Page 251 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

Four of the five sheets were also unusual in that, in addition to the
usual Cylinder Number (1 A) below No. 99 (Row 10/9), there was a
“ghost” 1A in the lower margin between Nos. 94 and 95, apparently
wrongly positioned on the printing plate and incompletely erased. One
of these four sheets, apart from the error on Row 7/8, also showed faint
signs of a second overprint and surcharge 214mm. to the right.
There is also one major variety: an “extra bar” on the lD/RslO.
This was a piece of printers’ spacing bar which worked up above “D”
in “Dinar” and took the ink constantly on Row 7/3 (illustrated). It
measures 1 Zi—2mm. in length and even the shorter examples show the
outline of the right end of the “bar”. Only thirteen copies (from a
possible 60) have so far been traced, four of them being used and
nine mint.

r

Sals

Extra bar above D

Three different formes were made up to suit the various designs
and sheet sizes and it is possible to “plate” Nos. 1 and 3.
No. 1 (10 x 10) for 5f„ 15f., 20f. and 30f.
No. 2 (10 x 10) for 40f., 50f. and 75f.
No. 3 (5 x 10) for 100f., 200f., 500f and ID. (for the ID.
three additional bars were inserted to obliterate the
old value).
The three overprint formes each exhibit characteristic varieties
as described below:-
Forme No. 1. The top bar on Rl/1 and the second bar down on
R2/1 are short and “clubbed” at the left end on the 5f., 15f. and 20f.;
and on the same values the bottom bar on Rl/2 is nicked underneath at
the centre and is cracked to the left of the nick. These easily-seen
varieties do not appear on sheets of the 30f. (neither the normal sheet

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