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Jind is one of those divisive Indian States. You either love 'em or hate 'em - it's very hard to be indifferent. I love 'em. You may hate 'em, but do, please, bear with me, because they hold all sorts of interest.

Jind was a medium sized state in the Punjab, in the northwest of modern India, near Pakistan. It had a population of around 300,000 and an area of about 1300 square miles. These figures are important to bear in mind, because the earliest issues of Jind were valid only within the borders of the State, as was the case with almost all the 'Feudatory' States as listed in Gibbons.

(In 1885, Jind joined a Postal Convention with British India, under which Jind gave up its own post office, and used British Indian stamps overprinted Jind (or Jhind or Jeend, according to taste). These stamps were valid throughout India, but they are very boring, and I won't say anything more about them.)

Jind's first stamps appeared respectably early, in 1874. There were five values: Half, One, Two, Four and Eight Annas. This set was lithographed from a rather blurry set of stones on thin yellowish wove paper, and later from a second, much clearer set of stones.



SG J1-J5 and J7

Unfortunately, I can't show SG J1a, the Half Anna with the value tablet retouched all over. (I've seen one genuine example, and many, many pretenders.) I'm also missing the two rarer shades of the 8 Annas (and goodness knows when I'll get them, either).

The 2 Annas brown-buff (SG J4 - fourth from left) was only printed from the second stone.

These first stamps being a bit unsatisfactory, were replaced in 1876 with a new printing from the new stones, on bluish laid card paper:



SG J8-J13

The 1874 set tends to be more common used than mint; the reverse is true for the 1876 set. Could it be (perish the thought!) that the 1874 set was aimed more at stamp collectors?

To round off the first period, there is a minor mystery - the so-called Lion stamps:



These have a lion instead of a value in the central tablet. The conventional wisdom is that they were prepared for official use, but were never actually issued. They turn up from time to time in old collections, and I've heard of sheets being offered at auction.

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

And for good measure, here is what a sheet of the Half Anna looks like, and very impressive it is too:



SG J8

A bit tricky, though, for the collectors of imprint blocks ...

And a nice bit of trivia relating to this sheet: it is ex Ameer of Bahawalpur - yes, that Ameer of Bahawalpur who appears on the stamps we all must have run into at some point in our youth.

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

It appears that the Jind Post Office decided that these designs were a bit extravagant and wasteful, so in 1882, they issued a new set, now with a Quarter Anna stamp as well, in a new economical size:



SG J15-J25

Whether the Jind authorities had cottoned on to the idea that collectors loved variety, or it was merely serendipity, they decided to try out these new-fangled perforation things at about the same time:



SG J36-J46

And to further spice things up for the collector, they printed the stamps on the old thin yellowish wove paper, much thicker wove paper, the old bluish laid card paper, and various thicknesses of white laid paper. Here are examples of the bluish and medium white laid papers:



(SG J29)

Gibbons doesn't distinguish between the different laid papers. This is a pity, because they're quite distinctive.

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

These stamps usually appeared in sheets of 50, like the first set. Here is a half sheet of the Quarter Anna, SG J37



But fairly late in the piece, they issued the Quarter Anna again in sheets of 25:



SG J15

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

And to conclude this brief romp through lovely Jind, a couple of little slip-ups.

There's been a lot of discussion in the Australian end of Stampboards lately about kiss prints - here's a real double print, of the Quarter Anna:



SG J16a

Not to disappoint the collectors, this was also available perforated, but it seems to be much scarcer.

There was also just one perforation error, on one of the shades of the 2 Anna:



SG J45a

And finally, although used of Jind are plentiful, covers are quite another matter. Here is a rare survivor: an example of mail from Jind down to Bombay, with the Jind stamp used with a British Indian Half Anna stamp, paying the postage outside Jind:



SG J17

I hope this will have piqued someone's interest in Jind: lovely, unselfconscious designs, plenty of fly-speck and plating interest, and some work to be done sorting out the varieties of laid papers - and all, for the most part, not particularly damaging to the bank account either.

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

Jind, eh? I could take 'em or leave 'em.






Thanks for putting them up for us.

Wow! Really great thread! I have only 2 of the 2nd printing, which I thought were of the 1st printing -- thanks to your sharing your vast knowledge I know know "I was took!". At least I know what to look for, which is alwys helpful! Thanks!

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Jim M.

I should have apologised for what my scanner did to the buff and brown-buff colours. They're nothing near the actual colours. Can't understand it: my Canon is usually so reliable, and it got the other colours pretty well. I might try it again later, and see if I can't get better images.

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

Ah, well, Mike, I'm afraid it's back to good-taste school for you

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

Jim: no shame in not recognizing a laid paper. I'd hazard the guess that no 20th Century US or Australian stamp was printed on it. Most collectors of modern stamps (leave aside things like envelopes) would never see it.

Now when you get down to trying to decide whether a Jammu & Kashmir 'native paper having the appearance of laid paper' was an original rougher paper, or one of the smoother papers used for the reprints ...

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

I'm not worried about Jammu and Kashmir right now, I'm too involved in trying to figure out The Sacred Cows of Bundi! When I think I shall go mad I take a break with Wadhwan. I have figured out the papers on that State --- Jammu is for "later"!

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Jim M.

Good luck with the Wadhwan, Jim. I've always put it aside as too hard, and too far down the alphabet

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

Really? I find it much easier than most States. I'm using Benns' "The Stamps of Wadhwan" (Oct. 1990) published by the ISC, and not having a problem at all --- compaired to say Bundi or Jammu. To me the hardest part is deciding which paper a stamp is printed on, then which stone from which it was printed. I dare say when I have learned a little more about Indian States, and have more stamps to work with, I will learn the papers.

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Jim M.

Jim, those ISC Handbooks are worth their weight in something more precious than gold.

At the other end of the alphabet, and talking of paper, if you can get a copy of Benns' Handbook on Alwar, it should provide hours of innocent fun. And Alwar are cheaper and easier to find than Wadhwan, too!

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

Just received this - the yeti of Jind philately - SG J1a, 'No frame to value (retouched all over)': often sighted, but rarely confirmed



SG J1 + SG J1a, at right, in case it wasn't obvious ...

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

There's a value in there?

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Collecting Tasman Empire Airways Limited

Staring you in the face, Ewen, right below the 'R'

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

Reviewing this thread, I realize I never made good on my promise to post proper images of the ¼ and ½ Anna stamps.

Now that I've discovered the colour reset tab , I'll make good.

Here is the ¼ Anna buff



SG J15, and the companion red-brown



SG J26 (on thick white wove paper, rather than the thin, yellowish wove paper used for the others here)

The ½ Anna lemon actually looks like this:



SG J17

and the ½ Anna buff



SG J18 and brown-buff



SG J19

It looks as if the printers finally achieved a more or less satisfactory print quality with the brown-buff ink. The lemon and buff inks don't seem to have been terribly successful.

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

They are beautiful stamps.

Where would one find to be a good source of Indian States material?

For entry-level material, like the Jind stamps I posted above (Gibbons prices from 30p for the ¼ Annas to £2.50 for the ½ Anna lemon), eBay and the like are probably your best bet.

Once you get beyond that level, there are a few reliable dealers around who fairly reliably have good stuff. eBay and the traditional auctions are also good sources of material.

However, there are all sorts of fakes, forgeries and reprints etc out there, as well as inexperienced sellers who are always convinced (against all past experience) that this time they have the rare variety You shouldn't be scared off, though. With a little practice and research, you should be able to avoid most of the pitfalls. There's some discussion of them here:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=13744

Finally, if you'd like to send me your address off-list, I could let you have a couple of spare specimens of the cheapest Jind stamps, to get you on your way

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

Hi Tony, I was going through one of my red boxes the other day and came across a 102 card with Jind stamps. I have 6 in used condition (which were retained in the 102) but I have entered/scanned the mint copies. I was hoping you could give them a gander and render your opinion?

From the 1876 set, these are on thick card stock that has a slight bluish-tinge to it.

SG J8 1/2a blue (perf is the revenue I believe)


SG J9 1a purple (not sure about the color on this one)
SG J10 2a brown


SG J11 4a green
SG J11a 8a bluish-violet? (think I have the right shade)


SG J17 1/2a lemon (I thought it was buff, but after seeing your scans believe this is lemon?)
SG J21 2a blue (not sure why my scanner fuzzed out on the right side - sorry)


SG J25 8a red
SG J40 1/2a brown-buff ( this seems faded, but I think this is the color?)


Thoughts or opinions? Hopefully I have the start of a collection here..... If we want scans of the used stamps, I can look to scan them when I get a minute. I did scan this (before I realized it must be used ..... )


Cheers

-Jason

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Development Owner of - [*] Stamp Image Bursting Application - http://www.drakeserver.com/
[*] Stamp Album Page Generator - http://code.google.com/p/stamp-pagegen/ - [*] Stamp Web Editor

Jason, you look to be well on top of Jind

The ½ Anna perf is indeed a revenue: it pops up regularly mint, not so often actually used.

The J9 1 Anna purple is just about right for colour. There is a bit of variation in the intensity of the colour, but your copy looks fine.

The J11a 8 Anna is probably the bluish-violet. These can be tricky to identify unless you have examples of all the shades to compare against, but this is a distinct 'warm' shade.

J17 - the ½ Anna lemon. Yes, the lemon shade. The buff and brown-buff versions are definitely brown.

The last ½ Anna looks to me more like the buff shade. The brown-buff has a lot more brown in it. Here are the buff (SG J39) and brown-buff (SG J40) alongside each other:



You have the beginnings of a fine showing of Jind here. There are a few difficult to quite difficult items from the State, but you could go on to put together a pretty representative collection without breaking the bank.

I hope these have got under your skin as thoroughly as they've got under mine

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

Thanks Tony. The interest isn't as strong as some of the other uglies, but this might be enough of a start for me to spend a bit more to add to the collection.

Cheers!

-Jason

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Development Owner of - [*] Stamp Image Bursting Application - http://www.drakeserver.com/
[*] Stamp Album Page Generator - http://code.google.com/p/stamp-pagegen/ - [*] Stamp Web Editor

Alfred Moschkau in Handbuch für Postmarken-Sammler, (published by Gebrüder Senf in 1884), lists a Jhind ½ anna newspaper wrappers which is described as 515mm x 42mm, printed on yellowish paper in blue green, design as the 1875 stamp with thicker lettering and that it was issued in 1878.

The only other reference I have found for this item is Higgins & Gage. Here it is described as printed on thin buff laid native paper with silk like finish, printed in blue green, 520mm x 37mm.

Does anyone have a copy of this? Has anyone seen a copy of this?

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Jan Kosniowski - always seeking newspaper wrappers
http://www.stampdomain.com

I've never seen one, and I can't find any record of one having been sold.

The postcards are fairly common unused, but rare used. I'd think the wrapper must be rare unused, and of extreme rarity used

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu