Posts Tagged ‘first stamp’

In 1st July 1852 India became the first country in Asia and the 10th country in world to issue postage stamps, issued by the province of Scinde (a part of India under British rule), by Sir Bartle Frere, then the Governor of Scinde. The shape was circular, with SCINDE DISTRICT DAWK  around the rim, leading the common name Scinde Dawk.  This was intended to use Scinde province only. The colour of the first stamps were red, white and blue and the denomination was ½ anna. This was also among the first circular stamps of the world.

The history

Scinde was a province in Western India with an area of about 57000 square miles and a population of about 2,500,000. Since the 4th century, Scinde was under several rulers such as Alexander the Great, Chandragupta, Muhammad Khan, Akbar and Nadir Shah of Persia till the British came to on the scene in the 1830’s.
Sir Bartle Frere, son in law of John Arthur, the governor of Bombay, was assigned with task of bringing postal reforms to Scinde. The postal administration was directly under the control of Bombay Presidency. In 1850, there were four post offices in the provinces of scinde, – Sukkur, Shikarpur, Hyderabad and Karachi. The route between Karachi to Bombay had important stages ie. Thatha, Bhuj, Ahemedabad, each route was further divided into small stages ie. 7 to 8 miles apart. The mails from these places were carried to Bombay by runners called Kasids. The distance  was covered these runners handling over the dak to the next  runners  covering the entire  route by successive relays delivering  the mail to Bombay. in about nine days time. They were basically the local tribals.

The stamp & Design

Sir Bartle Frere with the help of Edward Coffey, the postmaster of Karachi, he designed the first postage, which ultimately came to known as the Scinde Dawk. The set comprised of three embossed stamps, round in shape, in white, red and blue.

The most easily detected fakes are not embossed on paper. Other crude fakes show a misalignment of the second letter ‘A’ of ANNA with the ‘K’ of DAWK; and in other fakes the ’1/2′ is not separated from the central heartshaped emblem.

The country every stamp collector wanted to begin was Great Britain, since it was the world’s first country to issue adhesive stamps. There are collectors all over the world who want at least one copy of the Penny Black simply because it is the world’s first stamp.

The Penny Black and Penny Post were the brain child of Sir Rowland Hill often called the father of modern post office. The introduction of Penny posts revolutionized the letter service making it possible to send a letter anywhere in Britain for a pre-paid postage. In 1837 Sir Rowland Hill, a school master, published a pamphlet entitled “Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability”. In this he claimed that the true cost of delivering a letter from London to Edinburgh was only about 1/36 of a Penny. If the post office charged one penny postage on every letter, more people would write letters and the post office would make more profit. Helped by wide spread public support Hill eventually persuaded the post office to adopt his plan.

Until Rowland Hill introduced his reform the postage on a letter was usually paid by the person who received it, not by the person who posted it .The postman had the task of collecting the postage when he delivered the mail. Hill proposed that letters be prepaid either in cash at the post office or by prepaid letter sheets and envelopes and almost as an afterthought “a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamps showing that tax had been paid and covered at the back with a glutinous wash which the bringer of the letter might by applying a little moisture attach to the back”.

There was initially much reluctance for such a proposal as postage rates were rather high. During the early part of the 19th century postal charges rose rapidly and by the year 1814 a letter cost four pence for a distance of seven miles. Over seven miles and under fifteen miles the charges were six pence. At that time a labourer’s wage was four pence a day. Further, members of parliament were entitled to free postage, which was much misused.

However as the public support for Rowland Hill’s suggestions grew, he was appointed to the Treasury on 16th September 1839 to begin work on postal changes. First reform was the introduction of uniform Penny Postage on 5th December 1839, which was reduced to one Penny on 9th January 1840.

The Treasury invited the public to submit suggestions for the design of the gummed labels which Hill proposed that the Post Office should issue at one Penny each.

More than 2600 suggestions were submitted but only 49 related to adhesive stamps. One suggestion from Benjamin Cheverton of Casinden Town answered the fears of Treasury officials that unscrupulous printer might may be able to forge the labels and so defraud the Post Office. Cheverton suggested that the labels should bear “a female head of great beauty” because a portrait would be more difficult for forgers to copy than any other design. Awards for innovative suggestions were made to Benjamin Cheverton, Henry Cole, Charles Whiting, James Bogardus and Francis Coffin.

It was Rowland Hill’s own suggestion which was developed into the finished design. It was the profile of Queen Victoria, based on a portrait made when she was an eighteen old princess. It was also used on a medal designed by William Wyon, which was struck for the occasion of Queen’s first official entrance into the city of London in 1837.

Perkins Bacon & Petch Co, London who had been given the contract to print the adhesive stamp, commissioned the artist Henry Corbould to make a number of profiles drawing of the young Queen based on the Wyon medal. Charles and Frederick Health, father and son, engraved the Queen’s portrait for the production of the plate which contained 240 impressions.

The Penny Black, the first ever adhesive postage stamp was issued on 1st May 1840 though it became valid for postage on 6th may 1840. A usage before this date is known. It was issued in sheets of 240 (rows of 12). It had a water mark of a small crown, and was black in colour. These stamps were not perforated and had to be cut and sold. The ink used for the printing consisted of lamp black in linseed oil. The gum was applied hot with brushes. Whose colour varied and in some sheets were almost colourless. Total plates used were eleven (Nos 1 to 11). About 72 Million stamps were issued and remained valid for usage till 1841.

Of the 72 million copies of Penny Black which were sold, only 16800 were from plate II, which comes to just 700 sheets. These are the rarest of the Penny Black. Over ten million copies were printed from plate la / 1b. Yet even a medium poor copy of a plate 1 stamp is expensive. Strips of Penny Black are scarce and blocks very scarce.

Hill’s stamp system was eventually adopted in some form by every country starting with Brazil in 1843. It revolutionized the postal system in the world. As a bonus it also kicked off the world’s most popular hobby philately.