Page 110 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

On April 1st. 1923, the unoverprinted Indian stamps were replaced
by the same contemporary series (Single Star Wmk.) overprinted
KUWAIT (Via. - RslO) or KUWAIT SERVICE (Via. - Rsl5). The latter
were not Indian Service stamps with a Kuwait overprint (the Kuwait
Service set includes 1 Via., 2Via. and 3a., values which were not issued in
India with SERVICE overprint). Unoverprinted Indian Postal Stationery
continued in use.
There were six overprintings of all the values in the Ordinary set
and five overprintings of the Service set: in each case the first printing
was not numbered but the subsequent printings were identified by a
number in black below the bottom left-hand corner stamp in the sheet.
In 1924 the 3a. orange-brown was replaced by the 3a. ultramarine with
the same overprint.

The overprinting on the 1 Via. (Ordinary) was done on the Type A
(1VSA: One and a half Anna) stamps, it no doubt being considered a
good opportunity to get rid of the stock which had been replaced in
India with the correctly inscribed Type B (U/iAs: One and a half Annas)
stamps in 1921. Nevertheless, even though the sixth - and final - over­
printing is known to have been done on Type A stamps, the Type B
stamps exist with genuine KUWAIT overprints and are known used on at
least two commercial covers. It seems possible that a small number of
sheets of the Type B may have been inadvertently included in one of the
overprintings. The KUWAIT SERVICE overprint was done only on the
Type A stamps.

There are a number of interesting varieties of overprint in this issue.
Both lAa. and la. (Ordinary) exist with double overprint; and the same
values are known with the KUWAIT SERVICE overprint double (one
albino). They also exist (Ordinary) overprint omitted in pair with normal.
These stamps were overprinted in sheets of 256 (four panes, each 16x4)
and the varieties arose from an upward shift of the overprinting plate
whereby the lower row was without overprint and an overprint fell on
the gutter margin above the pane; on the upper three rows in the pane
the overprint falls higher than on the normal stamps.
With the exception of the 2!4a., all values from tea. to 3a. including
both types of \lAa. and both colours of 3a., exist with inverted overprints.
The Type B with inverted overprint is also known with inverted water­
mark. These inverted overprints are undoubtedly genuine; but it is

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