So Who's Afraid Of The Indian States?

Orchha may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I have a soft spot for it.

It got off to a rocky start, in fact, it didn't get off at all, in 1897. A wandering Swiss jeweller talked the Maharaja into preparing a set of stamps



but the Maharaja eventually backed out. It is said that the jeweller wasn't paid for his work, so kept the stamps, and sold them off to recoup his costs. Goodness knows why, but Gibbons describe them in a preliminary note, and actually price them.

In 1913-14, Orchha did finally get off the ground, with a set of stamps that bore an uncanny resemblance to those of the Swiss gentleman:



(SG 3 - 7)

These were printed in sheets of eight, as some past collector has so helpfully pencilled in the margin.



And here is an example of two Quarter Annas, used with a British Indian ½ Anna postal stationery envelope, to Kotah in Rajasthan




I mentioned earlier that most of the Indian States were named after their capital cities. Strictly speaking, Orchha is no exception. However, by this time, the town of Tikamgarh (where this cover was posted) had become the effective State capital.

For many years, Gibbons Part 1 carried this note after its listing of Orchha:
"A series of 21 values, from ¼ a. to 25 r., bi-coloured and with a portrait of the ruler in European dress, was introduced in 1935, but owing to lack of proper State control was offered to dealers and collectors at less than face value. Eventually the authorities withdrew the issue and exchanged supplies for stamps of the 1939 issue. Though some of the values have been seen with what appears to be genuine postmarks, the circumstances of this issue were such that we feel we are serving the best interests of philately by continuing not to list it."

Happily, Gibbons have loosened up a bit - far worse things have happened in the meantime - and they now list the set. Here are the bottom and top values of the set:



The 25 Rupee stamp was absurd of course. It could have had no conceivable postal use, when a base rate registered letter cost 5 Annas, or 0.0125% of 25 Rupees. Nevertheless, these stamps were actually used. Here is a great treasure of mine:



The 1 Anna imperf (SG 11a) and 4 Anna (SG 17) on a genuine registered cover.

If you're looking for a cheap and cheerful display of printer's waste, though, this set offers great possibilities. Some of it is even listed in Gibbons:







(The 2 Annas was actually issued in blue and orange.)

Perhaps the cream of the jest is that some of these stamps were actually sold at full face value. As a rather futile attempt to stop the abuses, stamps sold over the post office counter at full face value, were stamped with the State arms on the back. This block of four of the 10 Rupee has the stamp:



meaning that some idiot paid 40 Rupees (around 6 weeks' wages for a State postman at the time) for it.

The set is known in ten different perforations, as well as imperf, although no value is known (yet) in all possible permutations.

The 1935 set makes a great study, and won't break the bank either.

finally with orchha we r going somewhere nice stamps.


looks like some of your stamps here above are showing paper disease or is ti just the photo? I would isolate the lot from everything else

i have got to start the other thread everytime I read ur stuff I feel like doing it but then it becomes too time consuming. I guess if you finish my thread wont ever see the light of the day

Don't worry about the block of 10 Rupee stamps. It's just severe suntan.

You will like the last set of Orchha even better, then. They were printed by offset-litho at Nasik, but be warned: there is a sting in the tail of them.

Who knows when I'll finish this thread. I can always go slower, to give you time to organize your own thread ...

no no dont go slower I cant get enough of your posts

i felt sad when you said you had found work and were quitting


not because you found work but because you are quitting

but I am glad to see that was not the case :)

i need to put in some chamba or nabha or what not I blame jubilee for mixing me up

then I need to put the travancore rod was speaking of before I sell it

and some plate blocks from Jaipur

some high values from gwalior

thats all I can think of for now :)

oh and some blocks from muscat?

the only saving grace is those things are mnh

No, I won't stop until the bitter end. I may occasionally have to slow down, when the pressure of work gets too great, as it did the other day.

I won't venture across into the Convention States. I find pages after page of overprints on India a bit boring - no, very boring. I might show a few more interesting items later on, but for the present ...

come now if they are boring what are they doing in your collection send them over and I will send you a pet otter in trade :)

We can wind up the rest of Orchha fairly quickly.

After the fiasco of the 1935 set, the authorities took action. In fact, the 1935 set seems to have been a symptom of wider problems in the administration of Orchha. The cover of the 1935 set I showed above cost 5 annas to send registered. This was 25% more than the British Indian and most other State post offices were charging in those days. In addition, it seems to have taken 3 days to travel a fairly short distance across Orchha: 2 days to get from Lidhoura, where it was posted to Tikamgarh, 50 kms away.

By 1939, things were back on the rails. Orchha ordered another long set, ¼ Anna to 25 Rupees, from the Indian Security Printing Press at Nasik, the printer for all Indian stamps at the time. Here are a couple of examples:



(The rupee values were in larger format.)

Clearly, collectors were gun-shy of Orchha by this time. The cheapest mint stamps of the set (the ½, 1 and 2 Annas) are catalogued at £4 each ... and the 15 Rupee at a cool £16,000, with the 25 Rupee at a bargain £11,000. These are probably the most expensive non-error definitives of the George VI era. For comparison, the contemporary Indian 15 Rupee is £110 and the 25 Rupee £160.

The stamps were still used, if sparingly. Here is another registered cover, with the 5 Anna rate paid by five copies of the 1 Anna of the 1939 set:



From Tikamgarh to Baldeogarh - a late usage, in 1949. At a guess, there was no Indian post office at Baldeogarh, so there was no choice but to use the expensive Orchha post.

The Orchha post office was finally closed in April 1950.

Despite, or because of (if you're of a perverse turn of mind) the pong around Orchha, I think it's quite an interesting state, with distinct possibilities. Just don't aspire to be complete according to Gibbons. Unless you have very deep pockets, that is

Since Spock and Jubilee seem to have developed an obsession (a folie à deux?) with Nabha, I thought I'd digress a bit, and show a few oddments from my modest collection.

SG O8a - the error 'full stop after SERVICE':



SG O25a - the error 'overprint double, one albino':



and the back:



and the clandestine inverted overprint on the George V 1 Anna:



Unlike just about everything else I'm showing here, I am open to (cash - nothing likely to be seized by Australian Quarantine) propositions on these. (And they're all MUH, Spock )

Those Orcha examples are beautiful Tony,
superb printing. That's how I like my stamps.

Can you please explain the albino opt?

Which of the Orchha sets is getting you all hot and bothered, Rodney? For my money, the 1935 work by the Lakshmi Art Printing Works of Bombay takes the cake, followed in second place by Shri Pratap Prabhakar's work in the 1913 and 1914-35 sets. Or are you taken by the cinderellas?

The Nabha albino overprint: if you stare closely and squint, or remove the multifocals and get up close and personal with your screen, you may be able to make out a second, un-inked impression of the 'SERVICE/NABHA STATE' overprint. (Some pill has thoughtfully written it in in pencil in the margin, so you know it must be right.)

If you're going to do the Indian States properly, you can't ignore Poonch.

The precise status of Poonch was a bit equivocal. It was ruled by a junior branch of the ruling family of Jammu & Kashmir, seemingly basically as a feudal fief, rather than an independent State. It was in the West of Kashmir; its territory straddled the current de facto border between India and Pakistan. Mail from Poonch Town, which is now in India, went out to British India through the village of Kahuta, now in Pakistan.

The first stamp of Poonch appeared in 1876



I'd love to be able to show off a mint (unhinged, of course) copy, but at a catalogue price of £12,000 this year, it's a shade out of my price bracket. (Worse still: a cover with SG 1a, a pair with one stamp sideways, is to be auctioned at David Feldman in Geneva on the 22 May. It's estimated at €30,000 to €50,000, and pre-sale it was already at €30,000. I know the € has taken a bit of knock lately, but still ...)

SG 2 and 3 somewhat resemble SG 1, but at £5,000 each used, you'll just have to take my word for it. Burglary on a pretty extensive scale is the only way I'm going to complete Poonch

In 1880, Poonch released a set of four values, ½, 1, 2 and 4 Annas. Each was prepared as a single die (by Rahat Ju, who engraved the Jammu & Kashmir Circulars) and handstamped in red onto large sheets of paper. (As at Faridkot and Kishangarh, often with the spaces ruled in pencil.) I love these stamps:



½ Anna



1 Anna



2 Anna, and best of the lot



the 4 Anna

In 1884, Poonch added a 1 Pice (¼ Anna) stamp:



(Note the pencil lines)

and throwing caution to the winds, started printing on a bewildering array of papers: wove, wove bâtonné, laid and laid bâtonné, first on white paper, but later on yellow and various blues, in ordinary and aniline inks. Here is the 1 Pice on yellow wove bâtonné paper (SG 27), used in combination with a British Indian ¼ Anna postal stationery card



going via the exchange office with British India at Kahuta to Rawalpindi, now in Pakistan.

In 1887, Poonch issued the five stamps in black (following big brother Jammu & Kashmir) for official use:



Poonch was a little more restrained with the papers this time, though. It only used white or toned wove bâtonné and laid bâtonné papers.

As I said, completion is probably out of the question, realistically, for any one collector. However, you can put together a nice representation of Poonch for a more modest outlay, and they do look so good!

hmm let me see I am going to sell every duplicate iin my collection and use the fund to sponsor my state collection. Hopefully over a period of time I will buy all the MNH you have. now I must make my own thread on these thingys I am 100% sure after you are done I wont be bothered so I must do it now while the inspiration is there.

P.S if you want to trade your spare mnh for modern india I will be more than glad :)