Page:British India Adhesive Stamps Surcharged for Native States.djvu/24

Rh further indent was sent in, and executed in October 1896. It consisted of the following ordinary stamps:—

2 rupees .. ... ... ... 480 3 „ ... ... ... ... 480 5 „ ... ... ... ... 480

A full list of all errors known by me to exist will be found in the Reference List which follows. It will however, probably be of some interest to add a few notes as to their comparative rarity, so far as I am able to supply trustworthy information.

The commonest of all the errors is that which shows a small "A" in "." It occurs in the first five printings at least once in the sheet of each value, except in the case of the three highest denominations. The comparative rarity of this error in each denomination may, therefore, be judged from the table above showing the number issued up to date of each value.

All the other errors are much more uncommon. Two occur in the 6 annas of the third printing, once in each double pane of 160, or twice in each sheet of 320. One is "," of which there can have been only 6 or 7 copies. This error is due to a "lead" showing. The other is the error in which the word "" is wrongly placed as to "." Of this there cannot have been more than 4 or 5 copies in the ordinary issue and 6 or 7 in the service variety. This error also occurs once in each sheet of the star watermarked stamps of the fourth issue. It is, therefore, very rare in the 12 annas and 1 rupee values.

The "" error can only have existed, if (as seems likely), it occurred in the first printing, in the following numbers, as it is found only once in the sheet:—

anna ... ... ... ... ... 42 1 anna ... ... ... ... ... 21 4 annas ,,. ... ... .,. 4