So Who's Afraid Of The Indian States?

That pretty well settles it, then.

Incidentally, your violet cancellation isn't a problem. They're known from Wadhwan, although less common than black. I'd have preferred it to be a bit clearer and more identifiable though

Hi Tony and Rod

Relieved that the Raja's reached safely to the respective destinations. And Tony - thanks for your offer of the stamps posted a little earlier. I accept your gift.
And Rod - do you want the explanation about the printing on the cover that I had sent ?
Now, Guruji - need some explanation from you about "line perforated" and "comb perforated" stamps. eg. in SG for Cochin - "Nos 98a/100 are line perforated. Nos 98ab and 99a comb perforated".
I have the following SG99's





The used one seems to be perf 13. The other one - am not able to determine . Request your feedback on this.
Regards
Thomas

Thanks again, Thomas! I'll post that item out tomorrow.

The first of your SG 99s is clearly line perforated. Line perforation typically produces irregular looking corners on the stamp, like in your example. This block of SG 89 shows the effect clearly:



I'm not sure about your second example. Comb perforation normally produces nicely symmetrical corners of the stamp, as in this block of SG 75



but if the comb is slightly out of alignment when it is applied again, it can produce slightly asymmetrical corners of the stamps, as you can just see in this block of SG 81



I'm afraid you'll need to check the vertical perforations with a high quality perf gauge like an Instanta, or failing that, very carefully count the number of holes in 20 mm, in order to be sure. In this case, I can't judge from the single stamp alone.

A few days ago, I was intending to settle down and sort through some Wadhwan from a mixed lot I picked up recently. Unfortunately, the cat chose that moment to come in from the rain, and sit down on my stamps, under my reading lamp/her sunlamp to dry out.

All was not entirely lost, although a mint stamp now has a curious water mark on the front.

However, finally settling down to the Wadhwan again, my eye fell on two with violet grill cancellations, both with left margins imperf (one of the characteristics of left marginal stamps from Stine III). This is one of them:



Both turned out to be Stone III also, which Gibbons prices at £60 used, so calm was restored.

I'm now going to work over the remainder of the Wadhwan.

Cats and stamps do not mix!

I had some mint stamps laid out to examine and my cat, which had just been drinking from his water bowl, jumped up on the table, shook his head and sprayed a few drops of water over the lot. Fortunately, only one stamp got a large drop of water on it, but it did wet the stamp enough to make it stick to the Hagner.

Mine had, until then, shown remarkable forbearance. She considers everything else a toy - she's particularly interested in my tweezers - but this was her first venture into hardcore philately. I'm hoping it will be her last. And it was only Wadhwan.

I am of the "wear a cat as a hat" persuasion.

Thomas, if you would be so kind!
I'll dig out the cover from it's protection,
and scan and post it shortly.

mine bites.

So does mine.

A couple of acquisitions from the recent Gärtner auction in Germany:



SG 10a - the imperf between pair of the 1922 1 Anna. This pair is particularly interesting because the top stamp (cliché 2) shows the damage to the top frame line that only occurred very late in the printing. Here is a 'normal' cliché 2:



and here is cliché 2 as it appeared in the (next) 1931 printing of the 1 Anna (SG 30) with the damage to the top frame:



Interestingly, when the Times of India Press took over the printing of Barwani stamps in 1932, they repaired the top frame damage to cliché 2, although they left the other flaws on the cliché alone.

And here is a used copy of SG 22, the first of the 4 Anna printings of 1927, on thin poor quality wove paper, with a good clear Barwani CDS for 1930



Unused (they were issued without gum) copies of this stamp are uncommon; used are decidedly scarce.

I was rummaging around in my files the other day, and came upon a report I'd entirely forgotten about.

If you own any of the Dhar typeset issues, take a careful look at your copies of the ½ Anna on magenta paper, SG 4. An India Study Circle member years ago reported copies of the ½ Pice (both with four letters and five letters, SG 1 and 2) on the magenta paper of the ½ Anna:



and this one is less convincing



It could, just, be a strangely faded copy of the ½ Pice



These aren't listed by Gibbons, but if we can turn up a few more copies, we might be able to remedy that.

I am a new member. I have a few stamps from Kishangargh and Bundy and I would like to know their value. Can someone help me value them? I have pictures, how do I upload them?

Hello, welcome!

To upload photos first name them so that the name has no spaces in it. Use dashes or underscore characters if you like the words to be separated.

Use the three letter extension .jpg, not .JPG or .jpeg.

Reduce their size to less than 100kb each.

Then, click on the Reply To Tpoic link at top or bottom which will open an editing window that will also have a link below it to upload photos or scans.

You can use the test area at forum bottom to experiment.

Welcome from me, too, Stampcommunity!

With the Bundi Sacred Cows in particular, good big scans are vital to determine where they fit. I use Photobucket to host my images: it allows me to use images of several MB, and scanned at 1200 dpi. The Dhar stamps above are an example. Photobucket is free to use. It can be a bit fiddly until you get used to it, but once you have it under control, it's very easy.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you have! Both Bundi and Kishangarh have lots of interesting things, and it is still possible to make discoveries. On another forum recently, I was able to point out to a collector that he had a copy of the Bundi 1898-1900 2 Anna Dagger stamp with the first two letters of the value missing. He recently received a clear certificate for it from BPA Expertising (the Gold Standard for Indian States expert certificates), which turned the stamp from a £17 into a £2000 item. I can't promise to do the same for you, but ...

I have some items to share with this region ,I search for rarities our Royalty.