Page 147 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

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\X. The ‘T’ guide mark (Row 2/7)

On April 26th, the G.B. Silver Wedding stamps were released
& with similar overprint and surcharge. Much of the sale of the Rsl5/£i
(21,984) must have been philatelic, for the definitive RslO of July
1949 only sold 16,460 copies in two years of commercial
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The next issue, the Olympic Games set, appeared on July 29th.
The “Crown Flaw” on the 3d. (Cylinder 1, No Stop — See the ‘Value
Only’ Surcharges) does not occur as the Bahrain overprints v.
on this
value were all on sheets from Cylinder 1 (stop); nor does the
1 “HLP” variety occur on the 6d. (Cylinder 9, Stop — See details
“Kuwait”) as the Bahrain overprints were all under
on Cylinder 9 (no stop)
sheets. The “Indian Lake” variety on the 2lM. U.P.U.
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The U.P.U. set was issued on October 10th, 1949; and the 21/2a.,
surcharged on 2Vid. G.B. sheets from Cylinder 2 (No Stop) shows an
extensive flaw, resembling a lake, near the centre of India on Row 8/2.
Although this flaw was later retouched on the basic G.B. stamp, none
of the Gulf overprints has been found on stamps in the retouched state.
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This “Indian Lake” should not be confused with a similar variety found
on Row 14/1 of sheets from Cylinder 3 (stop) which is only known
Double surcharge on the 1948 Olympic Games 2M.
on the basic G.B. issue.
However, the 214a./2^d. produced a major error: most of a
sheet of 120 was found in Muharraq Post Office with double surcharge. /
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The surcharge is normally placed at the lower left; but on this sheet
18 MR
an additional surcharge appeared at the upper left comer, sloping
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slightly up left and down right. As a consequence of this slope, the
second overprint on stamps in the* lower half of the sheet abuts on to
the adjoining stamps. A small number of stamps from this sheet had
been sold before the error was discovered, and at least two blocks of
four from the lower half were cancelled to order “EXPERIMENTAL Type 24 Type 25
P.O. K—121” (Type 13) on October 23rd, one of them having sub-

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