The Convention States
The convention states all used contemporaneous stamps of British India, overprinted with the name of the state, in Latin letters or Hindi/Urdu letters or both, depending on state and period. The convention states were:
- Chamba
- Faridkot (a convention state from 1887)
- Gwalior
- Jind (a convention state from 1885)
- Nabha
- Patiala
Postal union by a state was considered as a sign of greater fealty to the British Empire. Both Faridkot and Jind, as feudatory states, issued their own stamps before they joined the Postal Convention. Faridkot joined on 1 January 1887. Jind joined in July 1885; its stamps from the feudatory period became invalid for postage, but they continued to be used for revenue purposes. The stamps of the convention states all became invalid on 1 January 1951 when they were replaced by the stamps of the Republic of India, valid from 1 January 1950.
The stamps of convention states are rich in varieties and errors. Typical errors include inverted overprinting, spelling mistakes in English or Devanagri, errors of omission and smaller capital letters.
The practice of overprinting was referred to as "surcharging" though in most cases the monetary value of the postage stamp was never altered.
Read more about this topic: Postage Stamps And Postal History Of The Indian States
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