Travancore-Cochin: the Last Anchal and Its Integration

Two inherited postal systems, new values in a new currency, and a carefully staged end to an independent administration.

A union after independence

Travancore-Cochin belongs to Indian postal history as a successor union formed after independence. It was created on 1 July 1949 from Travancore and Cochin and inherited both their Anchal postal systems. These articles follow the union’s transitional stamps and the integration of its post; it was not a princely state before 1947.^[1][11]

The United State joined the neighbouring south-western states of Travancore and Cochin. Its capital was Trivandrum, and Ernakulam remained an important inherited Cochin postal centre.

The rulers

Bala Rama Varma, the former Maharaja of Travancore, became Rajpramukh, the constitutional head under the covenant. Rama Varma, Maharaja of Cochin, signed the covenant on 29 May 1949 and transferred the former Cochin ruler’s authority to the United State from 1 July 1949. The Travancore ruler had signed at Trivandrum on 27 May.^[12]

A union announced before the stamps could catch up

Behind the new political name stood two real Anchal services, with offices, staff, forms, stocks and customers. Merging them was an administrative task, not just a new heading on an album page. The postal conversion followed its own notices and practical timetable, and the dates of the covenant are not first days for every transitional stamp.^[1][12]

Travancore used cash, chuckrams and fanams; Cochin used pies, annas and rupees. A notification of 28 June 1949 changed Travancore’s postal charges to the Indian currency from 1 July; the earlier Cochin tariff should not be assumed to be the same. That left the administration only a few days to prepare and distribute converted postal paper. The notice also announced more values and stationery than the Travancore authorities actually supplied, so an announced value is not necessarily an issued stamp.^[1]

Currency and the first union rates

The change of currency and the change of postal charges had separate legal dates. Cowen and Devasya report a royal proclamation of 28 June 1949 making Indian currency legal tender in Travancore from 30 June. A postal notification of the same day revised the Anchal rules and brought the new charges into force on 1 July, the day the United State was formed. The original proclamation has not been found. The surcharged stamps belonged to a practical conversion of postal charges as well as to the creation of a new state.^[1]

Service	Rate	Further charge or condition
Letter, first tola	1 anna	6 pies for each further tola or part
Single postcard	4 pies	6 pies from 1 April 1951; extra postage could make an older card sufficient
Book, pattern or sample packet, first five tolas	6 pies	4 pies for each further five tolas or part
Registered newspaper, up to eight tolas	2 pies	4 pies over eight to twenty tolas; 4 pies for each further twenty tolas or part; weight steps changed from 1 April 1950
Parcel, each forty tolas or part	4 annas	Registration compulsory above 440 tolas; maximum 600, or 500 in the High Range Division
Registration	3 annas	A fee, not the total postage of a registered letter
Acknowledgment of receipt	1 anna
Late letter or card	6 pies an item
Insurance up to Rs. 50	2 annas	1 anna for each further Rs. 50 or part
Hundi or money order	Up to Rs. 5: 1 anna; Rs. 5–10: 2 annas; Rs. 10–15: 3 annas; Rs. 15–25: 4 annas

Chronology

Date	Event
23 October 1939	Nilakanta Pellai’s letter to J. Devasya describing the 1939 designs and their official colours
28 June 1949	Currency proclamation and the postal-rate notification
30 June 1949	Indian currency legal tender in Travancore; notification Fin:7251 on surcharge inks and type
1 July 1949	Union; new Anchal rates; the first five converted values and the provisional card and envelope
1949	Stamps Validation Ordinance, 1124, recognising the predecessors’ Anchal and revenue stamps across the union
5 August 1949	Notice of the three-anna and six-anna surcharges, issued soon after
15 October 1949	One-anna farmer-and-oxen envelope
6 January 1950	Four-pies palm postcard (announced for 5 January)
1 April 1950	The Anchal becomes an agency of the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department
5 June 1950	Anchal stamps accepted at Anchal and Indian offices for any destination
7 September 1950	Inherited Cochin envelope paper authorised
30 September 1950	Free carriage of Anchal departmental business defined
24 October 1950	Nasik two-pies and four-pies stamps on sale
10 November 1950	Nasik one-anna arms envelope
5 December 1950	Notice of adhesives printed on Cochin paper
14 December 1950	Nasik four-pies arms postcard
1 April 1951	Direct central administration (notice of 5 April); postcard rate 6 pies
1 May 1951	Local letter concession withdrawn; its restoration dates are disputed
30 June 1951	Last day of validity for ordinary Anchal stamps and stationery
September 1951	Official stamps reportedly no longer accepted; savings-bank accounts transferred on 1 September
30 September 1951	Last day for exchanging unused postal paper
11 June 1952	Final change of the letter rate, in a later account
1 April 1953	Statewide single local-delivery area withdrawn, in a later account

The stamps

The issues and their values, from the research checklist, without the official stamps: the seven Travancore stamps converted to Indian currency, the provisional and permanent stationery, and the two Nasik agency stamps of 1950. Claude Scott identified the seven ordinary conversions as SG 1–7 in 1953; Burgess numbered the Nasik pair 8 and 9, while a later source gives 12 and 13. Historical numbers are not current catalogue numbers.^[6][9]

Period	Issue	Values
1949	Travancore converted-currency stamps	2 pies on 6 cash, 4 pies on 8 cash, ½ anna on 1 chuckram, 1 anna on 2 chuckrams, 2 annas on 4 chuckrams, 3 annas on 7 chuckrams, 6 annas on 14 chuckrams
1949 provisionals, as later catalogued	Provisionally converted postal stationery (postal stationery)	½ anna on 1 chuckram envelope, 4 pies on 6 cash plus 2 cash card, 4 pies on 8 cash card, 4 pies on 8 cash SERVICE card
24 October 1950	Nasik agency adhesives	2 pies, 4 pies
15 October 1949; 6 January 1950; official card January 1950 (?)	Permanent Anchal stationery (postal stationery)	1 anna farmer-and-oxen envelope, 4 pies coconut-palm postcard, 4 pies coconut-palm SERVICE postcard
10 November; 14 December 1950	Nasik arms stationery (postal stationery)	1 anna blue envelope, 4 pies blue postcard
1949–1950; status disputed	T.-C. on Cochin ANCHAL AND REVENUE stock (disputed postal-fiscal / revenue)	6 pies on 1 anna, 9 pies on 1 anna
1949–1950; status disputed	U.S.T.C. / NINE PIES on Cochin one-anna stock (disputed postal-fiscal / revenue)	9 pies on 1 anna

Sources

• [1] Frank M. Cowen and J. Devasya, “Travancore-Cochin: Its Postage Stamps and Postal History”, The Collectors Club Philatelist, vol. 32, no. 6 (1953), pp. 287–302.
• [6] Harry N. Burgess, “The Travancore-Cochin Overprints of 1949–50”, with Claude Scott, “Notes on S.G. Nos. 1 to 7”, Stamp Collecting, 5 June 1953, pp. 415, 417.
• [9] Latin American Philatelics, IND 12889: Travancore-Cochin 1950 pair, SG 12–13.
• [11] Government of India, White Paper on Indian States (1950), Appendix XLII, Article I, p. 286.
• [12] Government of India, White Paper on Indian States (1950), Appendix XLII, p. 293: signatures at Trivandrum, 27 May 1949, and Ernakulam, 29 May 1949.
• Indian Feudatory States Stamps, online exhibition: Travancore-Cochin.