East India Company Period Postal Cover, 1872, Victoria Queen ½ Anna stamps (2), Dated 6.10.72 (1872), postmark/cancellation of “SEEKUR|OC:6” and “N.W.P.” (North West Provinces; Cooper Type 13), tied with Half Anna Stamp of Victoria Queen, Addressed as per sender to MSS “CALCUTTA BANADR JA CHHA” in Modia script, sent from Seekur (Sikar), “Not Found” written in Latin by the post office. Black ink postmark that reads “JEYPORE | 00 28| 72” is seen. Red ink postmark “CALCUTTA | 6 NOV 72 | REMAINING” in oval shape is seen, cover sent to “DEAD LETTER OFFICE | 26 No. 72 | BENGAL”, it is seen in the hexagonal diamond shaped Green ink postmark and this dead letter office was unable to trace the address. A postmark in hexagonal diamond-shaped Red ink “DEAD LETTER OFFICE | 4DE. 72 | G.P.O.” is seen on the front of the cover. A postmark in a rectangular shape in Red ink “FORWARDED” is seen with an unidentifiable postmark in Red ink in a circular shape that is illegible to read, Unrecorded seals, Exceedingly Rare.

Note: This cover was sent from Seekur (Sikar) in Rajputana of Rajasthan state via Jeypore (Jaipur), the address of the receiver of this cover is in Mudia/Modia script and the postman was probably unaware of this script, as a result, it was undeciphered and unreadable by the postman, later it was endorsed as “Not Found” by the post office.

The sorting department of the post office had put a Red ink Postmark of “CALCUTTA | 6 | NOV| 72 (1872) | REMAINING” in sans serif letters. Then in due course, this cover was sent to the Dead Letter Office and a Postmark in Hexagonal diamond shape in Olive Green ink that reads “DEAD LETTER OFFICE | 26 No. 72 | BENGAL” in serif letters was applied on it. After all the attempts of finding this address were tried and this post office was also unable to trace the address, then it was sent back to the dispatching post office by putting yet another hexagonal diamond shaped Postmark in Red ink that reads as “DEAD LETTER OFFICE | 4DE. 72 | G.P.O. A black colour postmark of JEYPORE|00.28| 72 is also applied which is visible beside the handwritten manuscript 88 and Calcutta/कलकत् in both Latin and Devanagari script respectively.

The “CALCUTTA | 6| NOV| 72 | REMAINING” postmark is unrecorded, all the postmarks on this cover are extremely difficult to appear on a single cover and are missing from various advance collections.

The “FORWARDED” seal was used to impress on the letters which were redirected. The known type so far is in elliptical form (BC Type 90). The marking on the instant cover is within a rectangle. Therefore, the marking is recorded for the very first time.

Cancellation in Black ink N.W.P. – NORTH WEST PROVINCES in Duplex. Due to several post offices taken over from District Post and circle, Rajputana circles were formed again by transfers from N.W.P. in 1871-1872, and a new obliterator Type 13 was assigned. Each part of the duplex has two concentric circles, the inner one being hatched by fine lines. The left duplex gives the office name and date particulars and the right one has ‘N.W.P.’ and office number. The post office recorded here “SEEKUR” is unrecorded so far. Cooper mentions that this cancellation was used only for a short period between 1872 and 1873 only.

Modia/Mudia or Mahajani was a script that was mostly used in Rajputana/Rajasthan state along with some parts of Gujarat and Punjab. It was mostly used by the merchant and trading community. It is similar to the Devanagari script but without spacing between the texts, this script does not have Vowel Diacritic/मात्रा/Matra, thus it is very difficult to decipher or understand the script properly.

This cover is a worthy collectible that could be included in a Grand Prix Collection of the relevant category.

An extremely important piece of history in Indian Postal History!