India 1854 Four annas lithographs: heads, dies and printings

 The aim of this article is to help a beginner to identify the four annas lithographs and assign it to the correct printing. The following method may have its fallacies and proceed with the understanding that it needs experience to train the eyes. (Also the rare trial printing with head III and frame type II has been left alone to the experts)

The  basic step is to find the dies of head and frame to determine the printing. See Fig1. The easy was is to identify the frame first. That makes the job easier. See Fig2.

Fig 2

Then comes the difficult task of head die. See Table 1

Tab 1. To identify the India 1854 Four annas lithograph head dies
👉Look at	Diadem	Chignon	Eyebrows	Jawline, Neck, Bust	Others
Head 👇
Die I	Well shaded with lines touching both upper and lower bands	All 5 lobes with thin curved lines	Long. Clear eyelids	Dots never touch jawline. Distinct bustline.	Dots between hair strands (last jewel of crown to chignon)
Die I worn	Same (no wear)	Gradual loss of curved lines. 1st lobe blank. 2nd lobe with a comma (multiple small lines)		No dots. Ear end of jawline fades. Bust line fades with inner left bustline disappears.
Die II	Same	Strong single block comma in 2nd lobe	Short	Strong jawline with dots touching it. Thick bustline with dots.
Die II worn	Incomplete lines not touching the upper bands	Blank except for the comma. And lower 2 lobes almost blank	Becomes shorter gradually
Die III	Very shortened lines	Full of curved lines. Slanting Y in 2nd lobe	Shorter. Eyelids not distinct.	Strong lines with lot of dots
Die IIIa	Lines almost absent	Claw like 3 short thick parallel lines			Pearls in square jewels of crown worn

In a stamp of Frame die I with the diadem of very short lines  and chignon has good shading of small curved lines, then it would be most probably a Head die III. In the same case if the diadem is almost empty that can be Head die IIIa. And if the same case is coupled with a Frame die II, then it can be fourth or fifth printing. To differentiate between 4th or 5th printing. See Table 2

Table 2. Criteria to differentiate 4th and 5th printings
	Fourth printing (close setting)	Fifth printing (medium setting)
1	All 5 jewels in the crown of the head are clear and firm	Weaker
2	The 2nd jewel is well defined.	The second jewel is broken at the left side with the only right half of the circular jewel remaining.
3	The 4th jewel is well defined.	The fourth jewel circular head is broken and odd-looking due to wearing. (Most specific)
4	The cruciform mark inside the square of the fifth jewel is prominent	Four corner dots represent the cruciform
5	No guide dot.	Guide dot: a small red dot external (at 1mm away) to design of stamp at 9 o'clock position on left side present. Guide dot was to help for placing the blue transfer at the correct position. It is tiny and needs magnification to visualize.
6	‘Y’ in the chignon
7		Worn out appearance at the 4 o'clock position of the frame
8	2 to 2.5 mm between stamps (close setting)	Greater than 3mm between stamps (medium setting)
The presence of guide dot and ill-defined 4th jewel almost confirms the medium setting 5th printing. Please also note that the earliest Die III wide setting 3rd printing also has ill-defined 2nd and 4th jewels, but this is not due to wear. This is due to faulty transfer.

India King Edward Cover Mystery Cancellation

 India 1905 King Edward cover
From Bombay, India to Hamburg, Germany
With 1anna multiples on front and back

It have the Appollo Bander pier,Bombay cancellation and Sea Post Office Cancellation on the reverse

The mystery was the peculiar cancellation marks on the stamps. I sought the help of experts. The explanation was astounding.

 

The cancellation is the result of a very badly damaged and clogged Roller Type Cancellation, which was in use at the Apollo Pier Receiving House (later renamed Apollo Bandar PO) from 1874 onwards for a very long time, even to King George V issues.

 The original cancellation(Renouf type 4XII/Cooper type B4f) consisted of a small diamond, formed with 10 parallel lines, with number '1' inset.

It was used for expediting cancellation of multiple stamps affixed on late fee paid articles, which were posted at the last minute at the Apollo Bandar to catch the Steamer before sailing.

So the original purpose of this cancel was to obliterate stamps on late fee mail.

The overseas letter rate from India to all UPU countries including Germany (except Britain and its other colonies) was 2½A for every 14.18gm (½oz) from January 1,1891 to 1921 and the late fee for letters sorted by the Mumbai–Adan Sea PO and the Mumbai–Karachi Sea PO was 2A from 1902 to 1911.

So this cover weighed 56.7gm (2oz) to attract 10A sea postage and 2A was paid as late fee.

Also the story wont be complete without telling about the ship RMS Arabia

 Read about it and more at  http://stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=68282

Thanks to

 Joy Daschaudhuri, Calcutta

Prashant Pandya, President of Vadodara Philatelic Society, Vadodara

Ajitraj Singhi, President of Philatelic Congress of India, Mumbai

http://stampboards.com/

Soldiers' and Seamen's Envelope

This is British India 1895 1A on 9P Vic. vermilion on white wove paper Soldiers' and Seamen's Envelope (Higgins and Gage IB2/Lang ME2), issued on April 1,1895 following the increase in the seamail postage for soldiers' and seamen's mail from India to England to 1A in 1893.

This was issued by overprinting the first (and the only other) Soldiers' and Seamen's Envelope of India i.e. 1879 9P Vic. vermilion on white wove paper cover (14cmX7.8cm) (H&G IB1/Lang ME1), printed by Thomas de la Rue and Company, London, England and originally released on April 1,1879.

The envelope was printed in 2 different lengths of the inscription COMMANDING OFFICER OR HEAD OF DEPARTMENT, in 53.5mm and 52mm.

Two different One Anna overprints of H&G IB2 have been recorded.

 1.

2.

 The envelopes were sold in packets of 16, fastened by a paper band, on which was printed 16 Soldiers' and Seamen's Envelopes Duty 9Pies.

The packets were sold to the Commanding Officers at 14A each i.e. 10½P per envelope which was variable. The packet values increased when supplied to Indian Expeditionary/Field Forces serving outside India.

These envelopes are mostly found in mint state and are very uncommon postally used.

Indian Post Office Manual 1855, edited and published by Henry Philip Archibald Buchanan Riddell, Director General of Post Office in India and printed by Kolkata Gazette Office, Kolkata, in Para. 207, p.59 defines Soldiers' and Sailors' letters as those written by and addressed to soldiers and sailors of East India Company's or British Army/Navy.

Such letters, weighing upto 14.18gm (½oz), if franked by the Commanding Officer of the regiment or ship, could be sent from India to England or any of its colonies for 9P concessional postage, provided it was fully prepaid.

Soldiers' letters addressed to Australia or Zhongguo, if not prepaid, 2d was charged on delivery.

Ordinary rates of Indian postage were applicable on the Soldiers' letters for delivery in India.

 The postage for soldiers' letters weighing upto 14.18gm (½oz), sent from India to England and its colonies was 8P from August 18,1855 onwards, before which soldiers' letters were carried free.

 Soldiers' and Seamen's Envelopes without the signature of the Commanding Officer of the regiment or ship in the designated left panel, were treated by the Post Office as ordinary civilian mail and thus were not entitled to concessional postage.

As this cover was without the signature of the CO and the sender's rank and unit information panel was left blank, the cover was required to be additionally franked with 1882 ½A (SG 85) and 1883 1A (SG 88) stamps as the postage for a letter weighing upto 14.18gm (½oz), sent from India to England was 2½A from January 1,1891 to December 24,1898.

Most likely, the cover was knowingly used by the sender as ordinary envelope.

The cds dt. October 17,1895 on the reverse of the cover is definitely the postmark of Mumbai-Adan Sea Post Office, originally established as Mumbai-As Suwais Sea PO in 1868 for sea sorting of the India-England mails but later cut short between Mumbai and Adan from 1890.

This cds type was introduced in 1873 in 6 sets, A to F.

The Mari? dispatch cds dt. October 13,1895 (4-30 p.m.) with hour type was introduced in 1895 to selected Head/Sub POs in India.

 Indian Soldiers' and Seamen's Envelopes are also found with SPECIMEN and CANCELLED overprints.

1. Lang type OS1/Samuel type 1 SPECIMEN (18.25mmX2.75mm)

2. Samuel type 8 SPECIMEN (14mmX2mm) (red ovpt.)

3. Lang type OC1/Samuel type 9 CANCELLED (17.25mmX1.75mm) (ovpt. printed by Thomas de la Rue)

4. Lang type OC2/Samuel type 11 CANCELLED (15mmX1.75mm)

5. Lang type OC3/Samuel type 13 CANCELLED (15.5mmX2.5mm) (ovpt. printed by Thomas de la Rue)

6. Lang type OC8 oval CANCELLED black mark of Stamp Office, Mumbai


For more info on this visit :  http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=59966

Thanks to Joy Daschaudhuri for this great info

1855 India lithograph on cover

1855 Cover, Bangalore to Jaulnah,
with ½ anna blue die I lithograph,
tied with diamonds of dots cancellation,
and arrival cancelations on reverse.