Communication : Posts And Telegraph.

Spectacular young Tony!

In the United States, Western Union discontinued all telegram and commercial messaging services on 27 January 2006, though it still offered its electronic money transfer services.

I'm going to bring this thread back, because there is interesting stuff on page 1, that is worth seeing again. Here is a Japan telegraph from the 1885 series, Yvert #2, 2s. rose:



A few of the Japanese telegraph stamps have fairly high catalogue values...this isn't one of them. Not that that matters.

OK, I'll offer a couple from Jammu & Kashmir, from the 1897-1910 set:

the ½ Anna



and the 1 Anna



Now that Gibbons lists the contemporary Indian telegraphs, perhaps Jammu & Kashmir can expect recognition, too.

Wow. Can't recall ever seeing those, tonymacg. With production values like that, they must be looked down upon by the typical Jammu collector.

I haven't spent too much time in Yvert's Indian States listings, but I see they are there. The half-anna is listed as coming along a bit later, in 1911.

The lower values don't have much catalogue value, but I bet it is going to take me a while to find some. Appreciate the head's up!

Well, these were printed in the UK, and issued after Jammu & Kashmir stopped producing its own postage stamps, so we don't really have to admit them to the inner sanctum. Just a symptom of the sad decline that set in 1894, when the State Post Office closed.

I see that the text in the value tablets is different on the 1A and half-A stamps (obviously), but the side tablets on the top halves of the stamps are different, too. The side tablets on the bottom halves of the stamps appear identical.

Is there an easy answer as to why the side tablets on the top halves of the stamps are different?

Rereading that, I was as clear as mud...anyway...

No worries, cjd: I see what you're driving at

The side tablets in the top halves of the stamps show the values in Nagari (left-hand side) and Dogri (right-hand side), with Persian in the bottom tablets.

These were the three main scripts in use in Jammu & Kashmir. (Tibetan scripts may have been used in Ladakh, at Leh for instance, but I've never seen them on any correspondence from there. They were probably used on correspondence between Leh and Tibet, but that would have been carried, unstamped, by runner or travellers.)

Don't know much about this one, I just kept it because I like the looks of it. All I do know is it's from Peru, dated 1897 and says Telegrafo twice, so it must belong here.

Interesting. Thanks for the information.

Did the early Jammu stamps incorporate multiple scripts, too? The 1866 'circles', for instance?

jamesw, your Peru snuck in there, before my followup to tonymacg.

Yvert says that this is a 1904 issue, overprinted on an 1898 series 4c blue-green. The stamp shows a monument to Columbus, and is one of three in the series. (All different, and repeated in the 1904 series.)

Yes, Yvert says 1898, and the images in Yvert show 1897. Probably a story there...

I've shown this one before, but it fits here, too.



Sudan Military Telegraphs 1p. Sorry to those who've heard the question before, but what is that second-to-last camel looking at?

To answer your earlier question about Jammu & Kashmir, cjd: the early issues were only bilingual, in Dogri and Persian.

In this SG 17 (1876 ½ Anna bright blue watercolour on native paper)



the Dogri is across the top, and the Persian fills the rest. Much the same arrangement in this Jammu SG 61 (1868 ½ Anna red watercolour on native paper)



The Dogri is on either side of the star at the top of the oval, with Persian below.

Rahat Ju, the Srinagar seal cutter who engraved those two, also engraved the stamps of Poonch. Here, he has Nagari on top and Persian below:



(SG 31: 4 Annas on yellow wove bâtonné paper)

I just completed mounting my small collection of Spain telegraph stamps on album pages. Here's the most complete page.

Robert

Edit: Replaced image without Photobucket watermark.

Thread Bumped : Dormant 6 years

Great Britain Three Imperial Crowns
Cancelled TMB = Telegraph Message Branch