Page 160 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

The last British Agency cancellers (Type 40) with Numbers 2, 3,
4 and 5 were registered on December 5th, 1961. The No. 2 and No. 5
cancellers of this type were used in the office of the British Postal
Superintendent and arc occasionally found on “Value Only” stamps
(G.B. Q.B.II surcharged with value only). Where the date of the
cancellation is between December 1961 and March 30th, 1963, it
can generally be accepted that the stamps had franked mail from Das
Island, a part of Abu Dhabi territory, particularly in the case of pieces
bearing “Value Only” Rupee stamps and especially in conjunction
with a British type Registration label inscribed “BAHRAIN P S”.
This is, however, not always the case as the British Postal Superintend­
ent often used “Value Only”, instead of Bahrain stamps on his own
registered correspondence! The use of “Value Only” stamps in
Bahrain and elsewhere will be dealt with in greater detail in a later
section.

NOT from Das Island!

The last British Agency issue appeared on February 22nd, 1964,
and portrayed the new ruler Shaikh Issa bin Suleman al-Khalifa on the
seven low values, and the Air Terminal at Muharraq and the new deep
water port Mina Suleman on the Rupee values. This was the first
occasion on which Bahrain provided an official first day cover bearing
the State badge and with a cachet based on the “envelope” type of
first day of issue cancellation then in use in Great Britain.

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