- Bill, thanks for the advice. Appreciated. I'm comfy with pdf, and use Cute pdf writer, which Acrobat reader seems to open just fine. So maybe that's the way I'll go ... Paul - Looks like you've bought one of those mixed, rather random, Burma collections on gridded album pages that seem to have been coming from India, or maybe Burma itself, over the last few years, ending up in auctions all over the UK and USA. image 1 - There's a lot of this used postal stationery about, thanks to the archiving habits of the Chettiar caste, South Indian moneylenders who were very active in British Burma, Malaya, etc. These are all chettiar letters, and the script is Tamil, rather than Burmese. Image 2 - The insurance revenues are fun. The lower postcard is an interloper, not used in Burma - postmarked in South India. Image 3 - the long stamps are modern court fee revenues, nice copies. Bad news on the imperf Occupation items, I'm afraid - mostly forged. Sorry. The 1C at top left and right (same stamp) look like a modern forgery, probably made in India, and quite often passed off as "proofs" etc. The set of three 1943 Independence on piece below are all forgeries, clipped from a "Japanese Special Service Post" fake cover, probably produced in Bombay - the cancel is the giveaway, as its a forgery of a Malacca (Malaya) cancel, which the forgers insisted on using for no apparent reason. However, the 2C green marginal pair at top centre is better news - these are from a postwar reprint sheet - original plate but with new numerals inserted. The 2C seems to be the most common imperf reprint. The reprints are not clearly mentioned by the catalogues - just hinted at in Gibbons. A similar 2C pair just finished on eBay and fetched $65 after 9 bids, but that was exceptional, and the result of bunch of starry-eyed newbies bidding in ignorance, despite an accompanying BPA cert that defined this pair as "of uncertain status", i.e. BPA-speak for reprint. $20 or less would be nearer the usual price. Hope that helps. Cheers, Richard W.
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