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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
It certainly does seem possible that actual stamps used by these contractors might have ended up with some of these makers in Afghan regions, or may have been well duplicated.
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I had a thought a couple of weeks ago, regarding how that might have happened; namely, that when the Crown took over/absorbed the UEIC following the Mutiny, all EIC stamps, dies etc were pretty much obsolete as of that moment; the former EIC gun foundries, small-arms works, lock-makers et al now came under the auspices of the Crown, and would be stamped accordingly. I wonder if, once they were useless, any EIC stamps extant in British India at that point (and there might have been a few - I was under the impression the EIC did some gun-making in India) would be throw in the skip, or words to that effect. Perhaps, in such a scenario, a wandering Afghan comes to town, has a rummage, and thinks, "those'll look nice on my locks!"