George VI Era Cochin - Mostly Used

Hi Tony

I am sure guru you are right
I checked about what you told about the "THREE PIES" being printed above the post mark - it is so... "Hotha hai"
One more point learned!
But I thought it was supposed to be sg67b

Regards
Thomas

You're right, Thomas: it was pretending to be SG O67b.

This is the second forged surcharge on these stamps I've seen lately. It looks as if we need to be extra careful at the moment. Someone is leaking these out onto the market.

You are right. Someone with means to more stocks and less of scruples - making a fast buck by the use of a mere rubber stamp on the faces of our poor Rajas . Cochin stamps were supposed to be affected the least by forgers but now I think it is changing as you mentioned.

Dear Tony

I feel I should disagree with your post on O65, first of all the stamp is O64 and not O65, secondly in the period of late 70's and early 80's there was a flood of fake surcharges of cochin orginated from a place called Trichur in Kerala and I do possess majority of these fakes in my reference collection but I have never come across an O64 which is a low cat stamp and I dont think somebody will not waste time on this easily available item and Im of the opinion that this is a genuine one
If time permits for scanning I could post my ref: collection here later

On O92 its a double bonus as the 2nd stamp also carries a constant variety which is the "Large S" in "C G S" which occur on R-1/6 .Infact I have identified seven constant varieties on last Raja Official stamps

Rgds
George

Dear Tony/Thomas

A quick search in my lap gave me this forged block of O67,
99% of the forged surcharges shows irregularities in ink
I can define this as the ink used for original surcharges and Opts are of good, thick-dense black with a kind of shiny and oily appearance where as on the forged ones its patchy,dry , and less intense black with traces of irregularities which could be easily distinguished under a 10X magnifier or even with a good eye

Moreover you can notice the dissimilarities in the founts used, the size and the type faces also

George, your block certainly appears to be a forgery, but Thomas's stamp is also certainly a forgery - just, apparently, from a different, perhaps newer, source. The surcharge lies over the postmark, which is clearly impossible in a genuine stamp.

Low catalogue value was never a bar to forgery. I have dozens of these forgeries of Charkhari



(Genuine types at right)

The genuine stamps are catalogued at £1 and £1.60 respectively. And here, someone has gone to the extent of forging the entire stamp, and creating a bogus CDS as well.

Hi Tony and George

Talking of Raja6 error varieties...
Pls see the 3 pie stamps - one mint and other used - SGO92

There is a break in the malayalam word of "pa" in the letter "pai" of both the stamps. Have you come across this in any sheet ?
Regards
Thomas

I don't recall seeing this, but if I can ever find the time, I'll check over my copies. The flaw seems to be constant, since you have it from two printings of the value.

Took this magnified image - SGO64 - post mark and surcharge mark.

The surcharge is on top of the post mark.
So.. that's it
Regards
Thomas

What a shame!

Thomas
These are plate flaws rather than errors to call and the stamp comes from R-4/8 in the sheet .the two stamps represent two different states of printing.first stamp carries two more plate flaws as seen from your scan which is highlighted below

Well done, George! You're obviously well on top of these issues! Have you done any work on the order in which the various shades in this issue appeared? It would be difficult, of course, given the very short life of the issue, only around 2 years.

You are right Tony, the issue lasted for a period of 2 yrs and it would be very difficult to plate the issues in the absence of official records and the no: of printings made. But with the help of Mr.Trowbridge's study on the issues my plating study collection of this value(SG-110,O92 and O103) is 98% complete

Further on this set I have identified a plate flaws study on SG-109 and SG - 112&O94 stamps but not complete. If anyone having a similar idea of doing so I can share my studies. Interestingly the above two values shows a no: of flaws and traces of plate retouch in each of the positions

Rgds
George Varghese

Latest addition to the menagerie:



SG 89 (and NO: I did NOT write that number in pencil in the margin)

It's curious that a basic letter rate stamp like this should be the key value (mint) of the Fourth Raja set, and not even particularly common used. A lucky buy, though. I bought it while it was still priced against the 2010 Gibbons; it's up by 10% in the 2011 Part 1, as are many other Cochin items of this period.

hmm I never knew anyone to follow gibbons for indian issues that surely is a first