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Portuguese India
1st October 1871
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| Early Portuguese India |
Images of early Portuguese India are difficult to find and impossible to identify accurately from a scan.
The stamps shown above are included as reprentative of the design.
Printed at The Mint, Lisbon.
| Description | Scott# | SG# | Mi# | Y&T# | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Die I: large numerals, "REIS" in thin Roman capitals, side decoration of 4 dashes. Thin, transparent, brittle paper, perf 13-18 & compound |
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| 10 reis black | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 20r dark carmine | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 20r orange vermilion | 2a | |||||
| 40r prussian blue | 3 | 3 | 3 | |||
| 100r yellow green | 4 | 4 | 4 | |||
| 200r ocher yellow | 5 | 5 | 5 | |||
There are several sets of these stamps during 1871 to 1877 using different dies and recut dies, with varying values, colours, paper and perforations plus surcharges and reprints. There is no simple or useful way to summarise these, much less to co-ordinate across the catalogues.
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Keytype |
| 1877 Sc56 SG57 |
Portugal had a presence in India from 1505 until Indian forces retook the final area of Goa on the west coast of the mainland in 1961. The early issues, from 1871 until 1877 (Sc1-55, SG1-56, YT1-40) were handstamps from single dies. These were replaced in 1877 by the familiar Portuguese colony keytypes. Scott [1] notes that Portugal "continued to print special-issue stamps for its lost colony after its annexation [on] December 18th 1961. Stamps of India were first used on December 29th. Stamps of Portuguese India remained valid until January 5th 1962."