So Who's Afraid Of The Indian States?

I see you have left the best till last.

Well, almost: there's still Travancore-Cochin and Wadhwan to go. (Or are you emerging from the closet, and declaring yourself a Wadhwan fellow-traveller, Rod?)

The only image I have of Wadhwan is one of yours, SG1
and the recommendation of the catalogue by RJ Benns.
Nowadays, If I see lot (any lot) of India at auction
I am surprised.

Are you intending to foray into India~Vietnam etc?

I've always found the War-time North Vietnamese issues interesting, but there are too many forgeries, and India is a bit dull. Besides, I have my hands very full with the Uglies. As Eccles once said, 'I've got my legs to keep me warm.'

oh yes india int he world it just happens that my collection for that is complete I never thought anyone would have a interest in that :)

From 1914 to 1922, Travancore reverted to the first watermark (this time always sideways) and added a 5 Cash olive-bistre (changed to chocolate in the next printing) in 1921:



SG 24

Also in 1921, Travancore issued two more surcharges, a 1 Cash and 5 Cash. The 1 Cash may not have been the world's lowest face value in a non-hyperinflationary environment, but at 0.03 pence Sterling, it must have been well up in the running.



SG 31-32

These stamps were normally printed on the first type watermarked paper, with the watermark sideways. A few sheets crept in of the earlier, second type watermarked paper, with the watermark upright and more or less centred. These are quite scarce, and worth looking out for. There are other, rather more obvious errors, of course, like inverted and double overprints, and the stamp printed both sides in the case of the 5 Cash surcharge. But I should hardly need to alert you to be on the lookout for them

From 1924 to 1939, the entire set, and a new 1½ Chuckram



SG 42

were reprinted again, this time on a third type watermark (which in fact comes in two flavours. As Gibbons doesn't distinguish them, I certainly have no intention of doing so ) Just to add to the interest, the post office also acquired two new perforators, a gauge 12½ in 1937 and a gauge 11 in 1939. Several values exist with the new perforations, but it's probably worth checking any third watermark stamps - you never know.

You can save a little effort with a quick and dirty triage on your used. Stamps with cancellations like these:



are not likely to have the later perforations. By that stage, most Travancore cancellations were two-ring CDSs inscribed in English.

More surcharges! In 1932, Travancore released some more low-value surcharges, apparently to use up stocks of the redundant 1¼ Chuckram stamp:



These surcharges come on all three watermarks. The printings on the first watermark (sideways) are dead common; those on the second watermark (upright)are so-so, and those on the third watermark are worth looking out for.

The surcharges are also to be found low, centred and high on the stamps. There isn't much significance to this. I have a sheet of the 2 Cash on 1¼ Chuckram on the first watermark paper, in which the surcharges start high in the left-hand column, and sink lower and lower across the sheet.

The 5 Cash and 10 Cash were also surcharged:



And just to prove that the philatelic gods do occasionally smile on the collector, I picked up this



SG 58b - inverted '1' in '1 c'

in a mixed junk lot. (I'd never spend any fraction of the £90 Gibbons prices it at on a Travancore error.)

And to round off the mess, for some reason, the old font used for the first '1 c' surcharge was dusted off and used for some 2 Cash surcharges on the 1¼ Chuckram as well. These seem to be a bit uncommon.

Dear Tony will stop posting if he reachs W. I am mising him already

Flattery will get you a long way, but not as far as any MUH States I may have ...

i am not flattering you Tony I think you should also post on other threads we dont wnt yout o wrap up after W

sigh

And now we'd better backtrack a little, to deal with the Official overprints. In the earlier years, these consisted of the letters On S(tate) S(ervice).

From 1911 to 1930, the two types of overprint were used, differing only in the spacing:



Respectively, Types O1 and O2. Type O1 was used from the beginning; Type O2 was introduced in 1926. Type O1 is found on all three watermarks; Type O2 is supposedly only found on the third watermark. As usual with the Indian States, I'd suggest you take nothing on trust. If you have the time, energy and patience, I'd check the watermark on any Type O2 overprint. As I keep on saying, you never do know ...

Most of these stamps are fairly common, but there is the odd scarce combination of overprint and watermark. There are also endless numbers of overprint errors. Many are fairly obvious, such as double and inverted overprints.

Others are more subtle (and tend to be worth less). These are the inverted letters, 'O' and 'S'. When you think about it, it is rather hard to pick an inverted 'O', and also an inverted 'S'. Never fear: help is at hand.

First an inverted 'O'



and an inverted right 'S'



The test is quite simple. The letters are dropped down below the line on which they should sit.

Many of these errors are quite cheap. The inverted 'O' above is listed at £4.50 and the inverted 'S' at £2.25. You won't make your fortune by digging through mountains of Travancore officials for them, but it does relieve the tedium

In 1930, Travancore experimented with some new fonts for the overprint.



Type O3 - common on this stamp, rare on the 10 Cash pink



Type O4 - only found on this stamp, and common



Type O5 - common on this stamp, but quite nice on the 4 Chuckram green

I am thoroughly enjoying this,
and seriously considering pilfering the page :)

Anyone interested in the sacred Laxmi or Lakshmi Conch shell
of Travancore, can read a lovely web page here:

http://www.agt-gems.com/Book/laxmi-conch.html

Rodney, you're more than welcome to lift my images, if you really want to.

From 1930 to 1939, Travancore settled on an italic font. But being Travancore, it couldn't leave it at that. It used three different spacings:

Type O6 (16 mm high)



This type is known on all three watermarks: the first two only on the 4 Cash pink, and these are scarce.

Type O7 (14 mm high)



Only on the third watermark, and generally common - the workhorse overprint, and

Type O8 (18 mm high)



This was from the top row of the sheet in a setting in which all the other rows were Type O6 - not common therefore. Se-tenant pairs with Types O8 and O6 must exist, but I just haven't seen one.

There were all the usual errors in the overprints, including inverted letters. There was also the interesting additional complication of the new perforation gauges, 11 and 12½ from 1937-9, as well as compound perforations ...

There is still room for little discoveries, though. Here are two Gibbons hasn't yet caught up with:



SG O45, with an inverted 'O' (alright, pretty trifling, but still ...), and



SG O56 perf 12½

As I say, check everything!

What I'd like to know, why did they <always> have trouble with
their perforators? You would think they would get it right sooner
or later, it's a a rare occurence for a nicely perfed example.
Did they never sharpen their pins?
Post production was out to lunch?