Kashmir Plate Reprints: The 1a Strips
The plate strips that follow are sometimes called “proof strips” in the literature (e.g., the Haverbeck Sale.) On this site, proofs are understood to be preliminary productions executed from an approved plate or die before an issue has first been made available for postal use. Since the productions shown below, whatever their dating, appeared many years after the plates came into postal use, we do not use the term proofs for these.
A 1a grey-brown on wove paper (position #2 in the strip) overprinted CANCELLED in red. Lunn Collection. A similar overprint can be seen on an item on Plate 11 in Staal, the unique 1/8a black New Rectangular proof of the “visitors’ plate”, 1883 assumed.
Reprint. A dark brown or chocolate shade that might be added to the Séfi & Mortimer listing, which follows here for both denominations:
1a Reprints
| black | native |
| black | toned wove |
| brown-black | toned wove |
| bright bluish-grey | native |
| deep blue | toned wove |
| grey-blue | toned wove |
| brown-red | toned wove |
| vermilion | toned wove |
| dull orange | native |
| yellow-green | native |
| yellow-green | toned wove |
| brown | toned wove |
| dark brown (added) | toned wove |
½a Reprints
| black | native |
| black | toned wove |
| slate(-blue) | native |
| deep bluish-grey | toned wove |
| pale dull blue | toned wove |
| deep bright blue | toned wove |
| vermilion | native |
| orange-red | toned wove |
| brownish-red | toned wove |
| dull orange | native |
| pale yellow | toned wove |
| olive-yellow | toned wove |
| yellow-green | native |
| sage-green | toned wove |
| blue-green | toned wove |
| green | toned wove |
| dull green | toned wove |
| dull green | white meshed wove |
| bright sage-green | white meshed wove |
Apologies first for the hole in the stamp; we were fighting off dagger-wielding zealots at the time. This variety may be the ½a pale dull blue of the received list. Séfi & Mortimer warn that this specific ‘dating’ SE.4 91 is found in non-postal cancellations of remainders of New Rectangulars and on reprints of Kashmir old rectangulars, as here. Mere philatelic use of the Srinagar 3-ring cancels dated September 1891 is also well known.
1st Plate Brighton Forgeries (Oil)
| ½a orange-yellow | stout white wove |
| ½a orange-yellow | thin coarse wove |
| 1a black | tissue |
| 1a crimson | tissue |
| 1a brown-purple | tissue |
Staal-Sharma Reprint (ink 1981)
Of the First Kashmir Plate, 11 reprint impressions were done in purple ink and none in black ink.
