The most comprehensive catalogue of "Pakistan" overprints
on British Indian stamps & stationery
— by M. Arif Balgamwala.
First Edition: May 2000. Period covered: 1947–1949. Extent: 161 pages + index.
Embedded Files
Introduction
Introduction
When Pakistan came into being in August 1947, the new country had a postal system to run from its very first day — but no stamps of its own yet printed and ready. The practical answer, used in offices across the country, was to take the existing stocks of British Indian stamps and postal stationery and overprint them with the single word that announced the new state: "PAKISTAN."
That short, urgent expedient created one of the richest and most complicated fields in Pakistan philately. Some overprints were applied centrally — the machine prints associated with the Nasik printing — while a great many others were applied locally, town by town and office by office, as handstamps. Still others survive as typewritten and even manuscript overprints, made where no formal device was at hand. Sizes, settings, inks and positions vary, forgeries and favour items exist, and telling a genuine local provisional from a later imitation has challenged collectors ever since.
"The most comprehensive catalogue of 'Pakistan' Overprints on British Indian Stamps & Stationery." — the book's own description on its cover
It is exactly that maze that M. Arif Balgamwala set out to organise. "Pakistan" Overprints 1947–1949 gathers the whole provisional period into one systematic catalogue: ordinary stamps and service stamps; ordinary, airmail and service postal stationery; the pre-Nasik issues, the machine prints, the handstamps, and the typed and manuscript rarities; stamps used abroad; revenues and other related material; and new discoveries recorded up to publication. Colour plates of the adhesives, a historical background with maps, and an index of overprints arranged by size make the book as useful at the desk as it is on the exhibition frame.
For members of the Peshawar Stamp Society — and for any collector of early Pakistan — this remains an essential reference. The local handstamps in particular are the postal history of individual towns in the first months of independence, and this catalogue is where many of them were first listed together, compared, and measured. The Society is pleased to introduce it here for readers who may know the overprints only from album pages and auction lots, and who will find, in these 161 pages, the structure behind them.
Contents
Contents
INTRODUCTION
Important Details about the catalogue — 6
Historical Background & Maps — 10
Colour Plates of Adhesives —
I — ORDINARY STAMPS — 16–56
A · Pre-Nasik Period — 16
B · Machine Overprints — 18
C · Handstamps — 29
D · Typewritten Overprints — 54
E · Manuscript Overprints — 55
F · Used Abroad — 56
II — SERVICE STAMPS — 58–95
A · Pre-Nasik Period — 58
B · Machine Prints — 59
C · Handstamps — 68
D · Typed Overprints — 89
E · Manuscript Overprints — 95
III — POSTAL STATIONERY — 97–139
A · Pre-Nasik Period — 97
B · Ordinary Postcards (Machine Prints) — 98
C · Ordinary Postcards (Handstamps) — 106
D · Inland Envelopes (Machine Prints) — 119
E · Inland Envelopes (Handstamps) — 123
F · Registered Envelopes (Machine Prints) — 138
G · Registered Envelopes (Handstamps) — 139
IV — AIRMAIL POSTAL STATIONERY — 142–151
A · Airmail Postcards (Machine Prints) — 142
B · Airmail Postcards (Handstamps) — 143
C · Aerogrammes (Machine Prints) — 145
D · Aerogrammes (Handstamps) — 148
E · Airmail Envelopes (Machine Prints) — 150
F · Airmail Envelopes (Handstamps) — 151
V — SERVICE POSTAL STATIONERY — 152–153
A · Service Postcards (Machine Prints) — 152
B · Service Postcards (Handstamps) — 153
VI–VII — DISCOVERIES, REVENUES & INDEX — 156–161
VI-A · New Discoveries — 156
VI-B · Revenues & Others — 156
VII · Index of Overprints (By Sizes) — 161
About the Author
About the Author
M. Arif Balgamwala is the compiler of "Pakistan" Overprints 1947–1949, the catalogue introduced on this page. Rather than limit himself to the familiar Nasik machine prints, he set out to record the entire provisional overprint field — ordinary and service adhesives, postal and airmail stationery, and the local handstamped, typewritten and manuscript issues that most general catalogues list only in part, if at all.
The result, published as a First Edition in May 2000, is organised for working collectors: historical background and maps up front, colour plates of the adhesives, sections arranged by how each overprint was produced, and a closing index of overprints by size — a practical key for identifying the loose stamps that turn up in accumulations and dealers' boxes. In preparing it he drew on the knowledge and material of fellow philatelists, whom he thanks by name on the Acknowledgements page.
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