§17: From The Stamps of Jammu-Kashmir by Alexander Séfi & C.H. Mortimer, p 284.
[Copyist’s note. We omit the matter pertaining to telegraph stamps. However, the paragraph in this chapter that refers to the regular postage stamps used on telegraph forms is herewith produced:]
It will be recalled from the Simons’ controversy that numbers of used postage stamps were called in in 1898; and we are, once again, indebted to Stuart Godfrey for the fact that these stamps had been used on telegraph forms, and that they began to take the place of those specially designed for telegraphic use shortly after the introduction of the latter, for reasons of public convenience and for simplifying the State accounts. In Ladakh, postage-stamps only were employed for telegrams, though the telegraph stamps would have been valid for the purpose. Telegraph forms franked with these postange stamps were, after a necessary period of retention by the officials, sold (quite legitimately) to any of the public who cared to buy them, and the proceeds of such sales went, not to the Imperial government, but to the Kashmir Durbar.
§18: From The Stamps of Jammu-Kashmir by Alexander Séfi & C.H. Mortimer, p 312-17.
We now turn to a consideration of such of the Imperial stamps as were issued for part of the native postal system. These, unlike the native stamps, were not only issued as adhesives but, and more frequently, particularly in the case of the ½a denomination, embossed in colour on the envelopes. The Imperial adhesives (with which we are primarily concerned) are, therefore, relatively scarce. They were issued to the British post offices at Srinagar and Leh for use on letters going out of the State to British India or overseas. The arrangement with the State was that they affixed their own labels to all mail to half the value of the Indian stamps used. The post office at Sialkot was on quite a different plane, as it is not in Kashmir at all, but in British India. It became so definitely a kind of clearing-station for the Jammu mails that, in the absence of any British post office in Jammu territory, we, for the purpose of the classification, regard it as on much the same footing as those at Srinagar and Leh.
The interconnection between the Imperial and Native stamps was, as already noted, the factor that raised the status of the latter above that of mere locals; and just as the native stamp could not frank a letter beyond the Native frontiers unless accompanied by an Imperial one, so also could the Imperial stamp not frank a letter within the frontiers except by the addition of one of the Native stamps. To this extent, therefore, even the Imperial stamps were, strictly speaking, locals also. Out of more than a thousand covers examined by us, we have found a single instance only of an Imperial stamp having passed in Jammu-Kashmir unaccompanied by a Native one. In connection with this statement a most curious fact to be recorded is that during the last two years (1893-94) of the Native posts, it is almost impossible to find a cover carrying any Imperial stamp whatever. This is so totally at variance with the established practice of the preceding twenty-six years that we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that some radical alteration of the postal regulations must have occurred at this period.
The British Indian Embossed Envelopes. These well-known circular embossed stamps showing the youthful head of Queen Victoria were first issued in British India in 1856, and show a 1a denomination printed in brown on thin greyish-blue wove paper. They were followed in 1857 by a ½a in blue printed on a thin semi-transparent white or yellowish paper. Neither of these has been found used in Kashmir, but we can record the use of the follow later issues:
The 1a brown of 1871 on blue diagonally-laid paper.
The ½a blue of 1874 on white diagonally-laid.
The 1a brown of 1877 on white diagonally-laid.
The 4a 6p orange-yellow of 1881 on medium white wove.
The ½a green of 1883 on white diagonally-laid.
A few brief notes on individual British-Indian adhesives follow:
Issue of 1856. Of this unwatermarked issue we have only seen the ½a blue used in Kashmir, but blocks of both this and the 2a, so used, have been recorded from an old collection (now unfortunately dispersed) formed many years ago by Sir Charles Stuart-Wilson, the writer of our Foreword.
Issue of 1860. The 8p on white unwatermarked paper was issued to the British post office at Srinagar and appears, curiously enough, to have been much more commonly used than the 8p of 1865 on watermarked paper, although it had been superseded by the latter a year before the first stamps of Jammu-Kashmir appeared.
Issue of 1865. On the watermarked paper, the ½a die I, 1a and 2a orange were issued freely at the British post office at Srinagar. The 2a yellow is scarce and the 8p rare. The ½a, 1a, and 2a were also issued to Leh. The ½a was frequently used in Sialkot in 1888, evidently through a re-issue of old stock.
Issue of 1866. These overprinted 6a stamps, the first of those issued to British India after the introduction of the Native stamps, are not known to have been issued in the Native State.
Issue of 1866-67. Stamps from both dies of the 4a were issued at Srinagar, the die II being the more commonly found. Both are, however, far less scarce than the native 4a actually used at this period. The obliterations are the L-5-6 and the large barred-L.
Issue of 1868. The same two obliterations are found on the 8a rose, which is now from the second state of the die.
Issue of 1873. The ½a blue die II is by far the commonest of all British Indian stamps used in the Native State. It was issued to both Srinagar and Leh.
Issue of 1876. We have seen a single example only of the 6a used in Kashmir. This was on a cover registered from Srinagar on 8th September 1877. We know of no such use of the 12a of this issue.
Issue of 1882. At least eight of the eleven denominations were issued to Kashmir. The ½a is common and the 1a and 2a are often found. The 4a and 8a are scarce, and the 9p, 3a, and 4a 6p, rare. The last three are only known as a Srinagar issue, but the first five were also issued to Leh.
Issue of January 1891. This stamp is known used in 1893 from Srinagar.
Issue of 1892. Neither denomination is known to have been issued to the Native State nor, since their period coincides with that during which practically no Imperial stamps appear to have been used, do we consider such issue at all probable.
As Poonch is a vassal State of Kashmir the stamps of both were intercirculating in each other’s dominions. Nevertheless, stamps with Poonch obliterations are very rarely seen. The stamps known to us are:
The 1-pice red on laid bâtonné paper.
The 1-pice red on yellow laid.
The 1-pice black official on yellow laid.
The 4a red on yellow wove bâtonné paper.
We also have the following on covers from which, in view of the watercolour printing of both stamps and obliterations, we have not removed them in order to test the nature of the paper:
The 1-pice red on blue paper.
The ½a, 1a, and 2a red on white paper.
The 1a black on white paper.
The 1a red on blue-green paper.
The majority of these show the small square Poonch obliteration in addition to cancellations of Kashmir. Occasionally the Poonch mark has been omitted, and the Kashmir cancellation has been applied merely to correct the omission.