A Rare Treasure: Indian Stamp

Every year on October 1, National Postal Day is celebrated in India. This celebration is an extension of World Post Day.

India has a long and unique postal history and has delivered countless postage stamp of India. These have been created by an assortment of systems including line etching, typography, lithography, photogravure and web-counterbalance. Stamps in India have been created both for postage and for administration or income. Stamps have been delivered both as imperforated sheets, punctured, and smaller than usual sheets.

The history of stamps of India began with the introduction of paper postage in Sindh, India (now in Pakistan) in 1852. Sir Bartel Frere, the commissioner of the Sindh, introduced the stamps, and then known as 'ScindeDawk' in 1852 but the Indian stamps were withdrawn in October 1854, after the introduction of regular Indian postage stamps.

The old Indian stamps have a very big collection of rare Indian postage stamps such as: The Queen Victoria Collection from Gwalior Convention State during British India or the King George V collection from the Indian Expeditionary Force of British India.

Another such Indian rare stamps are the British India-Feudatory State time’s collection of Indore stamps. Indore was earlier known as AhiliyaNagri. The founder of the House of Holkar was MalharRao, born in 1694. In 1761, after the Panipat, MalharRao acquired territories stretching from the Deccan to the Ganges. In 1805, a peace treaty was concluded between the chief and the British.

From 1904-06, definitive type of vertical rectangle Indian stamp were issued. These rare Indian stamp were printed on the following theme; Devanagari and English inscription, Raja,Type 4, Overprinted with S1. These rare stamps of India were issued in the commemoration of Maharaja TukojiRao Holkar III, who ruled Indore from 1903 – 1926.

There were 8 stamps issued under this collection. They were of 1/4 anna (orange color), 1 anna (green color), 2 annas (brown color), 3 annas (violet color), and 4 annas (ultramarine color). The other three were different variants of the 1/2 anna.

All these stamps were printed at Recess Perkins, Bacon & Co. To find out more about the old Indian stamps visit the Mintage World.

Find Your Escape Through Stamps in India

It all started with one postal stamp of India. A hobby that went on to become my best friend! Well, I understand it’s really difficult to personify a hobby, but that’s what exactly happened with me. Nobody would ever imagine how relieving collecting stamps in India can be. When there is no much going on in the real world, who wouldn’t seek an escape? Far away from boring reality, the imagery depicted on stamps in India, slowly take life. I always have a dream to visit different beautiful locations of our country, experiencing traditions that define us as Indians. Being brought up in a middle-class family, you don’t get too many chances to travel that far. The only opportunity you have is during school vacations when parents might make a plan to visit and explore a new place. But then, that happens only once a year. By collecting stamps in India, you can actually get transported to a whole new world. 

As they say, it’s all in your head! The moment you decide to imagine, you can go wherever you wish to. Stamps in India cover various interesting topics and collecting them can actually enrich your knowledge. It’s at least better than other pastimes like whiling away time on the internet or social media websites.  The first thing you need to do when you find a postal stamp of India, is read about whatever is depicted on them. The best part of researching this ways is that there is no time constraint. You are not preparing for an exam or something. Relax, take your own sweet time and understand concepts for actually understanding them and not for clearing your exams. Apart from that, when I started indulging myself in collecting stamps in India, I started opening up, talking to random people who are into the hobby, making more genuine friends!