Chettys and Chettiars are
financiers from South Indian. They are of the Vaishya (Vaishia) caste.
Those
of the Chetty caste are from Chittor in Madras State. They
are hereditary financiers involved with banking, insurance
and commercial
underwriting.
Chettiars
are from the Ramnad district in Madras State. They are
hereditary moneylenders involved mainly with loans of any
size. Their doctrine
prohibits them refusing anyone however the interest rate
they charge is adjusted according to the risk.
The
Chetty use a unique naming system of initial. From left to
right these represent the name of their great grandfather,
the grandfather and
their father. The last one or two initial on the right,
sometimes a double initial, are those of their village of
origin. All of these
initials place before their own name. [C01, page 156]
Recently
large quantities of 20th century covers addressed to Chetty,
mainly in Southern India, have flooded the market. Up until
October 2006, I had
not seen one of these chops applied to the stamps. Most of
the time the stamps are used on the back of the cover to
seal the flap.
WARNING: Someone
has fallen to the temptation of applying fake markings to a
number of these covers.
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C001
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M. N. KR. / PENANG.
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Triple Oval ( Estimated 38 mm x 22
mm, 2 mm serif letters ) black
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updated: 12 Feb.
2009
Cover posted on 19
JA 91
Click the image to
see the cover.
Image from the
author's collection
- The Tamil writing says "M. N.
KR."
- This was the chop of M. N. K.
R. SITHAMBARUM CHETTY of PENANG
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C002
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From / M. N. K. R. SITHAMBARUM
CHETTY, / PENANG,
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Unframed three lines (48 mm x 12
mm, 2.5 mm letters) blue
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updated: 12 Feb.
2009
Cover posted on
14th May 1890
Click the image to
see the cover.
Image
from the author's collection
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C003
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N. L. ST. N. / PENANG.
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Toothed triple oval (42 mm x 25
mm, 2.5 mm serif letters) violet
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updated: 28 Nov.
2006
Click the image to see the front and back of the
cover.
Cover posted at
PENANG 31 Aug. 1892
Images from the
author's collection
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C004
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RM. AR. AR. RM. / PENANG.
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Toothed triple oval (40 mm x 25
mm, 2.5 mm letters) violet
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updated: 28 Nov.
2006
Click the images to see the front
and back of the document.
Both documents
dated 1912
Images from the
author's collection
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C005
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RM. N. / PENANG.
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Triple Oval (39 mm x 25 mm, 2 mm
letters) violet
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updated: 28 Nov.
2006
Click the image to see the front and
back of the document.
Documents dated 1927
The embossed seal from the same
document is virtually a copy of the chop.
Images from the
author's collection
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C006
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A. M. / SINGAPORE
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Toothed triple oval (43 mm x 25
mm, 2.5 mm letters) violet
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updated: 28 Nov.
2006
Click the image to see the front and
back of the document.
Documents dated 1927
Image from the author's collection
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C007 |
K. M. / KALANG
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Toothed triple oval (32mm x 22 mm,
2 mm serif letters) violet
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updated: 26 March
2008
Click the image to view the
document.
The document is dated 10 / 4 /
1905 on the reverse
Image from the author's collection
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C008
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KUALALUMPUR / KR. PR. PL.
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Toothed triple oval (40 mm x 25
mm, 1.75 mm letters) black
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updated: 26 March
2008
Click the image to view the
document.
The document is dated 1928.
Image from the author's collection
- In the lower frame of the document
appears: KR. PR. PL. Kadappa Chetty.
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C009 |
O. RM. M. S. P. S. V. / PENANG
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Toothed triple oval (40 mm x 25
mm, 1.75 mm letters) black
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updated: 13 Feb.
2009
Click the image to view the
document.
The document is dated 1909.
Images from the author's
collection
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