A Bit Of A Bhor, Really ...

If you're casting about for a new country to collect which is manageable, but a bit different, may I suggest my avatar - Bhor?

During its lifetime, it issued two, or possibly three, stamps, and very distinctive they are, too. Very hard to confuse with a Machin or a Norwegian Posthorn. But different, certainly different.

First, though, to set the scene. Bhor was a smallish Indian State in the hills to the east of Bombay. It had a population of around 150,000 in an area of just under 1000 square miles. Its stamps were only valid within its borders, and with a low literacy rate to begin with, the State Post Office probably wasn't over-burdened with deliveries.

Nevertheless, Bhor did produce stamps - and gorgeous they are, too

SG 1:



and SG 2:



You can find them 'used'



but this is really only a CTO cancellation. Genuinely postally used



are quite another matter. (We were speaking of ebay Bunnies elsewhere. This particular specimen is a good illustration of why one should be wary of throwing the label around loosely. Gibbons price for SG 1 used is £6.50; I paid $US81, and I reckon that was a fair price.)

There was a third stamp, SG 3



which appeared in 1901, and is known with charming vanity cancels



but was probably never legitimately issued, because it appears the Bhor State Post Office was closed in 1895.