARTER' for "QUARTER' and KISHANGAHR' for 'KISHANGARH' errors.

Here is a sheet of the same ¼ Anna, with the overprint On K(ishangarh) D(urbar = Ruler's) S(ervice) for government use, and with the printer's imprint in the bottom margin: