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1 Shilling Postal Order (India Overprint)
| Issuer | British Post Office |
|---|---|
| Year | 1934 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Left vignette bears a circular medallion with a right-facing portrait of King George V in uniform, inscribed POSTAL ORDER and ONE PENNY poundage. Central text reads BRITISH POSTAL ORDER / To the Postmaster General / ONE SHILLING within a guilloche band. INDIA overprint applied in red at upper left. Dated manuscript 5 March 1934 with issuing office circular stamp at right. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
British postal orders with Indian overprints occupy an odd corner of notaphily — they are neither banknotes nor stamps, yet they circulated as remittance instruments across India's postal network when locally printed stocks ran short or administrative convenience demanded it. The base order was printed in London for domestic British use; the India overprint was applied to redirect its validity to the subcontinent's postal system.
The 1934 date places this squarely in a period of heavy internal remittance traffic driven by migrant labor moving between Indian provinces. Postal orders were often the only practical mechanism for transferring small sums across long distances for working-class senders with no bank access.
The watermark is the sole security element — no serial numbering varies between examples, which made counterfeiting a persistent low-level problem throughout the series.