Bussahir - Legitimate, And Not

Many - far too many - ebay users get over-excited when they find the stamps of Bussahir. The genuine stamps aren't common: the cheapest is catalogued at £5.50 in the 2014 Gibbons.

The catch is that there are far more remainders, reprints and imitations in circulation than there are legitimate stamps. Going purely on my own accumulation, perhaps five illegitimates for each one legitimate.

So how to tell the difference? With mint stamps, it's quite easy. They should match the catalogue-listed types and have the RS monogram



Some examples escaped without it, but unless you have a clear certificate from a competent authority such as the BPA, forget about it.

You'll find numerous remainders, reprints and imitations with other monograms. The commonest is probably the PS



for Padam Singh, who took over the running of the State Post Office after it was officially closed down.

You'll also see this RNS monogram



In this case, the monogram is on an imitation, not a remainder. There never was a 1 Rupee stamp in this design, although the Bussahir State was quite happy to sell them to collectors at face value (around $US0.30 in 1900, so a nice little earner)

The other important thing to keep an eye out for is the date 19 MA 1900 in cancellations:



Never mind that the stamp is on piece, as this is. Someone was kept busy at the back of the Rampur Post Office, sticking stamps to sheets of paper, cancelling them, and then cutting them up neatly like this. Many were done during the lifetime of the Bussahir Post Office, but the 19 MA 1900 was applied to remainders. They're basically worthless.

And a footnote: for lovers of Rudyard Kipling's Kim, the penultimate scene with the lama in the mountains was clearly placed in Bussahir. All the place names and scenery match. (If you haven't read Kim, do! A wonderful yarn about the Great Game.)

You probably know this quote from Gibbons Stamp Weekly, September 25, 1909:


p. 303


Not sure what it adds, but my Bussahir info is thin....very thin.

Thanks, Cjd: I hadn't seen that quote. I can understand the catalogue editor's problem though.

In descending order (of infamy?) you have:
1. Mint remainders with the correct monogram. These are indistinguishable from the legitimate stamps.
2. Used remainders with the telltale date
3. Mint remainders with the wrong monogram: PS, RNS or the damaged RS
4. Mint reprints in the right colours, but on the wrong papers
5. Mint reprints in the wrong colours
6. Imitations of issued stamps
7. 'Imitations' of stamps that never existed, like the 1 Rupee stamps I showed above.

It must have been a lucrative business. Bussahir was still earning revenue from selling 'stamps' in 1943, 40-odd years after the State PO closed!

Imagine trying to sort all of this out while collecting information from foreign agents (with, potentially, questionable motives), in correspondence that was passed along through all manner of modes, all without the benefit of any real imaging.

Those early philatelists were hardcore, as the kids would say.

In the words of a once-famous Australian poet, I tips me lid to them.

Rudyard Kipling's 'The Man who Would Be King' is another great tale. Nicely filmed with Michael Caine and Sean Connery as two of Queen Victoria's finest.

Terry

Yes, poor old Kipling - sadly neglected. Whatever his views on Empire, he was a great story-teller. And I suspect his views on India were rather more complex than he's usually given credit for.