Asia’s first postage stamp: Red Scinde Dawk
On 1st of July, 1852, the undivided India became the first Asian country to issue a postal stamp.
Although Indian Postal Office was established in 1837, and postal system existed from 13th century, the postal stamps were not issued until after Sir Bartle Frere from East India Company was appointed as the chief commissioner of Sindh province.
Bartle Frere, along with Edward Less Coffey, the postmaster of Karachi, issued the first stamp for India, now famously known as the Scinde Dawk.
Image credit: https://www.dawn.com/news/1672156/history-a-brief-history-of-the-subcontinents-mail
Design Details
This red, circular stamp was made with sealing wax wafer on a backing paper.
The stamp has a heart embossed in the middle and the initials E I C (East India Company) in the three segments of the heart design. The sign of 4 on top of the heart is + and P. These are Cristian signs, with the P depicting the Chi-Rho symbol (first letters of the name of Christ in Greek).
The stamp was for 1/2 ANNA - shown below the heart symbol.
SCINDE DISTRICT DAWK are inscribed at the perimeter of the stamp. The perimeter of the stamp resembles a belt, with the belt buckle at the bottom.
These stamps were too fragile, hence they were upgraded to thicker ones in white and blue colour, followed by one in deep blue colour, until they were discontinued on 30th of September, 1854.
The Scinde Dawk stamps were limited for usage within Sindh Province. They were replaced by Queen Victoria postal stamps, which were issued for nationwide use.
The First Stamps of Independent India were issued on 21 November 1947.
Price and Rarity
Less than 100 Scinde Dawk stamps are known to have survived to the present day, making these stamps very rare.
The Scinde Dawk is estimated to fetch INR 5,000,000 and a few blue Scinde Dawk were auctioned for INR 450,000.
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