George V Era - Cochin State

If you are that black-hearted, I won't even try to contemplate how you might be voting next Saturday

Goodness,
your post suggests there may even be a choice?

Just as I feared ...

Now to restore some sobriety to this discussion , a recent Cochin acquisition: SG 49b, sandwiched between two SG 49s

Very tidy!
no explanation on how that may have occurred?
also looks expensive,
are you hiding the receipts from the better half?

Don't know in this case. At a guess, the '2' might have fallen out and been lost, or was defective. It does appear though, that this odd '2' did always appear at that position in this setting of the overprint.

However, the printers don't seem to have been too fussed by technicalities when making these surcharges. There are also the 'P' for 'p' in 'pies' errors:



(And yes, this one inflicted some pain. Had to go to about full Gibbons for two SG 49s and a 49b to get it. Needless to say, I assumed that the Constant Companion wouldn't be interested in my stamps, so I didn't mention it to her.)

If the good lady knew how much you were spending,
her interest may be tweaked,Tony.

Your image is an ideal example on why GB printed
"pillars" in the selvedge.
Your blank gutter perfed pieces would be ideal
blanks for forgery, if the wmkd paper was useful.

I see the opts were printed by plate.

She has more than once expressed an interest in appointing herself my financial advisor, but I resist. If two divorces have taught me anything, it's that excessive openness is to be avoided in relationships. No good can come of it.

I hadn't considered the possibilities of those margins, Rod. Fortunately, they're unusually large for Cochin. Normally, they're less than stamp-sized. As I recall, the jubilee lines were used (first anyway) by De La Rue on letterpress printed stamps. These Cochin were intaglio printed by the Old Firm, Perkins, Bacon. But it would have been wiser to do something to render the margins useless.

Cochin is a happy hunting ground for surcharges, of course. Twenty years earlier it brought forth this, one of my all-time favourites for eye-appeal

I love these stamps! I wonder what the print runs were. Any idea, tnymacg?

Hope I didn't appear too personal, just pulling your leg (as usual)

The overprints still mystify me.
I was going to ask before, but didn't want to bore you.
How were they applied, do you think?
A box of typograph slugs, shimmed to suit
the spacing of a pane/sheet?
They would have been printed in Cochin, right?

When I become settled I'll have to rifle through my
literature, I need an image for typical small
typograph apparatus.

I have no idea of the size of the print run for the '2' surcharges, but they were probably pretty large, by Cochin standards at least. The stamps with the correct overprint are pretty common. The underlying stamps themselves can be plated. By the way, this is the problem that that pair was intended to solve:



And yes, Rod, I think the surcharges were simply put together in a forme the size of the sheet (48 subjects) from loose type. I believe these surcharges were made at Cochin.

Very nice Tony

All right !

Any place that uses PIES for currency is good with me!

My sister has always been intrigued that it took 12 Pies to make one Anna.

12 Pies = 360 blackbirds