Page 152 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

BAHRAIN BAHRAIN

2 RUPEES 2 RUPEES

The Type I surcharge. The Type II raised “2” surcharge.

were issued. The second and third types may have been stop-gaps
necessitated by the delay in appearance of the Q.E.II definitive high
values. Type I was a typeset overprint with clear, sharp letters. Type
II appears to have been a plate overprint with letters giving the
appearance of heavy worn type, but the main difference lies in the
raised position of “2” in relation to “RUPEES” (in Type I it is level
with “RUPEES”). The earliest date of use of Type II is “4 MY 53”,
and the print order was probably less than 500 sheets; normal require­
ments of this value were about 15,000 stamps a year.
The Type III overprint has the same appearance as Type II but
differs in that the distance between “BAHRAIN” and “2 RUPEES” is
15%— 16&nm. compared with 15mm. on Types I and II. It has been
possible to establish that Types II and III represent separate printings
by examination of a complete sheet of Type II, and a bottom half sheet
(used) of Type III; but the fact that less than half a dozen mint copies
of Type III have yet been found implies that this must have been a very
small printing, the whole of which was sent to Bahrain and none being
held for philatelic sales from the G.P.O., in London. The earliest date
of use of Type III is “29 MR 55” which was only six months before
the Q.E.II definitive replaced it. It is almost certainly type-set, as a
single copy in the sheet (Row 2/1) has the T in BAHRAIN set inverted
so that the whole letter is high in relation to ‘A’ and ‘N’. On this
particular stamp, the ‘U’ in ‘RUPEES’ is also raised in relation to the
other letters.

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