George VI Era Cochin - Mostly Used

Welcome Mr Dilip of Kerala to this group.I am from Cochin (Ernakulam) and mainly collecting Cochin, Travancore and Travancore-Ccohin Stamps. You can contact me at thomaspaul at factltd dot com and we can exchange ideas and new findings
Thomas Paul

Thanks Mr Thomas. I'll get in touch with you.

Thanks Mr Thomas. I'll get in touch with you.

A fairly new arrival: the Sixth Raja 3 Annas Service stamp with the error 'C' for 'G' in the overprint, SG O98a



And one for Rod222, in case he's watching:





Nothing startling: the 3 Annas on 7 Chuckrams is the cheapest variety (perf 11), but this stamp isn't all that common on cover. It can fit in here because the cover originated in, and was addressed to, the old Cochin State, and it does bear two pairs of Cochin SG 124a (and the cheaper variety again!)

The image is a little blurry,
maybe my monitor,
Send it over, and I'll have a closer look at home.

Rodney, you're perfectly welcome to a scan to your home address. The original cover ...

hi all,
sorry to jump in but wondered if you'd take a look at these,they came in with some other stamps I bought ,after reading the previous posts thought this is the place....

scan

Hi jony78, and welcome to SCF!

As you've probably worked out, you have a Jaipur and three Cochin stamps. All three are overprinted for official use: 'SERVICE' was the term commonly used throughout India to identify this type of stamp. The 'ON C G S' overprints stand for 'On Cochin Government Service'.

The Jaipur is SG O25, the scarcer of the two 1 Anna stamps of this type. From the partial cancellation, it looks as if it was used from the town of Hindaun.

The first of your Cochin stamps is SG O2. This is a small curiosity in that the entire run of these 4 Pies Service stamps was printed on paper with the Umbrella watermark sideways, although the basic stamp normally had its watermark upright. Just check the watermark on your stamp: if it isn't sideways, you have a major rarity.

The second and third stamps are SG O77, catalogued this year at £4.50, and SG O79, catalogued at £4.

These two are from perhaps the most tumultuous, and perhaps most interesting, time in Cochin philately.

Until the late 1930s, Cochin had been chugging quietly along, having its stamps beautifully recess printed by Perkins, Bacon, who printed the Penny Black. Then Perkins, Bacon went bust and the Second World War broke out, which prompted the Cochin authorities to decide to have their stamps printed locally rather than in London. A company in Madras (now Chennai) took over the contract, but couldn't print in recess, so converted the old Perkins, Bacon plates to print by offset-lithography. In addition, supplies of the old Umbrella watermarked paper ran out, and were unsuitable for the different printing process anyway, and were replaced with entirely differently watermarked paper. The new printers used perforating machines with three different gauges, just to add to the interest!

Then in 1941, Maharaja Rama Varma III died. Now, the rule in Cochin was that, when a Maharaja died, he was to be succeeded by his younger brothers, before the succession passed on to the next generation. This is where Maharaja Kerala Varma II, the face on your stamps, comes in. He succeeded in 1941, but only survived until 1943.

So, during the War years, things were in rather a mess as far as the Cochin Post Office was concerned. They solved the problem by calling in all the remaining odds and ends of stamps, from the two reigns, and surcharging them over to new values as required. Supplies of some of the basic stamps were quite limited - maybe only a couple of sheets - in some cases; in others, supplies were quite large. Accidents also occurred: the ONE ANNA THREE PIES surcharge was never intended to be applied to 1 Anna stamps for civilian use (without the On C G S overprint), but it appears a single sheet did receive the surcharge. This became SG 92c, catalogued at £5500.

This is a fascinating era to study, with the design, watermark, perforation, and surcharge changes. It requires pretty long pockets to complete, but you can still have plenty of fun with it, if you care to follow it up.

thanks very much for the info,wmk is sideways,i will however follow up this area

Ah, well, jony78, it was a very, very long shot indeed. But that's how the big discoveries get made: when someone doesn't take what the catalogue says as gospel, and checks - and finds something different.

There's also so much variety, particularly among those Wartime surcharges. For instance, your last two - the 9 Pies and 1 Anna 3 Pies surcharges - exist in two types: like yours, and with the word SURCHARGED added:



for the 9 Pies, and



for the 1 Anna 3 Pies

It may be interested to note that the SG O80 ie., the stamp with 'SURCHARGED ONE ANNA THREE PIES on ONE ANNA' exists in different heights. The top row of the sheet has a different height (23mm) from the rest of the rows (26mm).

Thomas Paul

Quite right, Thomas Paul. I think Gibbons once used to list the differences in height of the surcharges, but that was many years ago.

I suppose they dropped the separate listing back in the days when they cut back on and simplified their listings of the Indian States. Gibbons have been slowly restoring their Indian States listings, but there's still a long way to go. I'd say it's well worth keeping any of the narrow settings you find. Some day their relative scarcity will be more widely recognised.

Hi everyone!

If somebody can help me to determine year of similar stamp like on this picture (six annas eight pies)?

but mine don`t have that '50' on a stamp!

Delphir

1933.

Regards.

Geoff