So Who's Afraid Of The Indian States?

A new Hyderabad addition:





The stamps themselves are common enough loose - the 2 Anna rates 50p in Gibbons - but a lot harder to find on cover. Gibbons rates Service covers at 'from 10x', but I think the 2 Anna, and even more the higher values, deserves better.

Nice cover, Tony!

Maybe SG is waiting for the chance to auction off your collection and then it will adjust its catalogue values upward accordingly.

Question: Does the on-cover stamps deserve such a high multiple because it's a Service cover, or because of the face value, or because it's Hyderabad?

Good question! Fortunately, or otherwise - depending on your collection - Hyderabad covers per se aren't scarce. But Service covers are less common than civilian covers; older covers are less common that later ones, and higher values are definitely scarcer than ordinary letter rate covers.

Hyderabad very sensibly never issued a higher value stamp than a 1 Rupee, and I've never seen it used commercially on cover. The highest value I do have is the 8 Annas (half a rupee, for the uninitiated):



and that was paying for a heavy registered letter, late in the life of the Hyderabad post office.

The 2 Annas value of the 1931 Pictorial set is quite common on cover; the 4 Annas a little less so. But even the 2 Annas Service from the large SARKARI overprints set is quite hard to find used on cover.

Of course, if you can find the holy grail of Hyderabad Service covers (I exaggerate slightly, but ...) - a Hyderabad Service cover used from British India to Hyderabad - even with the commonest stamp, it will be worth hundreds.

That cover is gorgeous!

The block of 12 catches your eye first...and then I see that pretty 8 Annas stamp on the right. Very cool!

Post as many covers like that as you like, Tony. I won't mind at all.

The broader question of whether or not to collect stamps commercially used on cover is the subject of endless debate. To my mind, a page of bland mint stamps, like the 1 Anna Pictorial



is all very well, but a bit dry. Break it up with a few judiciously chosen examples of the stamp on cover





and you create a far more interesting display.

Again, speaking personally, I think covers have even better investment potential than loose stamps. Soak those blocks of 1 Annas off cover, and what are they worth? A few cents? On cover, several dollars. And of course, scarce stamps, like that yellow-orange shade of the 8 Anna, on cover must be scarcer still.

Just a few more Hyderabad, then, from an earlier period - some of my prized possessions, and I think they make the point about collecting on cover:



SG 1 - the 1869 1 Anna, with the typical rhombus of bars cancellation



SG 2 - the 1870 ½ Anna, and the ½ Anna POST STAMP with the delightful crescent cancellations:

Brilliant examples!

You make a great point. I agree that those 1 Anna blocks of four are much more visually inviting on cover than if they were just hinged loose to an album page, and the cancellations add even more interest. All the covers you posted are visually appealing; I don't find anything ugly about these "Uglies."

Given the relative scarcity of covers and the multiples to catalogue value they can sell for, should I expect a lot of faked covers in the market? What should someone like me, new to Indian states, be on the lookout for when buying covers?

--Kevin

Kevin, you're quite right: there are faked covers out there.

Some will take very detailed knowledge of the stamps to pick. For example, there are items from Barwani circulating which appear to have been prepared with the original cancellation implements. You can usually only detect these when the combinations of stamps and cancellations are impossible - and that requires knowing when particular settings were issued, and when particular types of cancellations were in use.

There are other types of fakes that are, or should be, much easier to detect. For example, this cover, purportedly from Jhalawar





was on offer on ebay recently, until the seller was convinced to take it down. The basic British Indian ½ Anna postal stationery cover appears genuine, and the Jhalawar stamp also appears genuine. So what was wrong? Look at the dates in the Jhalrapatan and Bundi cancellations: both from 1905. However, the Jhalawar State PO was closed in 1900. Conclusion: genuine stamp added to a genuine cover, to which it didn't belong.

Fortunately, the fakers often make this sort of mistake. (There are quite a few similar impossible covers from Jammu & Kashmir on the market.) I suggest being suspicious of any expensive items for sale, particularly on ebay.

You may not want to bid, but do at least take a look at the catalogue for the forthcoming Harell Indian States collection from Gibbons:



You can take it for granted that all the illustrated items there are OK, because they've been vetted by the expert in the Indian States, Dr Kinns.

I haven't yet noticed any faked Hyderabad covers on offer, but that doesn't mean they don't exist, of course!

Thanks, Tony!

I downloaded the auction catalogue and enjoyed an hour (okay, over two hours!) going through it. I must be getting hooked on the Uglies, because it was all eye candy to me.

For any other readers of this post, the Indian Feudatory States auction catalogue is available as a free download (of 21.3MB) from Stanley Gibbons:
http://www.stanleygibbons.com/stanl...age_auctions

Auction bidding and prices can seem daunting, as well as factoring in the additional costs for the buyer's premium and other fees. But you make an excellent point that even non-experts, like me, could bid with confidence in that everything in this auction has been expertly examined and is authentic. It sure would be much less risk than bidding on anything posted on ebay.

I can only assume that as an advanced collector, Tony, you may know both George Harell and Dr. Philip Kinns. If you have any philatelic adventure stories, or stories of auctions past, please consider sharing here.

--Kevin

Kevin, I know George, and I know of Dr Kinns, and I have the utmost respect for both of them.

You may have noticed that there are no Poonch in the Harell auction. Poonch is George's main collection, and if you haven't visited his Web site, http://www.poonchstamps.com/ , I really can't recommend it strongly enough. (You'll need to enter the password 'kahuta' - all lower case, no quotation marks.) Poonch stamps are truly Ugly, in the best sense of the word, and can be very hard to resist.

I agree with you about the forthcoming auction: the prices are likely to be eye-watering, but at least you can buy with complete confidence. Indeed, because the single items have been vetted by Dr Kinns, you save yourself the £40-odd for a BPA Certificate of genuineness for them.

I wish I could share some stories from the auction rooms, but all the action tends to take place in London, or at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Being down (or up, according to your view of the globe) here in Melbourne, I'm a very long way from everything. I have been tracking auction realisations for Indian States stamps over the years, though, and I'd be happy to let you have a copy of the file (MS Word, and 147 pages long at the moment). Just send me an email.

Thanks very much, Tony, for your generosity.

I will be in touch via email.

--Kevin

Hello Tony
Kolarshenoy again
I am posting 2 more scans for you view and comment on the cochin stamps. I have already put CAT.nos alongside the stamps.Please comment on them and if you observe any speciality of the stamps. Thanks in advance.

Kolarshenoy, these scans are a bit too small for me to be able to comment, I'm afraid. About half a page per scan would be more usable.

Hello tony
Sorry for the inconvience I will repost the scan with higher resolution Kolarshenoy

Time to stir the pot on this thread!

I am curious: So now that online bidding is closed, who from SCF placed any bids on items from the Harell Indian Feudatory States auction?