Patiala Overprints, 1903–1947

The Edward VII supplies of 1903 and their sheet flaws, a doubtful chalky paper, the George V stamps seen in 1913 and their Indian bases, Nasik from 1926, and the George VI ordinary and official formats.

Edward VII, George V and George VI stamps carried the State name on, and George VI brought new ordinary and official groups. The one-anna official surcharge is on a George V base and should not be moved to George VI because its catalogue date falls in his reign. Keep the base design, the overprint and the catalogue attribution apart.^[18][19]

The Edward VII supplies of 1903

The new portrait did not bring one self-contained printing. On 30 May 1903 the Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal reported five Edward VII values with PATIALA STATE: three pies grey, half anna pea-green, one anna carmine, two annas purple and three annas orange-brown. The next month it relayed The Philatelic Journal of India’s figures for supplies sent about the middle of March, and Ewen’s Weekly Stamp News later printed separate columns for March and May.^[27][26]

Value	March 1903	May 1903
3 pies (¼ anna)	60,000	240,000
½ anna	60,000	240,000
1 anna	1,200	— (printed as a dash)
2 annas	1,200	4,800
3 annas	1,200	4,000

Supplies of Edward VII stamps reported for Patiala, 1903: reported supplies, not lifetime totals.^[26][27]

Ewen’s June notice itself queried the small March quantities of 1,200. Both journals drew on the same Indian report, so their agreement is not two independent records, and the dash is left as printed rather than read as nought.^[26][27]

A setting seen across several values

In June 1903 Ewen’s journal described sheets of 240 of the Edward half anna shown by the Colonial Stamp Market. It placed a short stem and a detached dot in the first T of STATE at position 194, and a slightly smaller first A of PATIALA, with a top bar or serif, at position 208. Its August report found the same features on the quarter-anna, one-anna, two-anna and three-anna sheets, and also listed a small A in STATE at position 124. These describe the sheets examined, not every later printing.^[26]

The dealer supplied the sheets for inspection and was not the printer, and the notices name no compositor or press operator. Keep positional blocks and margins before using a recurring letter flaw to rebuild a setting.^[26]

A paper report that stayed a question

The Monthly Journal of 31 March 1906 repeated a report in Mekeel’s Weekly that Patiala’s three pies and four annas Edward VII had appeared on chalk-surfaced paper. The editor was not convinced: news of the unoverprinted Indian stamps on that paper would have been expected first. It is a question of the time, not an established variety. In a separate sentence the journal reported Yvert & Tellier’s listing of the one rupee carmine and green with SERVICE; neither notice names a printer or a first use.^[29]

George V: the Indian base and the Patiala addition

On 20 January 1913 The Philatelic Journal of Great Britain reported six George V values overprinted for Patiala: three pies, half anna, one, two, three and six annas. That shows they existed by then. The notice does not mention SERVICE, and so cannot settle whether the official group began in 1912 or 1913: the album-based list begins it in 1913, StampWorld labels it 1912–1926, and the 1912 in the Commons image titles is an attribution, not evidence of use.^[28][17][6]

The Postage Stamp of 30 December 1911 described the Indian George V one anna as based on one of Bertram Mackennal’s models, named De La Rue as supplier of that value and of the two and three annas, and gave its paper as white wove, watermarked Star, perforated 14. That is the Indian base, not Patiala’s overprint, and it does not apply automatically to every value.^[32]

The official centenary account of 1954 dates the move of Indian stamp printing from De La Rue to the Security Printing Press at Nasik to 1926: the same dies, now on Multiple Star watermarked paper. An unchanged face does not mean unchanged manufacture, and the passage gives no Patiala delivery date or new perforation.^[33]

For the George VI transport designs the same account explains the choice of mail-transport subjects and their wartime replacement because of a paper shortage. T. I. Archer may be named as the artist of the Indian base designs, with the qualification in Monteiro’s discussion of conflicting initials. No source credits him, or anyone, with Patiala’s added lettering.^[33][34]

equalize patiala george — George V three annas orange with PATIALA STATE in two lines; a George V one-anna official with PATIALA STATE and SERVICE, in an album.

patiala specimen 1 scaled 1 — George V three annas orange with PATIALA STATE in two lines; a George V one-anna official with PATIALA STATE and SERVICE, in an album.

George VI: ordinary and official formats

The first George VI series reads PATIALA STATE. The shorter PATIALA appears on the earlier portrait bases, including the one rupee, and should be told from the later low-value designs with white backgrounds. Among the officials, PATIALA STATE SERVICE on ordinary stamps differs from PATIALA on Indian stamps already inscribed SERVICE; the rupee officials illustrated carry PATIALA SERVICE.^[13]

StampWorld dates the shortened PATIALA group on the earlier bases to 1941, the album places the low values under 1942–1943, and Kelleher’s sale 695 describes a short-overprint one-rupee block as 1947, Scott 115. These labels do not show whether the differences are of introduction, later printing or catalogue grouping.^[20][6][21]

A note of 30 May 1968 associated with M. W. Muscott recorded only upright watermarks on the Patiala fifteen rupees examined, SG 96. It stressed how few stocks were available and proposed, without demonstrating, that two printings of the Indian base explained them. It is a piece of research history, not proof that an inverted watermark cannot exist.^[30]

Eighteen of the first George VI stamps with PATIALA STATE: the low-value portraits, the mail-transport designs and six rupee values.^[13]

Five shortened PATIALA overprints on the earlier bases: three pies, half anna, nine pies, one anna and one rupee. [13] — Five shortened PATIALA overprints on the earlier bases: three pies, half anna, nine pies, one anna and one rupee.^[13]

Six earlier George VI officials with PATIALA STATE SERVICE: half anna, nine pies, one anna, and one, two and five rupees.^[13]

Fourteen later officials: Indian SERVICE low values with PATIALA, including two half-anna colours, and three rupee values with PATIALA SERVICE.^[13]

George VI one anna with PATIALA STATE and a partial cancellation, in an album.

Covers of the period

Spink’s sale 25016, lot 1240, records an envelope of 1908 to Bombay franked with two half-anna and one two-anna Edward VII stamps, three annas in all as the auction describes it. The posting office, weight, services and tariff need the whole cover and a dated Postal Guide.

An airmail cover of 1947 catalogued as Patiala to Mexico, with no day or month, shows why an official sender and a State SERVICE stamp must be kept apart. Its stamps are Indian George VI definitives without a Patiala overprint, as the convention of 1900 required for foreign mail; that explains the franking without establishing the airmail tariff or the weight.^[7][11]