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Barwani stamps can cause some confusion to the non-specialist, without adequate reference specimens. This thread doesn't attempt to go far beyond Gibbons: a specialised description deserves its own thread. I will show here all the Stanley Gibbons major numbers, some of the minor numbers where appropriate, and a few unlisted items. For further detailed information on the individual stamps, please refer to Gibbons.

I'll be happy to try to answer any identification questions any reader may have. And of course, any comments will be gratefully received

Most stamps of Barwani were printed in sheets of four; only the exceptions will be noted.

First, there were two quite well-established ¼ Anna issues before SG 1. This is probably the first:



The shade and 'doubling' of the impression are characteristic. Typical rough perf 7 of early Barwani. Only known used

This is probably the second:



It is imperforate, and is usually seen in pairs or sheets of four. Only known used

Now, the issued stamps:



SG 1 - found on toned or white wove. Gibbons describes the colour as 'blue-green (dull to deep)', but I think 'green-blue' might be more accurate.



SG 2. Gibbons also lists this stamp imperf (SG 2a), but I haven't seen it.

Note that these two stamps are quite clearly printed. This helps distinguish them from the following pair.

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

SG 3 The blurred impression is typical; clear prints are quite uncommon. The fluffy perfs are typical of this paper



SG 4 Usually more clearly printed than SG 3. The paper and fluffy perfs will help distinguish this from SG 2. (Note that SG 2 is perf all around, but SG 3 is usually only perf on two or three sides.)



SG 5



SG 6



SG 6a As these sheets were perforated across the middle, stamps occur in equal numbers perf at top and bottom.

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

Distinguishing between all the ¼ Anna blues of Barwani can seem a formidable task. However, if you note all the distinguishing features - perf gauge, paper, print quality, and colour - and then methodically work through Gibbons, or the illustrations to follow here, it's usually a fairly simple matter to assign a given stamp to its correct number.



SG 7 This is printed on a distinctive thick, white surfaced paper. The printing is comparatively clear, but it tends to suffer from random small round blue blobs.

The next two are often confused, but I hope that these scans will help distinguish them.



SG 8 This is still relatively clearly printed, but on a thinnish, low quality paper, quite unlike that of SG 7. The example above is typical of the shade of SG 8: distinctly lighter than that of SG 9:



SG 9 This is almost always poorly printed. The portrait is more often than not a barely recognisable blob. The colour is much darker than for SG 8, as in the example.

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

The 1 Anna value was heavily used and extensively printed. It was the basic letter rate stamp for most of the life of the Barwani Post Office. Here is the basic version:



SG 10 This is on a white, surfaced paper, rather thinner than that of SG 7. However, the glazing is still usually evident. It can be found perforated on two or three sides. The difference is unimportant: the two stamps from the top of the sheet are perforated on three sides, the two from the bottom on the sheet, on two sides.

Imperf between pairs exist:



SG 10a Nasty forgeries exist.

The 1 Anna also exists on a slightly toned vertical laid paper, with the same perforation as for SG 10:



This is SG unlisted. I'd be most interested to hear from anyone else who has a copy of this stamp.

While out of SG number sequence, there was also a small printing of the 1 Anna in a distinctive brown-red shade on a thinnish, unsurfaced wove paper:



SG 15

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

The 2 Anna resembles the 1 Anna:



SG 11 Same paper and perforations as for the 1 Anna. This also exists in imperf between pairs



SG 11b and



SG 11c

Gibbons lists a doubly printed 2 Anna, but I've never seen a really convincing example. This



is typical of what is offered on the market as SG 11a. In my opinion, nothing more than over-inked normal SG 11s.

SG 11 can be found in every shade from purple to violet.

There was also a smaller printing of the 2 Anna, on an unsurfaced paper, thicker than for SG 15, but otherwise resembling SG 11:



SG 12

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

SG 13 This comes in a range of shades, from light to dark. It can also be perforated on two or three sides, but this is only of specialist interest.

It is also found imperf, and in imperf between pairs:



SG 13b



Like SG 13, SG 14 can also be found in shades ranging from light to dark. It is also found perf on two or three sides, the upper pair being perf on three sides, the lower on two. There is also an imperf between error.



SG 16 This is easy to distinguish from SG 14: it's always perforated with the large 7 gauge on all four sides, and the paper is thicker and softer.

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

Please take some time off to at least feed the Cat if not yourself.You have got Barwani to live on, she has only got her feeding bowl

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

I've never tackled these, but this is a fabulous resource - great scans

Thanks Tony

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Peter

SG 17 This is only perforated on two sides.



SG 18 This is quite a complex issue. There are also imperf between pairs horizontally (SG 18ab) and vertically:



SG 18a

The perforating pins seem to have been treated in a strange way, shortening every second pin. This produces stamps perf 6



SG 18b and perf compound of 6 and 12



SG 18c As intermediate states can be found, with stamps perf 6 for half a side and 12 for the balance, I'm not sure these two stamps deserve their listings. However, they are there in Gibbons, so I've included them.

These ¼ Anna stamps can also be found with the ordinary - for the time - perf 7



SG 18d and also perf 7, but on wove paper instead of the laid paper used for the rest of SG 18



SG 18da One of the great rarities of Barwani

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

SG 19 A very common stamp. It can easily be distinguished from other face-similar ¼ Annas by being on laid paper. All the other ¼ Anna blues are on wove papers of various sorts. Always perf all around

The next three stamps were printed on a thin, poor quality wove paper. The print quality is typically poor, particularly for the ¼ Anna. A word of caution: the papers of these stamps can be brittle. Don't bend!



SG 20



SG 21, which is also found imperf between:



SG 21a



SG 22, which can also be found imperf between:

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

The orange to brown Ranjitsingh 4 Anna stamps, including SG 22 above, cause as much grief as any Barwani stamps. However, with a little patience, they can be assigned to their correct numbers. The sequence of appearance in Gibbons has been disputed, but for convenience, I will follow it.



SG 23 A yellow-brown, perforated with a sewing machine, and on a medium to thickish opaque wove paper. This produced the 'pin-perf' appearance, without paper being punched out as is found in a normal perforation. It might be possible to measure the perforation gauge, but it would be a pointless exercise. The gauge varied according to how quickly the operator worked the treadle!



SG 23b Essentially the same shade and paper as SG 23, but perforated with the normal gauge 7 machine. This is by far the commonest 4 Anna, and it's regularly confused with its scarcer brothers.



SG 23c Similar to SG 23 in paper and perforation, but a much darker orange-brown shade. (There are good technical reasons for treating this as a separate printing, not simply an over-inked SG 23.)

Comparing any 4 Anna not perf 11 with the four examples above should make classification clear.
If the paper is thin and translucent: SG 22
If the paper is thicker, and
- Small perf holes, and yellow-brown: SG 23
- Small perf holes, and darkish orange-brown: SG 23c
- Large perf holes and yellow-brown: SG 22b

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

Next are the last two stamps perforated with the old 7 gauge machine:



SG 24 and



SG 25

These are both on the thickish surface paper which was used for the remaining printings by the Ranjit Printing Press through to around 1931.

Next followed a series of printings of all values except the 2 Annas in sheets of eight. These can be assigned to their Gibbons numbers fairly easily if you approach the task methodically, and work through the variations of perf and shade,



SG 26 Perf about 10½, and usually ragged. The sheets were printed from two strikes of the plate, one being inverted. The top (or bottom, according to taste) row was usually left imperf. This produced tête-bêche pairs from the middles of the sheets:



SG 26a



SG 27 Also perf 10½ and usually ragged; this is an exceptional example of a clean-cut perf. In this case, the four clichés were arranged horizontally, and the sheets were printed from two strikes of the plate, yielding four tête-bêche pairs:



SG 27a Again, either the top or bottom row was left imperf

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

The situation with the ¼ Annas of SG 28 is rather more complicated even than Gibbons shows. Some of the shades can be found se-tenant in the same sheet, for example. For my own purposes, I classify these stamps differently, but to attempt to align them with Gibbons:



SG 28



SG 28a Gibbons notes the existence of horizontal imperf between pairs for this indigo shade. I have a couple such pairs, but this is the closest I can get to 'indigo':



SG 28ab? Gibbons also lists a horizontal strip of four imperf between in the 'indigo' shade, and this is the strip, but I don't believe it's 'indigo' mself:



SG 28ac



SG 28b There are shades of this 'deep dull blue' which veer off into ultramarine and indigo. Gibbons notes an imperf between vertical pair:



SG 28ba, and finally, the 'ultramarine' shade:



SG 28c

As you can see, I seem to be at cross-purposes with Gibbons on some of these shades and the varieties that exist. Make of them what you will

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

If you're only following Gibbons, the companion ½ Anna is much more straightforward. There are two shades:



SG 29, which is found in imperf between pairs



and



SG 29b, which is also found in imperf between pairs



It's worth noting that these shades can be found in se-tenant pairs, though Gibbons doesn't list them.

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

The later 1 and 4 Anna stamps should be easy to distinguish from the earlier printings.

The 1 Anna is in a fairly consistent rose-carmine shade



SG 30 It is known in imperf between pairs, used only. This is the only example I've been able trace so far:



SG 30a

The 4 Anna is found in a deep shade, and a less common lighter shade from a separate printing. Gibbons doesn't distinguish between them.



SG 31 This is also known in imperf between pairs, but I don't have one to show.

That concludes the printings made by the Ranjit Printing Press, up to 1931. The ruler, Rana Ranjitsingh, died in 1930 and was succeeded by his infant son, Rana Devi Singh. The death, and succession by an infant, gave the British the opportunity to impose a period of Imperial administration on Barwani, to 'assist' the young ruler in his duties.

One improvement, or not, according to taste, was to switch the contract for printing the State postage and revenue stamps to the Times of India Press in Bombay. A very much more professional outfit, which printed all the stamps until Barwani was absorbed into the new State of Madhya Pradesh in 1948, following Indian Independence.

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

Rana Devi Singh succeeded his father Rana Ranjitsingh in 1930. The stamps for the new reign were printed by the Times of India Press in Bombay, again in sheets of four.

Gibbons classifies these stamps into 'Close' and 'Wide' settings. At the two extremes, stamps are easy to assign; at the middle, they can be difficult. If a stamp appears borderline between Close and Wide, remember that the Close setting produced generally square-looking stamps, while the Wide settings produced rather tall-looking stamps. I show examples of the extremes, where more than one printing was made.

First, the ¼ Anna, Close:



SG 32A and Wide:



The ½ Anna, Close



SG 33A and Wide:

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

The 1 Anna was the basic letter rate stamp, and is a little more involved. The Close setting:



SG 34A The narrowest type occurs fairly often perf compound 11 and 12. Gibbons doesn't list it, but it's worth a modest premium - say 2x normal. This printing also produced the only perforation error of the Times of India era:



SG 34aA

There are two types recognised for the Wide settings: perf 11



SG 34B and perf 8½



SG 34Bb which shouldn't need a perf gauge to detect

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

The 2 Anna had fewest printings, but causes the most trouble. The widest of the Close settings can easily be confused with the rare single Wide setting. However, remember that the Wide setting stamps are tall and narrow; the wide Close setting stamps are square.

The Close settings



SG 35A Like the companion 1 Anna, the narrow printing produced (unlisted) compound perfs of 11 and 12. As with the 1 Anna, they're worth perhaps 2x normal.



SG 35aB If you think you've found one, remember that there were only 400 printed

The 4 Anna is probably the easiest value to assign. The Wide printings are distinctly paler than the Close printings.



SG 36A and



SG 36B

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

The reissued Ranjitsingh types were generally much more straightforward.

The ¼ Anna value is the simplest of them. There was only one Close format printing, and a couple of Wide format printings:



SG 37A at left, and SG 37B at right

The ½ Anna values paid the postcard rate, and were more heavily used. They're still reasonably simple. There was a Close printing similar to the ¼ Anna above, and a slightly wider printing in a yellow-green shade:



SG 38A at left and SG 38aA at right

The Wide settings are easily distinguished:



SG 38aB

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

The 1 Anna value again had only one Close printing:



and the Wide setting printings are easily distinguished by the differences in size and perf gauge



SG 39B at left, SG 39aB at right. There is a Wide setting in a shade vaguely similar to that of SG 39aB, but larger, and perf 11. Impossible to confuse the two

The 2 Anna value is simpler still. There were only two printings, both Wide settings:



SG 40B and



SG 41B

SG 40B is on a white paper; SG 41B is on a poorer quality, slightly yellowish paper.

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

The 4 Anna again exists in only one Close setting



SG 42A

and a couple of Wide settings



SG 42B This covers two fairly similar-looking printings, and



SG 42aB which is on the same poorer quality paper as SG 41B

And finally, the T5 1 Anna - a printing from the contemporary Revenue plate, in brown rather than the red of the Revenue printings:



SG 43 The fluffy perfs are fairly typical of this stamp.

That concludes this survey of Barwani, for the time being. There probably are other unidentified and unlisted items out there. I'll add them as they come to hand.

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

An here is another item unlisted in Gibbons:



A ¼ Anna in a yellow-green, perf approx. 6 on two sides only, on a thin brittle wove paper. As Barwani stopped printing the ¼ Anna value in green with SG 5, which dates from 1921, this stamp probably dates from 1921, or early 1922 at the latest.

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

One more, not listed in Gibbons, yet:



This belongs among the ever-growing list of printings made before SG 1 in 1921. The deep blue, poor printing and poor quality paper appear to be typical.

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

Great thread for all Barwani lovers including myself.Noone except you can explain the Barwani in such a simple manner.Thanks for it.

Please help me in identifying few of my Barwani items:

Does this qualify for SG 12 (Paper looks thick to me)



Which of these are 36A or 36B







Is anyone of these qualify for SG30







Thanks.
opkedia

Many thanks for the kind words, opkedia, but I really don't deserve them

Now, to the items you show.

The first 2 Anna cover are SG 11s. The paper of SG 12 is quite grey-brown in colour, and doesn't show the white coating that exists on SG 10 and 11.

The 4 Anna Devi Singhs: The first and third are the Wide settings, SG 36B; the second looks like a Narrow setting SG 36A (probably Setting 5, which was the widest of the 'Narrow' printings)

You have some nice 1 Anna Ranjitsingh covers, but I'm afraid they're all SG 10s. SG 30 is in quite a distinctive colour, and far more expertly printed than SG 10.

It's said that both SG 10 and SG 30 were printed by the Ranjit Printing Press at Barwani. If that is so, then the Ranjit Press suddenly improved enormously around 1928. Of course, that is perfectly possible. The Press might have recruited new staff and/or acquired new equipment. However, the differences in print quality between pre-1928 and post-1928 are huge.

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