Philately & It's Origins

Introduction

The story of philately is one that goes back to about the year 1841 when the first stamp collectors in the world began to emerge.

The Spanish Royal Academy defines philately (which comes from the Greek words Philos, meaning friend, and Ateleia, meaning deliverance) as the "Art dealing with the knowledge of stamps. and principally with postage stamps".

This first postal stamp – the Penny Black – featured a portrait of Queen Victoria . It got its name from the fact that it cost one penny and was printed in black ink. The first association of stamp collectors was founded in 1856 in the United States . It was called the “Omnibus club”. Its members, however, were encouraged to collect not only stamps – but also a wide variety of objects – including bugs!

The first “stamps-only society” was founded in 1866 in the United States and called itself “The Stamp Association”. As people began to collect stamps, these little squares of paper began to have another, secondary use apart from getting the letters across in the post. They began to have an additional value to collectors. Thus, was born the concept of the hobby called Philately!

With time, certain old stamps, or stamps with errors or misprints, and stamps with very limited copies in print, began to command great prices among collectors. These came to be known as rare stamps – for which people were ready to pay large sums of money!

Naturally, if a lot of people want a stamp that is in short supply, the value of the stamp will increase! The world’s rarest stamp is the British Guiana One Cent Black on Magenta issued in 1856. It is the most expensive stamp in the world – simply because there is supposed to be only one copy in existence!

Ironically, the oldest stamps -- the Penny Blacks -- are not uncommon in the collections of philatelists. They cost about rupees 20,000 today. By contrast, the Scinde Dawk (the red stamp in the series) may exchange hands at prices as high as Rupees 2,00,000 (US $ 5,000).

Indian Stamps

History of Indian Post

Indian post being one of the oldest when just over one hundred and fifty years ago, the Post Office in the Province of Sindh, (then in British India), made postal history in Asia! India became the first country in the continent to issue postage stamps!

The first adhesive stamps of India issued on 1st July 1852 came to be known as “Scinde Dawks”, as they were issued in the Province of Sindh . “Scinde” was how the British spelt the province of Sindh and “Dawk” is the anglicized spelling of the Hindustani word “Dak” or Post. And so, to this day, India ’s first stamps are referred to simply as The Scinde Dawks!

A year earlier Sir Bartle Frere had replaced the postal runners with a network of horses and camels, improving communications in the Indus river valley to serve the military and commercial needs of the British East India Company.

One hundred and fifty years after the postal services came to the Asian continent, the India postal system with 1,55,618 post offices and over 5,66,000 employees working in unison, is considered the largest postal network in the world. India’s postal system was initially based on the model that the British left behind. But, the British model was designed essentially to transmit administrative orders. The Indian system broadened the vision of the postal system to reach the entire population of the country. This includes such varied terrain as the arid deserts of Rajasthan and Kutch to the icy reaches of Ladakh and the North-east.

The Indian postal system also boasts of postal code area “172114” in Sikkim, which – at 15,500 feet (more than 4700 meters approx.) – is the highest post office in the world!