So Who's Afraid Of The Indian States?

Thanks joy §
Hyderabad official stamps below on cover. Can see the 1322 on top..Can't make out the blue script on the front.Only half of the original cover.The cancels;would like any further information.

I cannot decipher the blue writings which is most likely the Rasid Talab or Registration Receipt annotation put in by the dispatch post office clerk.



Postmarks: The remaining 4 Haydarabad 1912 Sarkari ovpt. on 1912 ½A Sarkar I Asafiyyah jade green Bradbury Wilkinson and Co. Printing typograph (SG O39d) official stamps were canceled with Nayim type 7 cds of Udgir dt. Azur 22,1322 in Fasli Calendar which corresponds to October 27,1914.

Udgir SPO, located in Udgir (18.3943°N 77.1126°E), now in Latur district of Maharashtra, functioned under Bidar HPO in Kalaburagi Division of Haydarabad State Post.

The postmark below the stamps is Nayim type 25 registration (indicated by the letter ra denoting the initial of Registration) cds of Haydarabad HPO dt. Azur 25, 1322F i.e. October 30,1914.

Postage: The state official letter rate was ½A for every 6.83gm (½tola) from 10.07.1907. to 05.05.1930.

The registration fee for official articles was 2A from 10.07.1907. to 1935.

So, the missing half of the cover must have at least 1 Haydarabad 1912 ½A SG O39d to pay the letter postage as 2A registration fee was paid by the affixed 4 stamps.

Excellent…. thanks

What I forgot to mention is that the value of this cover is severely diminished because of the missing small part of the reverse side.

The basic inland letter postage in Br. India which was also applicable to Br. Indian Post Offices located inside the territory of Indian Feudatory States as here is in Haydarabad State, was ½A for weight upto 2.92gm (¼ tola) from 10.01.1854. to 03.31.1869.

The registration fee for letters was 4A per article from 10.01.1854. to 07.31.1881 and from 02.01.1859. onwards, registration fee could only be paid by affixing stamps, replacing previous rule of paying in cash.

Given the size of the cover, it was in the 1st wt. slab.
So, the torn part must had had a ½A stamp, most likely Br. 1865 ½A SG 54/55. There is a part of Renouf type 9a/Cooper type 9/Martin type 9II cancel arc on the right side of the 41 killer.

Postmarks (except Renouf type 9a/Cooper type 9/Martin type 9II):
The oblong apricot REGISTERED NO. Danby type 5a/Renouf type 63a cachet (5.5cm×1.1cm) was exclusively used in Chennai Circle from 1857 to 1869.

The square brown orange 1stD Renouf type 58 handstamp is the 1st Delivery mark of Br. Indian PO of Haydarabad.
This mark was introduced in 1856 to large HPOs which had 2 or more deliveries in a day.

The Haydarabad open circular orange brown Renouf type 54 datestamp type is recorded used from 1848 to 1872.

Hyderabad stationery cover.There seems to be a stamp missing at the left of the block
of half anna stamps.Rectangular registration handstamp…

I've only collected the world in the last couple of years now, and am more of a US Specialist, but I'm collecting the world in my "Big Blue" Scott International #1, and bought a lot on ebay with a bunch of the uglies last weekend-- haven't received yet.

I searched SCF for Indian States and chanced upon this thread. Read each page, and just wanted to say "THANK YOU" to tony for all of the posts and great information! A lot of work and scanning, and we're all better because of that.

Great posts and topic, and THANKS!
Ray

ray.mac:

Welcome to the world of Uglies!

I hope it won't dampen your enthusiasm, but there are a lot of forgeries out there, so be careful of ebay lots that look amazing value but where the majority of apparently good stamps are fakes.

It would be good to see what you have won posted here if you would like some opinions.

Good luck!

Peter

Hi Peter,
I mainly collect the "Big Blue" Scott International #1, 1840-1940, in addition to my US specialties...so for the Feudatory States, there are a few that have actual headings and spaces, but 22 of the Feudatory States that do not, and are all listed across the top of one page. So if one is trying to complete the BB, there isn't a good way to collect the uglies, except for making sure to have a couple copies from each of the 22.

With the lot, I knocked a bunch of them out-- not looking for value here, just to fill holes (or in this case, a page). But I did come up with a couple that I couldn't find in either Scott or in SG. I'll preface this by saying that in the lot, there were a couple of stamps from Nepal and one from Tibet, so I'm thinking that the blue stamp here is maybe not Indian at all-- the "19" at the top looked almost Turkish to me, but I didn't find it there either.

The yellow stamp, actually much brighter but I turned up the contrast and lowered the brightness when I scanned it, must be Hyderabad with the "Post Stamp" from the first issue at the top. Nothing to match it in Scott or in SG, so I'm wondering if it is either postal stationary or a fiscal/revenue?

Can anyone help me I.D. either of these?
Thanks much! Ray

Hi Ray, the blue item is an 'official reproduction' of an unissued half anna stamp from Faridkot. These are very common and exist in a multiplicity of fancy colours, imperf, perforated and cancelled-to-order.

The second item is indeed a cutout from a postal stationery envelope of Hyderabad.

I'm sure Joy Daschaudhuri will add more detail if he sees your query.

Sirmoor; 2 different overprint types. Double ovpt. on the left?

The overprints on both stamps are the same SG ovpt. type 13. and both are Sirmaur 1892 On S.S.S. (Sirmaur State Service) machine-printed overprint (SG type 13) in black in typography on 1888 3P Shamsherprakash Raghbirprakash Bhati (1846-1898) orange lithograph (SG 60).

The apparent double impressions of the overprint on first stamp are not the true double overprints.



Ref. Sirmoor The Official Stamps.
FRP Carrick and LE Dawson.
The Philatelic Journal of India (Vol.XLIV No.2 2/1940); p.26

The overprint types were set in horizontal strips of 10 and the stamps, printed in sheets of 70 (10×7), were torn in 7 horizontal rows of 10 before being overprinted in typography.

The postmark on the second Sirmaur 1892 On S.S.S. on 1888 3P SG 60 stamp is Douie type d squared circle cancel of Sirmaur state PO of Rainka, located in Renuka (30.605998°E 77.454998°E), now in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh.

Nice cancel...then

so I've started to work on India feudatory states.... I was wondering if its ok to soak the older ones w/o having to worry about ruining the print? I had sent a scan to a fellow at stampsinc.com and was told that the shimmer I had noticed in a cancel(the stamp w/ the arrows point to it), was the ink oxidizing thus causing a shimmer when under light. Im guessing if I soak it to remove the hinge I will ruin the shimmer? I have a lot to remove from old paper binder pages and would like to remove the hinges.... Tips / suggestions? Tks much!