George V Era - Cochin State

Well, I did threaten to do it

From 1892 to 1911, Cochin State printed its own stamps, and made a reasonable fist of it, but eventually turned to Perkins, Bacon to do its printing. There's no indication of who came up with the basic design, but it lasted, with modifications to the portrait, for nearly another 40 years.

The ordinary stamps for Raja Rama Varma I (reigned 1895-1914) are the most straightforward of the George V era Cochin issues. We can dispose of them fairly quickly. To try to satisfy both Spock and humanity, I'll show both mint and used, as the whim takes me.

The 2 Pies stamp, SG 26



can be found with minor shade variations, but not sufficient to warrant catalogue status.

The 3 Pies, though, can be found both perf 14 (SG 27)



and perf 14 x 12½ (SG 27a). (This is much scarcer than the perf 14. SG 27 is £1.75 mint and 10p used; SG 27 is £27 mint and £1.50 used. Worth looking out for.)

The perf 14 version is also known with an inverted watermark, and is distinctly scarce.

The 4 Pies comes in two shades:

Green, SG 28



and apple-green, SG 28b



(and a 'D' (for Dewaswom, the State temple administration) perfin

Both shades are worth about the same (not very much), and both are known with inverted watermarks (worth a lot).

The 9 Pies, SG 29



(another 'D' perfin)

is also known with an inverted watermark, but is unpriced. You can draw your own conclusions as to how common it might be.

The 1 Anna, SG 30



(with SG 36 and SG 39, which I will get onto later)

on probably the most villainous cover I own. The ink must have been composed of concentrated iron tannate: it's eaten through the paper quite ferociously.

The 1½ Anna, SG 31, is a nasty one



This is the correct colour, but it seems to fade/discolour/oxidize (I'm not sure which) fairly readily to a distinctly greyish shade. For some reason, decently centred copies are also a lot less common than for other values.

A pleasant stamp to have mint (£8), but not up to much used (45p).

The 2 Anna stamp, SG 32,



has always seemed rather dingy to me. I can't understand why Cochin persisted with grey for the 2 Anna value for the next 40 years. Perverse, I think

The 3 Anna, SG 33



is the only expensive stamp in the basic set, either mint or used. Leaving aside perforation and watermark varieties, the next most expensive is the 1½ Anna. This one, though, is £40 mint and £38 used. (To put things in perspective, it would have cost about 5d Sterling.)

Next, the Service overprints.

why are you calling the only stamp that is not nasty, nasty?

and what were you threatening to do? make a thread? please you have a dedicated readership. it might not be much but ....

Things turn messy with the Service overprints. Not all values from the ordinary set were overprinted, and three additional high values were overprinted.

Not only that, but on the first Service stamp, the 3 Pies SG O1,



a distinctive type of On C G S overprint was used, that was never used again.

Now, of course, I enjoy showing off my collection and instructing the uninitiated like this, and the resulting warm inner glow is all very fine. But tangible rewards are also nice - very nice As I was sifting through my examples of SG O1 to show, I had one of those moments. I found this



example of the inverted 'S' in the overprint, SG O1b turning a 10p stamp into a £55 stamp. Thank you, Stamp Community Forum.

The ordinary 4 Pies comes in green and apple-green, but the Service overprint is only on a green printing, and is only known with the watermark sideways.



If you can find an apple-green shade with the Service overprint, or any shade of the Service overprints with an upright watermark (or of course, an ordinary stamp with a sideways watermark), you're onto something.

The 9 Pies, SG O3



exists with watermark upright, sideways and inverted. Used, watermarks upright and sideways are both 10p items; mint, the upright is £120 and the sideways a still healthy £17. The inverted watermark is only known used, at £120.

The 1½ Anna purple, SG O4, also seems to have come from a single printing.



You don't find any of the nasty discolouration that you do on the ordinary stamps. An overprint on a different shade of this stamp would also be interesting.

The remaining values are fairly straightforward again, thank goodness.

The 2 Annas, SG O5



The 3 Annas, SG O6



As I mentioned to Tholath, you can sometimes see the watermark through the front of the stamp. If you look closely at this stamp, you can make out the outline of the umbrella around the Raja's head.

And the three new high values:

The 6 Annas, SG O7



The 12 Annas, SG O8



and my piëce de resistance of this set, the 1½ Rupee, SG O9



To put this item into context, the 12 Rupees face value would have paid the wages for an agricultural labourer at the time for 2 months.

Up to and including the 3 Anna, these stamps are of fairly minimal value used. Most are 10p items. Mint are much trickier, though. SG O1 is the key stamp, at £120, and the cheapest of the others is the 9 Pies watermark sideways at £17 (the upright watermark version will set you back £120).

ooh a whole block of mnh. well done tony. 12 rupees was not a lot of money in those days or it was a huge amount of money depending on where you were. the monthly bill of our personal staff was over a 100 rupees sigh. those good old days are never coming back. never thought 12 would become 120 pounds or more

Then there were the surcharges ...

If you're a very simple-lifer indeed, there was only one surcharge: 2 Pies on the 3 Pies stamp. If you're not a simple-lifer, there were several.

The first, and commoner, two date from 1922. SG 46



and SG 47



This stamp is listed, but not priced, perf 12½ at foot. If you have any examples of this surcharge, I'd suggest a quick check with the perf gauge. Who knows?

The tail of the '2' curves upwards strongly in SG 46; in SG 47 it just tilts up slightly.

A quite new font '2' was used in 1924, SG 48:



This shows the error 'Pies' for 'pies' (SG 48b) on Row 1/2. It occurred once per sheet in this and the previous type. This stamp also exists 14x12½ ... which also exists with the 'Pies' for 'pies' error.

Finally, there are two more 2 Pies surcharges - which I can't show. The first has a similar '2' to the last, but has 'Two Pies' as standard in a font with slanting seriffs, and the last a variant on this, which occurred once per sheet, with a distinctive unseriffed '2'.

hmm another nice mnh block. things are finally looking up. encore encore

The Second Raja stamps (Maharajah Rama Varma II, reigned 1914-1932), issued 1916-30, really sort the philatelic men from the boys

Gibbons describe the perforations of the set SG 35-45, as 'perf 13½ to 14' - but then say in a footnote that 'Four different perforating heads were used for this issue (a) comb 13.9; (b) comb 13.6; (c) line 13.8; (d) line 14.2.' Gibbons list against each value the gauges known, but don't price them separately. It's an interesting challenge to try to find examples of each of the gauges - believe me! However, I won't bother to show examples of them here, because the differences aren't very obvious.

There are also two dies of each of the 2 Pies and 1 Anna values, and two different types of Service overprint, with some values that were never issued without the Service overprint.

On the other hand, most of the stamps are quite accessible. Gibbons values the ordinary set used, at least, at £4.50, with most of that accounted for by one value (the 2¼ Anna stamp, at £3.25).

So without further ado, ladies & gentlemen ...

The 2 Pies, SG 35, exists in two dies, distinguished by the shape of the letters in the right hand word in the bottom value tablet.

This is how Die I (original issue, 1916) appears:



and this is Die II (issued 1930)



Both versions are 10p items used, although the Die I is £8 mint against £1.60 for the Die II.

The stamp also exists in the (a), (b) and (c) perforations. In my (limited) experience, the (a) perforation seems to be the hard one.

And finally, the stamp itself:



Dated the equivalent of December 1932, on a formula card advising shareholders in the Sitaram Spinning Mill of a call on their shares. Not likely to have been welcome in the middle of the Depression!

The 4 Pies, SG 36, is much simpler. It exists perf (a) and (b), and is curiously had to find as a solo franking:



Another 'D' (State temple administration) perfin, and also the fiendish acidic ink that burns away at the paper. Never mind the ravages of rust, silverfish and bookworm: watch out for the ink!

The 6 Pies, SG 37, also exists in the (a), (b) and (c) perfs



(The nice, clear C10 cancel is for the town of Kunnamkulam. The Wadakancheri delivery CDS is not for the year 1899. The Malayalam Era date translates to 28 June 1924.)

and is the only stamp from the set recorded as having an inverted watermark.

Almost forgot to mention: I have yet to find a copy of this stamp in perf (c), though (a) and (b) are common. Maybe I just haven't been looking hard enough.

Thanks for the continued masterclass. Nice job on that inverted "S" find.

C.

Thanks, Cjd. That little discovery made the effort well worthwhile, I think!

The 8 Pies, SG 38,



is simplicity itself. Only known in the (b) perforation gauge.

The 9 Pies, SG 39



on the other hand, is a little discovery of my own. Gibbons list this stamp as known only with the (a) gauge, but the stamp on the cover is the (b) gauge. Discoveries are still very possible in these issues!

The 1 Anna, like the 2 Pies, exists in two dies.

Die I has a tail on the letter to the left immediately above the portrait



in Die II, the tail was removed:



The Die I is distinctly scarcer, and worth looking out for: £21 mint and £3.25 used, against £11 mint and 35p used for the Die II.

And here is a Die II, used with a 4 Pies (SG 36), 2 Anna (SG 43) and the mortal remains of a 2 Pies surcharge (SG 46) on a registered cover



from Irinjalakuda on the 24 February 1923 to Trichur, the next day. The 3½ anna rate could have been achieved with just two stamps: the 3 Anna of the set appeared in 1916, and the 6 Pies had been issued in 1922. Obviously the PO clerk wanted to shift some old stock.

The 1½ Anna, SG 42



presents a small puzzle I haven't yet solved. I have two covers with this stamp, both from the same sender, and sent a day apart



with a distinctly redder shade of SG 42. These are the only examples I've seen of this shade.

Here is the front of the cover above:



Note the Mar Thoma Syrian Bank cachet. This has a rather interesting background to it, if you have a taste for historical byways and backwaters. If you don't, switch off now and go to the next item.

My beloved Murray's Handbook for Travellers in India ... 16th edition (1949), p.637 says this
Christians in Malabar. In both Cochin and the neighbouring State of Travancore Christians, known as Nazaráni (i.e. Nazarenes) are numerous. Tradition ascribes the first conversion to the Apostle Thomas, at Cranganur (A.D. 52). After the condemnation of the Nestorian heresy by the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. colonisation by Syrian refugees and conversions among high-caste Hindus followed.

When the Portuguese landed, they found a flourishing Christian community, chiefly Nestorian, and governed either by bishops sent by one or other of the the Eastern patriarchs or under Metrans (Metropolitans) of their own. Their prosperity and influence is a striking tribute to the tolerance of the Hindu rulers of the two principalities which continues. At first the Portuguese made no attempt to interfere with the doctrines or ritual; but after the Inquisition had been set up at Goa in 1560, proselytism began, accompanied by in the main successful attempts to cut off the Syrian Christian Maronites from communication with the Patriarchs by interception of their correspondence and seizure and imprisonment of several Bishops on their way from Asia Minor to take charge of Malabar sees.

The first fissure in the Christian Church in Malabar dates from 1653. Mar Gregory the Bishop, who was sent by the Patriarch of Antioch in 1665, being a Jacobite, the majority henceforward became known as the Jacobite Syrians, while the minority who adhered to the Church of Rome, are called Romo-Syrians. In 1663 the Dutch captured Cochin and an era of tolerance followed, but internal dissensions and disputes in the matter of doctrine and liturgy continued.

The Mar Thoma Syrian Bank would have been affiliated to the Mar Thoma Syrian Church, the result of one of Murray's 'fissures', which was heavily influenced by Anglican missionaries in the early 19th century, and maintains close relations with the Anglicans, while remaining distinctly Eastern in many respects.

Wiping the beads of perspiration from the brow, we return to the stamps.

The 2 Anna, SG 43



here on what must have been a parcel label, given the high franking, is quite a common stamp - £4.25 mint and a generous 10p used. Gibbons record it in the (a), (b) and (d) gauges, but I have a copy with the (c) gauge, making it AFAIK, the only one of the set to appear in all four gauges.

The 2¼ Anna, SG 44,



is the scarcest of the set used (£3.25; the next scarcest used are the 9 Pies, 1 Anna Die II and 3 Anna, at 35p each).

Finally, the 3 Anna, SG 45



(I have a couple of thoroughly disreputable covers with this stamp, but I thought the block would be nicer.)

is known perf (a) and (b); (b) seems to be more common.

A very nice preamble Sir,
it was enjoyable, but not quite really understood,
I'll stop now, and have a generous wedge of Sarah Lee's Apricot tart,
washed down with a piping hot Cappucino,
(can anyone remember when they last had a <hot> Cappucino?)
Then attack it again. :)
It begs the question how influence reached Cochin, the Muslims and others were
constantly infiltrating from the North, and you would think
that would have caused a barrier to the South.
Were missionaries travelling by sea I wonder.

And then, of course, there were the surcharges.

In 1928, the 2¼ Anna was surcharged down to 1 Anna 'Anchal (= Postage) & Revenue'



This is quite a scarce stamp, I think, and better than the £6 mint and £12 used Gibbons prices it at.

There is a scarce error 'REVENUF' for 'REVENUE' - beware of copies with defective 'E's looking like an F and a full stop (or period ).

At the end of the reign of Maharaja Rama Varma II, and presumably while awaiting supplies with the new Maharaja's portrait, three more surcharges appeared:

The 3 Pies on 4 Pies, SG 51



This is known (£400 used, unpriced mint) with the 'r' in 'Three' inverted. Something to look out for in Old Tyme Collections!

3 Pies on 8 Pies, SG 52



and 9 Pies on 10 Pies, SG 53



Gibbons doesn't rate these three very highly (£4.50 mint and £6.50 used for the set), but again, I think it underestimates their scarcity - used particularly.

Finally, in 1934, two 6 Pies surcharges appeared. These were probably intended simply to use up surplus stocks of the old stamps.

The 6 Pies on 8 Pies, SG 65



An M over TC perfin, but I'm not sure what the initials stood for

and a 6 Pies on 10 Pies, SG 66



And that concludes the ordinary stamps of Cochin in the George V era. Next, the Service overprints ...

How did the Christians get there, Rod? By sea.

Remember that Cochin and the Malabar Coast were one of the centres of the spice trade, and had been for ages. The trade route was well-established by the time of the Apostle Thomas. All the later visitors, the Arabs (who left a large Muslim community in Kerala; you can search them under 'Mappila'), the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British, came by sea, to trade in spices.

To counterbalance that Christian allusion, here is a registered Service cover, with SG O39 and O44.



You may not be able to read the signature in the bottom left corner, so here is the detail:



A fine Muslim name, and most likely a Mappila. (The Huzur Secretariat in the rubber stamp was the equivalent of the Treasury.)