A Stroll Through The Vale Of Kashmir

Bored with modern self-adhesive multicoloured wallpaper? Looking for something a little - alright, very definitely - off the beaten track? Want a challenge? Then try Kashmir: first issued stamps in 1866, and ceased in 1878.

The complete country mint would be a challenge for most of us, but used, and leaving aside the 'a' numbers, is doable, and you'll end up with a page in your album that will leave the more staid collectors goggling

The first ½ Anna stamp of 1866 is a horrible rarity, and we can safely forget about it. The second ½ Anna, of 1867



is not to be sneezed at either, but with luck and perseverance, who knows what you might find in an Old Time collection? The accompanying black 1 Anna stamp is another tough one.

However, later in 1867, Kashmir issued a full set, ranging from ¼ Anna, for the postcard rate, ½ Anna for the basic letter rate, up to 8 Annas. Leaving aside the shades and errors, you could do this set.

First up, then, the ¼ Anna. It was printed in strips of five:



This a proof, printed in printer's ink. The original ¼ Anna



was printed in watercolour, like all the genuine stamps of Kashmir. If you're lucky enough to find any Kashmir stamps on piece or cover, don't soak them off

The ½ Anna stamp was printed in blue, most likely using lapis lazuli dust from the mines just across the border in Afghanistan. (The Afghans ruled Kashmir until the 1830s, when a Hindu adventurer, pushing north from the Punjab, drove them out.) The ½ Anna was printed in sheets of 20; examples still exist, but even blocks of 10 like this



are scarce these days.

The ½ Anna value is easily the most common on cover:





often used in combination with British Indian adhesives or postal stationery, for mail to destinations in British India. (If these examples look a bit ratty, have a look at a map to see the difficulties the covers went through to reach their destinations )

The 1 Anna was also printed in error in the blue of the ½ Anna. It's always worth looking closely at any ½ Anna stamp, just to be sure ... However it was normally printed in shades ranging from brown to orange



These stamps are particularly prone to fading and oxidation. Nice copies are rather hard to find.

The 1 Anna was printed in strips of five:



These are reprints, as you can see from the ink - not the original watercolour.

Covers aren't common. After all, 1 Anna represented an overweight letter, something the canny locals were keen to avoid.




The 2 Anna was again printed in strips of five, in shades ranging from yellow to buff:

Things get a little exciting with the two higher values, the 4 and 8 Annas. For a mercy, these two values were individually handstamped - so there's no need to collect sheets or attempt to plate them

There are three shades of the 4 Anna recognised in Gibbons:

The emerald-green



which was the basic shade. (The pigment is reputed to be arsenic-based ...)

The sage-green



And the myrtle-green



The sage and myrtle shades are quite scarce and well worth keeping an eye out for.

The emerald shade is also to be found in tête-bêche pairs:



Also rather scarce, and worth looking for.

The 8 Anna was a rather attractive red



Used copies are surprisingly easy to find - probably from parcels of Kashmir produce sent south - but don't expect perfection. Remember any used copy has likely led a pretty hard life.

That concludes Kashmir. There are reprints and forgeries around. If you're in any doubt, compare what you have with my images here, or post a good, high-resolution scan, and I'll see what I can do.

Tony Mac: I'm really enjoying your tour through the various Indian states. Looking forward to reading whatever you post. Thumbs up!

-- Dave

Thanks, Philatarium - I see I'll have to try harder to scare members, though ...

Nice material and interesting study ,never seen specialized material like you shown at the many stamp auctions I attended .

I've slowed in my efforts to put together a simple, representative assortment of the Indian states because it is so darn hard to feel any comfort with the genuineness of the material.

I appreciate your continued proselytizing. It is great stuff.

Floortrader: Thanks, and I agreed with your comments elsewhere on the need to liven up SCF. That's what prompted me to do this little thread. The material is certainly a bit on the exotic side, but it is out there. I wouldn't expect a sudden rush of SCF members taking up Jammu & Kashmir, but exposure to something different can do no harm.

Cjd: I take your point about fakes. I think I should add some of the fakes and reprints of Kashmir to this thread. (Though I have to say, once you've handled a genuine stamp - good copies of SG 91 aren't hard to find - you won't easily be misled.)

Does anyone have any preferences for any of the other Indian States? Or should I just just shut my eyes, and jab a pin at the index?

You could knock out Rajpeepla in one post, perhaps...just an idea.

Easily done - I will. Jhalawar and Wadhwan are also easy, on a simplified basis anyway.

While we're still in Kashmir, I should add some notes on the bad items you're likely to run into.

Most common are the reprints. These will be pretty obvious, once you've seen and preferably handled a genuine Kashmir stamp: all the reprints are in oil colours or printer's ink, whereas all the genuine types are in water colour.

The difference may seem a bit academic, but the water colours tend to be vivid and 'three-dimensional', while the oil and printer's ink printings are flat and one-dimensional by comparison.

Here, for example, are some ¼ Anna reprints, with an original below:





Some of the reprints are in impossible colours, and have been provided with nonsense cancellations:



This purports to be a ¼ Anna, but it isn't in grey/black, and it's postmarked 1891 - 13 years after these stamps were withdrawn.

There seems to be very little reprint material of the ½ Anna, but the higher values have been extensively reprinted, in the original colours - here the 1 Anna, with the genuine below:





And a rather silly 4 Anna, followed by a real one:





I hope this will be enough to let you fairly confidently pick the reprints. If a stamp is the wrong colour, or the printing is flat and uniform, it's probably a reprint.

I will say that if you remember back to kindergarten, the watercolors show a certain depth that looks "watery" in its pooling and variations. You can sort of reach into them a little bit.

Production values on par with kindergartners...is that a bug or a feature?



I kid. I appreciate what they did with what they had to work with.

Sad to say, there also outright forgeries in circulation. Luckily, most of them are pretty pathetic. Do bear in mind that each of the ¼ to 2 Anna stamps was hand engraved onto the plate, so there are small differences between each genuine stamp. The forgeries, though, just don't look like the originals.

Here, for example, is a common type of ¼ Anna fake, followed by a genuine





The ink and impression should be enough for you to discard the fake immediately, before even noting that the forger knew nothing of the two languages, Persian and Dogri, used on the stamp.

Here is a much more dangerous fake:



But once again, the ink and impression let it down completely.

As with the reprints, the forgers seem to have avoided the ½ Anna. However, they really went to town with the 1 Anna. Here are some of the forgeries:







and the genuine 1 Annas:

The 2 Annas has also been forged, with a reprint first and the genuine below:





Some dreadful forgeries of the 4 Annas, with a genuine type below









and the genuine:

And finally, the fakes of the 8 Annas, with the genuine below







Of course, this survey isn't exhaustive. The forgers never stop, do they. However, if you remember that a Kashmir stamp must be printed in watercolour on native paper, and is almost certainly the right colour for its denomination, you shouldn't go too far wrong. If you're in any doubt, you're most welcome to post any doubtfuls here, and I'll see what I can do.

Cjd, to me the charm of these stamps is that the printers were doing their own thing. About the only outside influence they seem to have acknowledged was in the size of the stamps. For the rest, they were focused on printing postage stamps, Kashmiri citizens, for the use of - without a thought for the philatelic world.

Very refreshing, when we look around us at the contemporary stamp world