So Who's Afraid Of The Indian States?

It's an interesting point, Rodney, and the ramifications spread far beyond the perforations of Travancore. It seems to me that you can divide the Indian States issues in general into two categories: prestige and expedience. There was often tension between them: you see it played out most clearly in Kishangarh.

The 1899 issues



were purely expedient. They're just postage stamps, for goodness' sake! Then embarrassment set in. Sure it was nice to have the collectors clamouring for this stamp, and the rest of the set. But we all know why. Collectors, and others, are laughing at us. Solution: swing over to prestige. Get Perkins, Bacon to do a 'proper' (pukka) set of stamps.



All's well now ... except that these things cost the earth. Swing back to expedience. The Diamond Soap Works reckons it can do the job for a fraction of the cost. Sure, they're not as fancy, but They're just postage stamps, for goodness' sake!.



Some States, like Bahawalpur, went purely for prestige. Others went over to prestige after initially toying with expedience - Jaipur and Soruth. And some, like Travancore, were always frugal. As long as the stamps could be torn apart, what did it matter if the perfs were a bit rough, or of all sorts of gauges? They were intended for letters first and foremost, and collectors' desires were well down the list.

I think this also explains many of the perf errors of later Travancore and Travancore-Cochin, too. Why throw away a sheet of perfectly good stamps just because someone is going to have to cut the stamps apart. And if those crazy collectors will buy them (ahem! at a premium) so much the better.

A lively explanation, Tony
with examples, :) thanks for your effort, makes complete sense
but still frustrates the engineer in me.
A quick grind across the face of the pins couldn't be that difficult
or expensive.
Travancore had one of the highest literacy rates in India, and
the stamps prove there were adequate mail numbers to support a rate increase
for upgraded machinery.

Ah, Rod, but they didn't have engineers in charge of the Stamp Manufactory, Trivandrum

hmm now I know why I have the prestige stamps sigh well anyways time to start the george 4 thread

George IV? Pre-stamp covers?

no its a block of 4 so that why I call it george - 4 :)

Travancore perpetrated (I choose my words carefully) a couple of commemorative sets in the 1930s.

The first was in 1931, for the coronation of the new Maharaja:



SG 47-9, depicting respectively the Sri Padmanabha Shrine, the State coach and the new Maharaja, Rama Varma XI

The plates were made by the Calcutta Chromotype Co., Ltd, who - perhaps unsurprisingly - weren't called on for the second commemorative set. This was the 1937 set commemorating the opening of the State temples to the castes formerly known as the Untouchables.



SG 60-63, and depicting respectively, the Subramania, Sri Padmanabha, Mahadeva and Kanyakumari Shrines

This was a fairly enlightened and pioneering move. Travancore being a relatively highly literate State, the stamps probably served the dual purpose of commemorating the opening, and reminding the populace that the temples had been opened. (Observance of these sorts of rules was unusually strict in Travancore and Cochin.)

In 1939, Travancore issued a long series for the Maharaja's 27th birthday. As the set became the de facto replacement definitive set, I'll deal with it separately.

you are still missing the 2010 state stamps :) oh how will your collection ever be complete :)

nice stamps you posted though

Now I know you're all positively champing at the bit to get on to the Maharaja's 27th Birthday set, but I'm afraid I'll have to drag you back to the official overprints for a while.

In 1932, there must have been a shortage of certain values, because the authorities seem to have called in all stocks of the 5 Cash, 10 Cash and 1¼ Chuckram official stamps, and surcharged them 6 Cash, 12 Cash and 1 Chuckram 8 Cash:



Just about all the flavours of On S S overprint were represented, with all three watermarks turning up somewhere in the mix. Some of the combinations are distinctly scarce: the 6 Cash surcharge on the 5 Cash with the first On S S overprint on first watermark paper, for example. (There can't have been many of them left to surcharge.) You can also find all the inverted letters etc as well:



SG O75e - inverted left S

BTW, don't think that these inverted letters must be frightfully expensive, and only for collectors with far more money than sense. SG O75e there catalogues at a modest £4.75, and would sell (if it was for sale) for a good deal less.

In 1939, in the last days of the old Conch stamps, Travancore finally did away with the On S S overprints, and introduced a single line SERVICE overprint. This was printed from loose type, so that the letters aren't always regular. This overprint was applied to the 6 Cash and ¾ Chuckram stamps only:



In 1940, there was a small run of the ¾ Chuckram and 1½ Chuckram Conch stamps with a new SERVICE overprint, printed from plates:



The two are fairly easy to tell apart. Focus on the R. In the loose type overprints, the tail of the R descends vertically; in the plate prints, the tail of the R descends at a roughly 45° angle.

As the new perforators had just been introduced at the same time, it's possible to find a variety of perforations on these stamps: 11, 12, 12½ and compounds of these. In this block, the top row of perforations gauges 12, and all the rest of the perforations are 11, making the top three compound perf 11 and 12 (SG O94d) and the bottom three perf 11 (SG O94b):

No, Spock, one must draw the line somewhere. I draw it at circa 1950.




Now you're just trying to butter up that old reprobate, Sir Rodney. He is almost the only living mortal to appreciate these stamps. Sensible (I was going to say sane) people think they're horrid.

Call me hot buttered.
Contrary to popular opinion, history did not cease in 1950.
Collectors of modern have real vision.

What happened to Rajpeepla ? have you discussed them as yet?

Rodney, why this sinister curiosity about Rajpipla? Does it arise from a prurient interest in the revelations about the private life of the current incumbent of the title? Anyway, I did deal with Rajpiple, rather summarily, on page 19.

Modern stamps, eh? Rubbish, the lot of 'em. Multicolour photogravure was the death of proper stamps. And as for self-adhesives ... bring back the post office Clag pot, I say



If it was good enough for Charkhari circa 1940, it's good enough for today.

its a good thing we didnt let you market our club forget members we would have people after us for belittling moderns

When I was looking through my old stamp albums,
one issue showed the Indian States inclusive of Nepal
and Rajpeepla.
I couldn't recall if you had addressed that state, and
I wasn't going to trawl 342 pages of your Indian states.
Travancore was, of course the most majestic and which
held my interest.

the most majestic india =n states are yet to come thankfuly for all of us.