George VI Era Cochin - Mostly Used

Thanks! :)

That particular stamp was used very late: November 1950, while the Travancore-Cochin Post Office officially closed on the 1 July 1951.

Cochin never again issued stamps with as high a face value as 6 Annas 8 Pies for the general public, so these stamps probably sat around in the post offices, waiting for someone to need them. (Cochin did issue high values for official government use, but they weren't available to - or needed by? - the general public.)

The set that stamp came from is also interesting in that it was the last the printers, Perkins, Bacon, did for Cochin - and probably one of the last sets of stamps they did for anyone, before they folded. (Remember that Perkins, Bacon printed the Penny Black.) There were some rather nice proofs of the set left in the printers' archive:

This is a photo of my own stamp.. maybe this will help to tell anything else :)

This is the 6A8P, overprinted for official use (see Tony's remarks further up the thread).

Yes, the ON C G S overprint stands for On Cochin Government Service - in other words, for use by government officials, not the general public.

For some reason, these Service overprints are cheaper and easier to find than the unoverprinted stamps. This 6 Anna 6 Pies seems particularly easy mint:



and even used, Gibbons only prices it at 15p, against £2 without the overprint.

With these Perkins, Bacon printings, never forget to check the watermark. A few inverted watermarks sneaked through, and they can be worth into the hundreds of pounds. (The first 4 Pies and 9 Pies Service stamps are an exception for some reason. This 'First Raja' 4 Pies



and this 9 Pies



are quite common with the watermark sideways (on the 4 Pies) or sideways or inverted on the 9 Pies.)

I don't know if the Cochin government ordered their stamps specifically with inverted/sideways watermarks, but the Indore State government in 1933 ordered the same printers to supply some 2 Anna stamps imperforate



Again, noone seems to know quite why. There were plenty of the perforated 2 Annas available, and the imperfs are quite scarce.

Two more proofs of the Third Raja Set:

the 6 Pies



and the 1 Anna

I would guess it is for the same reason that OFFICIAL stamps are so common from some South American counties. The country would sell the overprinted stamps (which could NOT be used locally due to the overprint) overseas for less than face to make money. Fleecing the collector again. If they were to sell regular mint stamp for less than face, there was a possibility of someone reimporting the stamps to the homeland and using for postage (at less than face)

Joe1225us, that was probably true of these high values. That, or there were large numbers of remainders of them, when the Cochin State post office closed down. In any case, the 3 Anna 4 Pies, 6 Annas 8 Pies and 10 Annas are all priced in Gibbons at £1.50 each - not much better than new issue prices.


But the 3 Anna of that set



is listed at £70 mint (and 10p used - showing it saw plenty of use).

The redundant 1 Anna 8 Pies value from the same set was surcharged with new - useful - values in 1943



The Gibbons values make interesting reading:
The 3 Pies surcharge (SG O58) £8.50 mint and £4 used
The 9 Pies surcharge (SG O59) £190 mint and £42 used
The first 1 Anna 3 Pies surcharge (SG O60) £5 mint and £4 used
The second 1 Anna 3 Pies surcharge (SG O61) £4 mint and 75p used

So the pricing is all over the place. AFAIK, the old East German answer doesn't apply. There was never any attempt to withhold certain values. Rather, the problem was that collectors tended to look down their noses at Official stamps. So what survived and was bought for the trade was rather hit and miss.

There's an even more striking example of anomalies in pricing in the 5th Raja set, issued 1946-1948. The 4 Pies value of the set



is priced at £3750 mint and £85 used. (It was the local postcard rate, for a time.) The companion 3 Pies value



is priced at 50p mint and 40p used. Here, the explanation seems to be that the 4 Pies plate was defective: it's regularly found with white streaks through it, and so was probably quickly discarded. Old stocks of the 4 Pies surcharge on the 4th Raja stamp:



(£8.50 mint and £17 used) and the replacement 6th Raja 4 Pies



(£17 mint and £6.50 used) would have been used instead.

All of which makes the Uglies, and Cochin the George VI era particularly, a fascinating area to collect.

Tony et al

Don't know if it would even flicker the eyebrows of you students of the odder areas of the Raj, but, while looking for ways to waste my money in January, I noticed that Somerset Stamp Auctions has a lot consisting of an accumulation of Cochin on its January list (item 735). I thought about it for a moment, then decided that this wasn't a side road I could afford to wander down!

Geoff

Accumulations of Indian States always attract me - but I've been indulging a bit much lately. I'm out, if anyone else is interested.

Estimate for the lot is £300, which, on a rough assumption of 10-25% of CV, suggests it's a decent accumulation.

Hi to all Cochin Fans
Back to SCF from a long break ! My apologies ....
But kept the interest going on - rather sporadically.
In between there was a marriage (of son), a visit to US and
now has become a Grandfather .

Went to Kerala in Dec 2014 end and got a few Rajas which I did not have.
Also a few blocks of 4. Will upload these for your valuable feedback, especially of Guru Tony :-)

Thomas.

Hi to all Cochin Fans
Back from a long break! My apologies.
But kept the interest going on, rather sporadically.
In between there was a marriage (of son), a visit to US and
now has become a Grandfather .

Went to Kerala in Dec 2014 end and got a few Rajas which I did not have.
Also a few blocks of 4. Will upload these for your valuable feedback, especially of Guru Tony
Thomas.

Hi
Sorry for the previous double post.
SG27a


SG48


SG48b


In SG48, the "Two pies" image is as below:


The word "e" seems to be incorrect - a mirror of "e" ?
Request feedback from all.

Thomas.

Hi
SG50


SG67b


SG71a


SG85


SG87


SG88a


SG91a


SG93a


Looking forward to your comments!

Thomas.