British Indian Adhesive Stamps Surcharged For Native States, Part I/Chapter 1
THE ADHESIVE STAMPS
OF
BRITISH INDIA
Surcharged for use in certain Native States.
Chapter I.
GENERAL REMARKS.
THE Government of India, at one time and another, but not in recent years, have entered into postal "conventions" with the Hill State of Chamba, the four Cis-Sutlej Sikh States of Patiala, Nabha, Faridkot and Jhind, and with Gwalior. These conventions are almost identical in their provisions, and, as far as philatelists are concerned, the interest of any one of them lies in the fact that each party thereto recognises the franking power within its own territory of the postage stamps issued by the other party, provided that they are of the nature laid down in the convention. In other words, the stamps which we are now considering will frank a letter posted in the State concerned throughout the State and also throughout British India.
These conventions further bind the Government of India to supply these States, on indent, with stamps current in British India surcharged with the name of the indenting State. The charge made to the latter for this service is the actual price paid by the Government of India to the contractors in England for printing the stamps, plus the freight to India, and the actual cost of surcharging. No profit is made on the transaction.
These stamps are, therefore, seen to be more than mere "local" stamps, while they have not quite the character of "general issues." For they are available over an area vastly exceeding that of the State issuing them, and yet their use is restricted by the fact that they are not available for prepayment of postage on postal articles unless they are intended for delivery at a Post Office of the State itself or at a British Indian Post Office. They will, however, frank a letter addressed to any place between Chitral and Tuticorin, between Kelat and Kengtung; and have, therefore, an interest far above that which attaches to ordinary "local" stamps.
It has long been recognised that the stamps of the Straits Settlements surcharged for the use of the Native Protected States of Johor, Negri Sembilan, Perak, and Selangor are of the greatest interest. Yet those stamps have a far more limited circulation. Their chief interest lies in their fascinating variety of surcharges and the multitude of bona fide "errors." And yet these are the very qualities which are seized upon to blacken the character of the stamps which we are now discussing. Quite recently one of the leading London Philatelic Journals spoke of varieties of surcharge on these stamps as "accidentally made on purpose," while there are not wanting hints on all sides that "errors" are wilfully manufactured for the double purpose of pleasing collectors, and adding to revenue. Why these things should be said of Indian Native State stamps and not even whispered in connection with those of the Straits Settlements is one of the 'mysteries of creation," especially as, both in variety of surcharges and in "errors," the Indian stamps are so very much less wayward than the others. These stamps have everything to gain by publicity. So far their origin has been unknown, and the darkness of ignorance has encouraged the growth of suspicions as to their standing. The more the philatelic public knows of the actual facts as to their production and use, the more will they be convinced of their claim to be considered genuine postage stamps with a real interest of their own.
They are produced under the following conditions:—
The surcharging is done in Calcutta at the Government of India Central Printing Press, under conditions of supervision etc., which make underhand dealings impossible. The stamps to be surcharged are supplied by the Superintendent of Stamps and Stationery under special precautions, and a like number have to be returned to him after receiving the surcharge. The employes cannot bring into the office, or introduce extraneous matter, such as unused stamps bought for the purpose, into the machines; and cannot manipulate the setting, of the surcharge when once passed.
All work done by. human beings is liable to a want of accuracy. This is specially the case when the "human beings are Orientals not sufficiently educated to have lost the queer belief that want of accuracy is absolutely essential to avert the dreaded "Evil Eye." Further, the chance of error which occurs in one setting of type is greatly increased when that type has to be set 240 times, as it has to be for every supply of surcharged star-watermarked stamps. And when we remember that these 240 settings have to be made not once, but often and at varying intervals of time, it is hardly wonderful that mistakes do occur. There are some mistakes which will occur, no matter what, care is taken. Type will break while in use, and minute portions of a letter will now and then take up too much or too little ink. These are the causes of "inverted L' for 'T," " 'R' for 'B,' " " 'C' for 'D,' " " '8' for 'S', "F." for 'E " et hoc genus omne. But a genuine collector despises such "deviations." He also takes no interest in marginal stamps from a sheet which has been placed in the press a little to one side, so that part of the surcharge has come on the margin, and which derive their interest (?) merely from the fact that the margin has been torn off.
It is genuine "errors" that we are now dealing with, caused by transposition of letters, wrong spelling, use of type from wrong founts, faulty spacing, &c. The late Bengal Philatelic Society, while recognising that these errors were not the result of malice or of gross negligence, thought that exercise of even greater care than had hitherto been bestowed might reasonably be expected, and that it should be possible to do away with mistakes in future altogether. It had the courage of its convictions, and one of its last official acts was to communicate its opinions on this matter to the Director-General of the Post Office of India, I am glad to be able to say that it has now definitely been arranged that the proof of the surcharge, after careful revision in the Press, will be finally examined and scrutinised in the office of the Director General, and that no stamps will be actually surcharged till the proof has been passed by that office. I think, therefore, that it may fairly be expected that the future will see no further "errors" among these stamps. This, of course, will have the effect of bringing about a finality, which should make the errors which have hitherto occurred particularly interesting, and this forms a large part of the justification for this book and for my claim that these stamps deserve study.
One of the other points on which the late Bengal Society asked for reform was the stoppage of the issue of stamps of unnecessary values to these States. The stamps particularly- objected to by jealous collectors are those of the 9 pies, 2½ annas, and the 2, 8, and 5 rupee values. Of these the first is now obsolete and it is not likely that the second will ever be re-issued surcharged. Only some of the States have dabbled in these values, and that only to a very limited extent. It will be good news to all collectors to hear that it has been definitely decided not to surcharge in future any stamp above Re. 1 in value. The issue* of the three highest value stamps have been very small indeed, and their number will not be added to.
One frequently hears another complaint against these stamps. It is that the proportion sold to collectors is very large as compared with the number actually used for postal purposes. But this objection is absurd on the fare of it. The number of current stamps of any country (excluding the Seebeckised States) required for collections is to all intents and purposes the same whatever that country be. The number of stamps required for purely postal purposes is enormously greater in Great Britain than in Gibraltar, so that the proportion that stamps sold to collectors bears to the total issues is very much greater in the case of the latter. Still no one thinks of denouncing Gibraltar stamps.
I have, however, been at considerable pains to gauge the actual wants of each State in the way of postage stamps. I have done this, n<>t by the plausible method of working out a sum of which the divisor is the total population of that State, but have confined my arithmetical operations to the number of inhabitants returned at the last census as able to read and write. The result thus obtained errs seriously in the direction of under-estimating the actual requirements, because it excludes the very large number of illiterate people who, all over India, employ letter- writers. Still, as a comparative test, i. e., for the purpose of contrasting the number of postal articles per head of literate population in a particular State with the number per head of the same class of people in British India (i. e. about 36), the results will be fairly trustworthy. The figures worked out in the case of each State will be found in their appropriate chapters, and, I think, fully justify the conclusion that the stamps are really wanted for postal work, and that their sale to collectors is a purely secondary matter.
It is further important to remember that far more than half the stamps supplied to those States consist of post cards and embossed envelopes, which are equally with adhesives useful for postal purposes, but for which there is practically no sale among philatelists at present.
Forgeries are easily dealt with. I have not yet seen any that could not be detected at a glance. They are usually executed on used British Indian stamps over the obliteration. A stamp which professes to belong to Chamba and has manifestly been used in Bombay need not be further considered.
Reprints are fortunately very few indeed, and can in all cases be very easily detected. Full details of all reprints are given under the appropriate chapters. They exist in the case of Gwalior, Jhind, Nabha and Patiala.
It now remains to say a few words as to how the stamps are surcharged.
The details of this work differ accordingly as paper watermarked with a star or with an elephant's head is used. In the former case the surcharge required for ordinary stamps is set up at one time 240 times so as to fit the two panes of the sheet. There have been occasions when the surcharging of the sheet has been done in two operations, i. e. one pane at a time, but these are very rare. In the latter case, the sheets being divided into four panes of 80 stamps each, the surcharge is applied in two operations, so that the two top panes are similar and differ from the two bottom panes. It follows, therefore, that the finding of one error in a sheet of paper with the elephant's head watermark indicates that another of the same kind exists in the same sheet.
If stamps are required for service purposes, an additional surcharge (except in the case of Gwalior) is made in the same way on the requisite number of sheets of surcharged ordinary stamps. The result of this additional surcharge being made separately is that the interval between the word "Service" and the name of the State, as well as its general position on "the stamp varies greatly. This will also explain how the "service" surcharge is sometimes found inverted, an accident which is due to a sheet having been fed into the Press upside-down for this second surcharge.