Early India ID Request

Greetings after a long absence :)

I am asking for help in identifying these three older stamps of India

All three look like they could be cut-outs from postal stationery


Peter

Er, I don't think so.

The one Anna looks like a die III (1855, SG 15 or 16).
Do the Four Anna stamps have watermarks? They look like SG21a (if genuine).

Yes, of course they have a watermark.

So both four anna stamps are the same type?

Hi.I just so happen to be looking through an online SG catalogue, for my own research, so had a look. On the second pair, the four Annas, there are four dies. From the pics here, your first one looks to me like die III and the second one looks like Die II, based on the four illustrations of that figurehead. More specifically the back of the hair, the shading behind the bunched ponytail (sorry, I don't know the technical terms)

I will try to link to the said pages below, it may or may not work!

I have been using the Internet Archive for my research. This is Stanley Gibbons 'Stamps Of The Commonwealth'

https://archive.org/details/stanley...view=theater

The first appears 21b (head IIIa, Frame I), the second 21a (Head II, Frame I).

Thank you very much for your work and help. It's amazing that the purchased set included only 2 copies of the 4 Anna stamp. And it seems that these are rather rarer varieties. Of course, I am aware that the catalog price and the market price are two completely different things, but is anyone able to provide a very approximate, real price for these stamps?

The (very high) catalogue price is for examples that have been cut square with margins. Your two examples were cut to shape with the first cutting into the outer frame. Such tends to devalue them extremely.

Yes, I am aware of that. I just wonder how much one can hope for. What do you think, 3% of the catalog value or maybe 10%?

I do not know. Looking at British embossed stamps that suffer from the same problem, those all but lose their value: I would expect just a few tenners, so maybe one percent.