George VI Era Cochin - Mostly Used

Puzzler, Cochin seems to have used an extraordinary range of different types of cancellations: single ring, double ring, that multi-ring type and dumb cancels with just a C + number combination. I don't know of any significance to the different types. If I had to guess, I'd say they were made by different suppliers, at different times, just as the need arose. I can't remember seeing anything about it in the book by Pai I referred to earlier.

Thank You.

I seem to notice and am drawn to cancels now than ever before (years ago)

BTW enjoying this thread also. Thank you for all your work.

Delighted to have provided some entertainment!

I tend to agree with you about cancellations: they can add a lot of interest. This can be particularly so with some of the Indian States, where used aren't easy to find. Turning up a genuinely, commercially used specimen can make your day - or week, or year ... (The other day, a fellow lover of the Uglies showed me a photo of a 12 Anna stamp from the first series of Bussahir - a very scarce stamp in itself - used commercially from the village of Rorhu. This was the first time either of us had ever seen a Rorhu CDS, and to find it on such a high face value stamp, was quite extraordinary.)

Maybe some day I could start a little thread on some of the other Indian States cancellations. Some of them are pretty distinctive.

et tu Puzzler? where is my scepter?

And now to get back to the real world ...

The Service overprints on these surcharges managed to add a further layer of complexity to the whole business.

When The Amalgamated Printers took over the printing contract, they must have inherited a supply of the standard watermarked paper, showing a small umbrella to each stamp. The lithographed printings of the Fourth Raja type (Rama Varma III) were all on this paper, for the ordinary stamps. (At least, no exception to this rule has been found yet.)

However, printings were also made on a new watermarked paper, with a large sheet watermark of the State arms. This paper is coarser and more toned than the small umbrella watermarked paper - which tends to be thinner and whiter. These printings are only known with Service overprints.

I'll come back to these new printings, but for the meantime, we need to note that the official overprints on the surcharges were made on both types of paper. Most of these are scarce: the cheapest used is £3.75, and most of the rest are between £60 and £110.

You'll see that there was also a wonderful mixture of types of Service overprint and styles of surcharge. Obviously, any remaining stocks were called in and surcharged, just to make some use of them.

First up, the stamps on the small umbrella watermarked paper:

SG O62 (the underlying ordinary stamp doesn't exist with this type surcharge, and the underlying Service stamp doesn't exist with this perforation!)



And if I can be forgiven a bit of showing-off, SG O62a - the surcharge double error



This also exists with the two-line 'SURCHARGED THREE PIES', but I don't have it.

There followed three surcharges on the 1 Anna value

SG O64



SG O65



and SG O66



These are rather scruffy copies, I know, but they're hard stamps to find. You take what you can get

Three (or four if you count the different perf) values exist on the sheet watermarked paper.

I can only show one of them, SG O67, the THREE PIES counterpart of the same stamp above, on the new paper:



A pretty poor specimen, of course. In my own defence, I do have a mint (yes, unhinged, Spock ) block, but I wanted to show used here, wherever I could.

This also exists with the SURCHARGED THREE PIES surcharge. Gibbons has it at £1700 mint, and blank used. Who knows? Maybe you have the only used example in captivity, sitting in an old biscuit tin, waiting to be sorted. It's probably out there, somewhere

There is also a single line THREE PIES on the 1 Anna, both perf 11 and 13x13½, but I can't manage either of them, either.

You can see the possibilities in these overprintings and surcharges. Basically, any stocks of the old Maharaja stamps were grabbed and dealt with, without any attempt at logic and order. There could very well still be variations of paper, printing method, perf gauge, surcharge type and Service overprint type out there still to be discovered.

dont worry I proboanly have the used examples packets nad packets of stamps that I dont even look at. sigh

mnh is where the action is but if I ever go through my packets and find these used or barwani my retirment will be taken care of.

Actually, I've just remembered I have some MUH sheets of Cochin ...

The Service overprints on the offset-litho printings of the Third Raja types are quite maddening enough, but Gibbons' arrangement of them has always seemed to me to pile confusion on confusion.

There were five different types of overprint applied to the printings on small umbrella watermarked paper. Fortunately - sort of - three of them were only used on single values. I'll deal with these, before going on to the other two types.

Gibbons type O8 occurs only on the 1 Anna. It's quite distinctive: the biggest and heaviest of all the On C G S overprints. (And in my experience, a lot less common than Gibbons' price of £2.50 for the used would suggest. A real sleeper!)



SG O49

The Type O10 overprint was used extensively later, including on the sheet watermarked printings, but its only outing on the small umbrella watermarked stamps was on the 6 Pies, SG O51



Finally, there is a rather rare overprint, Type O11, also found only on the 6 Pies. I have what seems to be a proof of the stamp and overprint:



The basic stamp would be SG O53. It has been forged: a forgery was offered quite recently on ebay. As it's listed at £900 mint and £425 used, I would have thought it wasn't the sort of thing you'd buy from some no-name seller on ebay

Gibbons' type O7 overprint was applied to three values:

The 4 Pies, SG O47



(This shows an inverted 'S' in the overprint. It's nothing to get excited about: 21 of the 48 stamps in the sheet show the error ) This 4 Pies overprint occurs both perf 11 and 13x13½. Gibbons rates them both the same price used (£2.75), though mint, they're rather uncommon.

The 6 Pies, SG O48



and the 2 Annas, SG O50



(With the recess printed 2¼ Anna, SG O38)

i knew there was still hope for you :)

i am not giving up on you yet :)

i am lisitng some nice edwards and sarkari state stamps all mnh ( charkhari but I am sure the poor fellow meant sarkari and got his tongue twisted)

by listing I mean they are therefor your viewing pleasure we dont want to give the impression I am selling them

lets take a look at those sheets now

To the relief of all, I'm sure , we're now into the last lap of the Third Raja stamps.

They were also overprinted with Gibbons Type O10 overprint.

SG O54a



SG O55a



SG O56a



These three exist perf 11 (expensive) and perf 13x13½ (cheap). I suppose it goes without saying that the examples above are the cheap perfs

SG O56b



(Despite the funny catalogue number, this is the basic stamp. It really is time Gibbons straightened out its numbering of the Cochin Officials.)

This stamp also exists with overprint omitted. It should be pretty obvious, because the offset-litho printing of the 2 Anna was never released officially without the Service overprint. Congratulations if you find one: Gibbons prices it at £1300 used/dagger mint.

SG O56c



And finally, the 3 Anna, SG O56d



These last two are rated at £7.50 and £8.50 respectively in Gibbons. These prices are a bit unflattering, IMHO.

sheets grandpa show us te muha sheets

Sorry: too big to fit on the scanner. You could have bits of sheets, at about 300 dpi, but I'm not sure that would be very enjoyable to a connoisseur like your good self.

well I will amke the suremem sacrifice how about you spilit it into 4 pictures. but please make sure we dont lose the edges we can piece the image together later. are they sheets of 320?