Persia 1902 Meshed 'V.C.' Provisional 1 Kran

A postmaster runs out of stamps

Meshed, today usually written Mashhad, lies in northeastern Iran about 740 kilometers east of Tehran, near the present border with Turkmenistan. Its name refers to the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia imam, buried there in 818, and it has long been one of the great pilgrimage cities of the Islamic world.

Early in 1902 Persia's postal system was short of stamps. In Tehran, with the stock printed in the Netherlands used up and no money to order more, the post office had a local newspaper printer produce crude typeset stamps, validated with a control handstamp at the office of the director general of posts. Those typeset stamps served the whole country from early 1902 until late 1903, when new stamps arrived from the Netherlands.

In Meshed, the postmaster did not wait. Victor Castaigne, a Belgian-born official, printed provisional stamps on his own initiative. Each bore the inscription "POSTES PERSANES" and his initials, "V.C.," in an oval, as a control. One auction description of the set notes that the stamps were used for only ten weeks before the federal postal authorities in Tehran ended their use in May 1902.

Seven values, one signature

The issue comprises seven stamps: the 1, 2, 3 and 5 chahis in black, a 5 chahis in violet, a 12 chahis in blue and the 1 kran in rose-red. The kran was then worth 20 chahis, so the 1 kran was by far the highest value. The stamps are imperforate and unwatermarked.

The V.C. initials were applied in red on the lower values and in violet on the 1 kran, which is one of the quickest ways to tell the top value's genuine control mark. Unused copies are described as being without gum as issued, meaning the stamps never had gum on the back in the first place.

Varieties exist that point to hurried local production. A 1 chahi is known with the V.C. initials inverted in the center, an error one auction description calls enormously rare. A 12 chahis exists pin-perforated, and a 2 chahis is known printed on watermarked paper made in Austria.

Used examples on genuine mail survive. A registered cover sent from Meshed to England on April 12, 1902, franked with a 1 kran and a pair of 2 chahis stamps tied by Meshed postmarks with the date inverted, is illustrated in an introduction to Iranian philately.

The postmaster's second printing

What makes the issue treacherous is Castaigne himself. According to a study of Persian forgeries, he took the original plates to Europe after leaving Iran and had great numbers of stamps printed from them. Many of these later printings carry fake cancellations.

Outright forgeries also exist; the same study describes them as crude, with letters and crown that do not match the original. For the 1 kran in particular, it concludes that only certification can prove a stamp genuine. Complete sets offered at auction often turn out to be canceled to order with Meshed postmarks rather than used on mail, and one auction description notes such sets are typically valued at a third to a half of postally used ones.

As a result, serious buyers of the 1 kran look for a modern expert certificate. The copy that sold in February 2022 came with one issued in 2021.

Collectors and sales

The Meshed provisionals have drawn specialist collectors for generations. The Iranian-born collector Khosrow "Joe" Youssefi specialized in the 1902 Meshed issue before moving on to the classic Lion issues of Persia; his Persian collections won a gold medal at Chicagopex in 2015 and a posthumous gold at the world stamp exhibition in Bangkok in 2018. Part of his Meshed collection can be viewed online in a philatelic museum's digital galleries.

On February 1-2, 2022, an unused 1 kran with the violet V.C. initials, large margins all around and a hinge remnant, sold at auction for $9,500. Its description called it a great rarity, with only a few unused examples known.

Complete sets turn up less often than single stamps and do not always find buyers. A canceled-to-order set of seven, with the last two values signed by an expert and carrying 2015 certificates, was offered at auction in May 2022, September 2022 and February 2023 without selling.

Persia in 1902

The provisionals appeared under Mozaffar ad-Din Shah, who came to the throne on May 1, 1896, and borrowed heavily from Russia to pay for his journeys to Europe. In 1901 he granted the D'Arcy oil concession to a British subject. In August 1902, months after the Meshed stamps were withdrawn, he visited Britain, where King Edward VII at first refused him the Order of the Garter; he was given it in February 1903.

Within a few years the country changed sharply. In October 1906 the shah agreed to a national assembly and a constitution, and he died on January 8, 1907, about forty days later. The Meshed provisionals belong to the last years of the old order, when local officials could still improvise the mails.

The numbers

Issue

1902, Meshed (Mashhad), Persia; postmaster's provisional

Period of use

About ten weeks, ended May 1902

Value and color

1 kran (20 chahis), rose-red

Control initials

"V.C." in an oval at the center, violet on the 1 kran (red on the other six values)

Perforation

Imperforate (a pin-perforated 12 chahis is known)

Paper

No watermark (a 2 chahis exists on Austrian watermarked paper)

Gum

Issued without gum

Quantity

Not recorded in the sources consulted; only a few unused examples known

Timeline

1. May 1, 1896

   Mozaffar ad-Din Shah comes to the Persian throne.

2. 1902

   With stamp stocks exhausted, Tehran's post office issues typeset provisionals; in Meshed, postmaster Victor Castaigne prints his own V.C. provisionals.

3. Apr 12, 1902

   A registered cover from Meshed to England is franked with the 1 kran and a pair of 2 chahis.

4. May 1902

   Tehran's postal authorities end the use of the Meshed provisionals after about ten weeks.

5. After leaving Iran, Castaigne takes the original plates to Europe and has large numbers of stamps printed from them.

6. 1903

   New stamps arrive from the Netherlands, ending the Tehran typeset provisionals late in the year.

7. 2015

   Joe Youssefi, a specialist in the Meshed issue, wins a gold medal for his Persia collections at Chicagopex.

8. 2018

   Youssefi is awarded a posthumous gold medal for "Classic Persia" at the world stamp exhibition in Bangkok.

9. Feb 2022

   An unused 1 kran with violet initials and a 2021 certificate sells at auction for $9,500.

10. May 2022

    A canceled-to-order complete set is offered at auction and goes unsold, as it does again in September 2022 and February 2023.

The world in 1902

• Jan 30, 1902

  Britain and Japan sign the Anglo-Japanese Alliance.

• May 8, 1902

  Mount Pelee erupts on Martinique, destroying Saint-Pierre and killing more than 30,000.

• May 20, 1902

  Cuba gains independence from the United States.

• May 31, 1902

  The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the Second Boer War.

• Aug 1902

  Mozaffar ad-Din Shah visits Britain, where Edward VII at first refuses him the Order of the Garter.

• Aug 9, 1902

  Edward VII is crowned at Westminster Abbey.

• Sep 1, 1902

  Georges Melies's film A Trip to the Moon premieres in Paris.

• Nov 16, 1902

  A cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt sparing a bear cub inspires the first teddy bear.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Persia 1902 Meshed 'V.C.' Provisional 1 Kran is number 69 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (99 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The stamps carry the initials of the man who made them, postmaster Victor Castaigne.
• Tehran shut the issue down after only about ten weeks.
• Castaigne later took the printing plates to Europe and had large numbers of stamps printed from them, which is why a certificate is essential.
• On the genuine 1 kran the initials are violet; on the six lower values they are red.
• A 1 chahi exists with the V.C. initials upside down in the center.
• The city's name, Mashhad, means a place of martyrdom, a reference to the shrine of Imam Reza.