Pakistan Overprints on Indian Stamps and Postal Stationery 1947-1949

From the Society Library — The Standard Work on the Pakistan Overprints

— by Ron Doubleday & Usman Ali Isani

Published Karachi, 1993 · Pakistan Postal Services Corporation · 820 pages · 23 chapters

Introduction

Every collection of early Pakistan begins with the overprints. When the new state came into being in August 1947, its post offices held stocks of British Indian stamps and postal stationery — and no Pakistani stamps of their own. The answer was the overprint: the word "PAKISTAN" struck over the King's portrait, first by machine at the security press at Nasik and then, in town after town, by whatever handstamp, typewriter or pen the local office could find. Those hurried, improvised issues of 1947–1949 are at once the first stamps of Pakistan and one of the most difficult fields in all of its philately — rich in varieties, crowded with local types, and haunted by doubtful pieces and outright forgeries.

For the collector who wants to understand them, one book stands above all others: Pakistan: Overprints on Indian Stamps and Postal Stationery 1947–1949 by Ron Doubleday and Usman Ali Isani, published at Karachi in 1993 for the Pakistan Postal Services Corporation. Running to some 820 pages, it is not merely a catalogue but a complete working record of the overprints — how they were made, where they were made, how to measure and identify them, and how to separate the genuine from the bogus. Dealers and auctioneers cite its numbers; expertisers work from its descriptions; and the Society's own article on the Pakistan local overprints acknowledges, in its author's words, that this 'massive work is lavishly illustrated and authoritative.'

The book stands in a direct line of scholarship: Col. D. R. Martin's pioneering study of 1959, its enlarged Pakistan reprint of 1974 — and then this work, which took the record as near to completeness as the surviving evidence allows.

The authors themselves tell the story in their opening chapter. Col. Martin had served in the new-born Pakistan for nearly six years from 14 August 1947 and was present when these stamps were issued; his book, published by Robson Lowe of London in 1959, remained the prototype work on the overprints until 1974, when it was reprinted in Pakistan with Captain Usman Ali Isani as the driving force and some twenty-nine new types and over four hundred and fifty additional values and varieties incorporated. Doubleday and Isani set out to go further still — to attempt, as they put it, a virtually complete work on these overprints, and to put the case for the first year of localised overprinting, which began in 1947, on a firm evidential footing for the judgement of future generations.

The result is organised for use. After the introduction, a historical chapter and a chapter of general information — including the all-important guidance on measuring overprints — the book works methodically through the localised overprints of 1947, the machine-printed overprints on ordinary and service stamps, the vast handstamp field, the Pakistan postal agencies in the Persian Gulf, typed and manuscript overprints, and overprints on postal stationery of every kind. It closes with the chapters every specialist needs most: overprints on other government instruments, the doubtful overprints, a full treatment of forgeries and bogus overprints, and the Identification Table by which an unknown overprint can be matched to its listing. Printed in four-colour process, with stamps reproduced throughout — some enlarged to show the overprint clearly — it remains, more than thirty years on, the first book to reach for on this subject, and the Peshawar Stamp Society is pleased to introduce it to its readers.

Book details

Title: Pakistan: Overprints on Indian Stamps and Postal Stationery 1947–1949

Authors: Ron Doubleday & Usman Ali Isani

Printed by: Messrs. Graphics Printers & Designers, Nazimabad II, Karachi

For: Pakistan Postal Services Corporation, Islamabad

Art Director: Adil Salah Uddin (Consultant) — President's Award for Pride of Performance

Bureau: Messrs. KTF Systems, Karachi

Price: Rs. 1500/-

Structure: 9 Parts · 23 Chapters

Library of Congress Card: P-E94-930093

The Book in Nine Parts

PART I — Foundations (Chapters 1–3). Introduction, the historical background of Partition and the postal emergency of 1947, and general information for using the catalogue.

PART II — Localised Overprints of 1947 (Chapters 4–5). The localised overprints of the early post-independence era and the other overprints of 1947 — the heart of the book's case for the first year of local overprinting.

PART III — Machine Printed Overprints (Chapters 6–8). The machine-printed overprints in general, and their listings on the ordinary stamps and on the service stamps.

PART IV — Handstamping (Chapters 9–11). Handstamping in general, then the handstamps on ordinary stamps and on service stamps — the great local field, die by die.

PART V — Persian Gulf Agencies (Chapters 12–13). General information on the Pakistan postal agencies in the Persian Gulf, and the agencies and their overprints in detail.

PART VI — Typed & Manuscript (Chapters 14–15). Typed overprints on service stamps, and manuscript overprints on ordinary and service stamps — the rarest improvisations of all.

PART VII — Postal Stationery (Chapters 16–20). The background to stationery overprints, then machine overprinting and handstamping on ordinary and on service postal stationery.

PART VIII — Government Instruments (Chapter 21). 'Pakistan' overprints on other government instruments beyond stamps and stationery.

PART IX — Doubtful, Forged & Bogus (Chapters 22–23). Doubtful overprints, forgeries and bogus overprints, and the Identification Table — the collector's protection and finding key.

Contents

Transcribed from the book's Contents pages, photographed below.

PART I

Chapter 1 — Introduction

Chapter 2 — Historical

Chapter 3 — General Information

PART II

Chapter 4 — Localised Overprints of Early Post-Independence Era-1947

Chapter 5 — Other Overprints of Early Post-Independence-1947

PART III

Chapter 6 — The Machine Printed Overprints-General

Chapter 7 — The Machine Printed Overprints on Ordinary Stamps

Chapter 8 — The Machine Printed Overprints on Service Stamps

PART IV

Chapter 9 — Handstamping-General

Chapter 10 — Handstamps on Ordinary Stamps

Chapter 11 — Handstamps on Service Stamps

PART V

Chapter 12 — Pakistan Postal Agencies in the Persian Gulf-General Information

Chapter 13 — The Postal Agencies and Their Overprints

PART VI

Chapter 14 — Typed Overprints on Service Stamps

Chapter 15 — Manuscript Overprints on Ordinary and Service Stamps

PART VII

Chapter 16 — Overprints on Postal Stationery - Background

Chapter 17 — Machine Overprinting on Ordinary Postal Stationery

Chapter 18 — Machine Overprinting on Service Postal Stationery

Chapter 19 — Handstamping on Ordinary Postal Stationery

Chapter 20 — Handstamping on Service Postal Stationery

PART VIII

Chapter 21 — "Pakistan" Overprints on Other Government Instruments

PART IX

Chapter 22 — Doubtful Overprints

Chapter 23 — Forgeries and Bogus Overprints

— The Identification Table

From the book itself

The opening leaves of the book, photographed for this introduction: the imprint page, the two Contents pages, and the first three pages of Chapter 1, in which the authors trace the line from Col. Martin's 1959 study to their own. Tap any page to enlarge it.

Ron Doubleday

Co-author · The Acknowledged British Expert

Ron Doubleday — Ron E. Doubleday — was for many years the acknowledged expert on the Pakistan overprints in Britain. As the Society's article on the local overprints records, a leading London dealer made certain that Doubleday saw every item of any significance that passed through the firm's stock, and his opinion was the one collectors and the trade sought before a rare overprint changed hands.

His authority rested on decades of close, first-hand study. The hundreds of expertising opinions he issued over the years survive as a unique archive — copies of them were preserved by his fellow specialist Jafar Siddiqui, who described the collection as probably the only one of its kind in existence for "PAKISTAN" on Indian stamps and postal stationery. Within the book itself, Doubleday carried particular responsibility for the postal stationery, drawing on the collections and photographs of specialists in Britain and America. It is fitting that the man the trade trusted to judge individual stamps should have set down, with Isani, the standard by which they are all judged.

Dr. Usman Ali Isani

Co-author · Philatelist, Educationist & Former Senior Civil Servant

Dr. Usman Ali Isani is one of Pakistan's leading philatelists, and his connection with this book reaches back to its very roots: as a young captain attached to the Ministry of Education, he was the driving force behind the 1974 Pakistan reprint of Col. Martin's pioneering work, expanding it with twenty-nine new types and more than four hundred and fifty additional values and varieties. Two decades later he joined Doubleday to carry the subject up to date in the present volume.

His philatelic standing matches his public career. He has won medals at world exhibitions for both his traditional and his literature exhibits — including a Large Vermeil at Washington 2006 for his 19th-century Afghanistan — is a former President of the Philatelic Federation of Pakistan, and has served as Pakistan's representative on the FIP Commission for Philatelic Literature. His other books include Stamps of Pakistan on the decimal currency surcharges (1981) and The Amirate of Bahawalpur: Postal History and Stamps 1932–1949 (2006). Outside philately he rose to the highest levels of Pakistan's civil service — Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Secretary of the Establishment Division and Chief Secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa among his posts — and later served as a university vice-chancellor. He remains Patron-in-Chief of the Pakistan Philatelic Circle, the Peshawar Stamp Society's own circle, for 2023–2026.