Revenue Scans : Worldwide

Cjd suggested this needed bumping





With my daughter just starting her day now at 1am and the wife going out tomorrow, I hope I will have the time to dredge up a few more in a quiet house, once the cobwebs have been shaken.

Londonbus1....blame Cjd !

The Indian States produced some quite good-looking Court Fee, and in some cases Writing Fee, stamps. To the rage of collectors of these things, Barwani was in the habit of including the year on its Court and Writing Fees



thus vastly multiplying the collector's task ...

Bundi also used its Sacred Cows postage stamps as Revenues. This is a sheet of the 1 Anna (from Setting 43)



and the high values of the Sacred Cows set, like this 3 Rupee stamp (from Setting 11)



could only realistically ever have seen proper use as revenue stamps. Three rupees was 48 times the basic letter rate!

The 'Sacred Cows' are so named from the design, showing the ruler protecting the sacred (to Hindus) cows. It refers to an incident several hundred years ago, when a (Hindu) ruler of Bundi defended cows from the Muslim Mughal emperor in Delhi, or alternatively from a (Muslim) Mughal army - the legends vary. The stamps first appeared in 1914 and continued in use until 1941, through over 50 settings of the printing plate of 4 cliches, and over a dozen denominations. They're a specialists delight, and a very popular subject among Indian States collectors.

The glass isn't half empty, it's half full. I'd say it vastly multiplies the collector's opportunity.

I remember when I learned that the KGV revenues from South Africa had the year under George's shoulder. I hadn't noticed them on my first acquisitions. It gave me reason to chase several additional auction lots.

If this is all proper, it appears to be a postage stamp, overprinted for fiscal use, and then used postally.



A number of St. Lucia revenues were authorized for postal use, though I didn't see this one in a quick review of SG. [edit: Found it.]

Following up on the Panama cancel on offer a few weeks ago, a pretty legible New York cancel on a George VI (I think I recall reading that the fee might have been a visa fee):



A Barbados postal stamp overprinted for revenue use:


And another from Malta, not rare but kind of pretty (if you can tolerate revenue cancels):

A couple for Rod:



and



A brief explanation of the overprints might be in order. After India gained independence in 1947, the former princely states were merged into larger entities. Cochin State was merged with neighbouring Travancore State, and a slice of what had been British India, on the 1 July 1949 to form 'The United State of Travancore-Cochin' ('USTC'). The name of the State was changed to 'Travancore-Cochin' ('T.-C.') on the 26 January 1950. So, the USTC overprints would have had a fairly short life.

The USTC overprint block has a reversed albino impression of the overprint in the right-hand margin. It looks as if the margin was folder under for overprinting.

Thank you Tony,
and very tasty stamps as well.

rod.. what version of acdsee do you use and how do you get the black background?

I use a FREE ACDSee version 3.21.

I get a black background by sticking an A4
sheet of black Craft paper to the scanner lid with Blu-tak.

aha... thanks

I'm just getting into revenues, and have just picked up some Indian KGV court fees etc. These are the only revenue scans I have on my laptop while I'm travelling

I have some of these pink Ecuadorian overprinted stamps too; I collect overprints. Does anyone have information on them?

Not me I'm afraid. I got them in a box lot and sold them! All I found out was that there is a wide range of overprints on the basic issue, and different styles of overprint as well.

Take courage jubilee

These are the ones I'm curious about. Does anyone have information on them and care to share your findings?

1 timber tax stamp
2 don't know
3 telegram tax
4 additional postage or postage due

that is my best guess