First Day Cover with Miniature Sheet – Philately Day 12.10.2013

Philately Day was celebrated all over the country during a week's celebration of National Postal Week from 9 – 15 October 2013. 12th October. is being celebrated as Philately Day in all Post Offices of the country. On this day stamp exhibitions and workshops are organized. A miniature sheet with Mahatma Gandhi as its theme was released.

Philately Day 12.10.2012

INDIPEX 2011 - Mahatma Gandhi Khadi Stamp

To commemorate INDIPEX 2011,India Post has brought out two sets of stamps in 2010,one on Heritage post Offices and one on old pre independence era stamps of India States. A set of six stamps on six legendry actresses of Indian Cinema will also be issued during this exhibition. 

INDIPEX 2011, World Philatelic Exhibition 12.2.2011

India Post organized INDIPEX 2011, World Philatelic Exhibition at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 12^th to 18^th February, 2011.  The exhibition is being organized in collaboration with the Philatelic Congress of India under the auspices of the Federation Internationale de Philatelie and the Federation of Inter-Asian Philately.  India first held such an exhibition in 1954 and the last one in 1997.  This is the sixth time that such an exhibition is being held in India.  INDIPEX 2011 was inaugurated by  the President of India.

The aim of the exhibition is to promote philately and provide a forum for interaction between philatelic stakeholder’s viz. collectors, dealers, stamp designers and printers and postal administrations. The exhibition will showcase some of the best collection of stamps, stationary and philatelic literature from all over the world in different categories.  There are 595 collectors from 70 countries who will be participating in the exhibition apart from 28 philatelic dealers and 31 postal administrations.

INDIPEX 2011 marks the centenary of the world’s first airmail flight.  To commemorate the occasion, India Post will issue a set of stamps on 12^th February 2011.  The Indian Airforce will operate a special flight on 12^th February 2011 between Allahabad and Naini and carry First Day Covers with the commemorative stamps and a special postmark recording re-enactment of this historic flight.  These stamps and covers with the special postmark will be much sought after by collectors and will be available at the exhibition.

The Post Office - Philately Day 13.10.2008

The World Philatelic Exhibition - INDEPEX '97 (5th Issue) 15.12.1997

The World Philatelic Exhibition - INDEPEX '97 will be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 15th December to 22nd December, 1997. It is being organised by the Department of Posts, Government of India, in cooperation with the Philatelic Congress of India (PCI) under the patronage of Federation Internationale de Philatelic (FIP).

INDEPEX 97 (2nd Issue) - Centres of Culture & Tourism 6.6.1997

A series of stamps have been brought out to commemorate the event. The first such special postage stamp on the Indepex Logo was brought out on 5th October, 1996 in Istanbul and in India to herald the announcement of the prestigious exhibition.

Centenary of the Philatelic Society of India 27.3.1997

The World Philatelic Exhibition - INDEPEX '97 (1st Issue) 5.10.1996

The World Philatelic Exhibition - INDEPEX '97 will be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 15th December to 22nd December, 1997. It is being organised by the Department of Posts, Government of India, in cooperation with the Philatelic Congres of India (PCI) under the patronage of Federation Internationale de Philatelic (FIP).

The exhibition coincides with the Golden Jubilee of India's Independence and is a tribute, India Post, pays to the nation on this auspicious occasion. Hence, the Exhibition is named INDEPEX-97 - the first four letters 'INDE' stand for India, 'P' for Philately and 'EX' for Exhibition.

The logo of the Exhibition is a caparisoned elephant, a unique symbol of traditional ceremonial welcome in India. The elephant is considered auspicious, a loving and friendly creature in the Indian tradition. It signifies peace, prosperity and good will. The carpet on which the elephant stands has the semblance of a postage stamp. It symbolizes the journey of the stamp around the world as a country's little ambassador.

The objective in organizing Indepex '97 is to promote and disseminate information about Philately. Stamps, symbolising one's culture and tradition carry thematic messages to the people. The importance of Philately, therefore, as a medium of education is very significant. Different Postal Administrations and individual participants from India and the world will be displaying their wide range of precious collections in the exhibition. The exhibits will be displayed in over 3,500 frames. In addition, prestigious and invaluable exhibits will be displayed in the "Court of Honour Class".

Greetings Stamps 30.9.1991

Greetings Stamps for all occasions.

150th Anniversary of First Postage Stamp - Penny Black 6.5.1990

150th Anniversary of First Postage Stamp. The first adhesive postage stamp issued in Britain 150 years ago. It was a small, square piece of paper, black in colour and showing the Queen's head and postage of one penny. This stamp is popularly known as "Penny Black".

This stamp, which became a trend-setter, has an interesting background. In 1837, Sir Rowland Hill had published two pamphlets on Post Office Reforms and collection of postage by means of stamps. Though these pamphlets, he pleaded for the introduction of a uniform postage rate of one penny per half ounce weight regardless of the distance and prepayment of postage. In the context of payment of postage. Hill suggested the issue of 'small stamped labels". His idea of these lables was declared as "a bit of paper just large enough to bear a stamp". To obtain a suitable design for the adhesive stamp, the Treasury organised a competition. Even though 2600 entries were received, non was considered suitable for use. Ultimately, Hill decided to use the Queen's portrait in the size and format as shown on the Tax Tables. For the portrait he selected the design of the Queen's head as engraved on the commemorative City Medal of 1837 by William Wyon. Henry Corbould, a London artist, was commissioned to prepare the water colour based on Wyon's medal for the postage stamp. The design was printed in Black colour for the one penny stamps and in blue colour for the two pence stamps though the latter was not available till 8thMay, 1840.

The rest is History. And, so was born The King of Hobbies.

The stamp on the FDC depicts the Penny Black on a cover "cancelled as the first postage stamp." The First Day Cover reproduces an outline of the Mulready envelope.

India-89 World Philatelic Exhibition (4th Issue) 20.12.1988

India-89 World Philatelic Exhibition As a prelude to India-89, World Philatelic Exhibition, the Department of Posts has been issuing a series of stamps. This, the fourth set, carries two cancellations, one of the RMS and the other of the DLO.

The first stamp (60P) depicts one of the earliest hand stamps of the travelling post office in the 'Allahabad-Cawnpore' railway sector and this post mark was in use from December, 1864 to 1869. It was used by the travelling sorting offices between these two places. The first Travelling Post Office was established on 1st May, 1864 under a Suprintendent at Allahabad. The TPO operated on the 'Allahabad-Crownpore' and 'Calcutta-Delhi' railway sector. The circular post mark shown on the stamp has a diameter of 25 to 26 ms with "TRAVELLING" along the upper rim of the circumferrence and "POST OFFICE" along the lower rim, with No. 1 of the set, date and 'AC' in three horizontal lines in the space within the circle. This cancellation was used by the 1st set of the experimental TPO on 21st August, 1864.

The second stamp (Rs6.50) depicts the type of cancellation used by the Dead Letter Offices in 1886. The origin of Dead Letter Offices can be traced to the Act of 1837 which prescribed the treatment of undeleivered letters lying at any post office for longer than three months. Initially these were sent to the GPO of the Presidency and lists of such undeleivered letters and parcels were published in the official Gazette. They remained at the GPO for 18 months and, after a further period of 12 months, they were destroyed. The Dead Letter Offices were established somewhere in 1860s but it was only towards the end of the decade that actual marings were used on envelops and other postal material.

India-89 World Stamp Exhibition, Delhi in January 1989 (3rd Issue) - The special cancellation for World Post Day 9.10.1988

The 4.00 stamp depicts the Bangalore G.P.O. The 5.00 stamp shows the Bombay G.P.O. The first day cover carries an extract from the letter of the Court of Directors of the East India Company to the Council at Bombay dated 27th Aug., 1688. The special cancellation for World Post Day carries the logo of the Universal Postal Union.  

The present third set consisting of two stamps are on Postal buildings depicting Bombay G.P.O. and Bangalore G.P.O. as samples of early & the latest architecture herald India-89 World Stamp Exhibition, Delhi in January 1989.

The 5th India National Philatelic Exhibition (INPEX86) 14.2.1986

The 50p stamp shows the first stamp of Jaipur state showing the Sun Chariot against the background of Hawa Mahal. The 200p stamp shows a mobile Camel Post Office functioning in the Thar Desert. The First Day Cover depicts the popular "Ghoomar Dance".   

The 5th India National Philatelic Exhibition, 1986 was held at the City Palace, Jaipur from 14 Feb. 1986 to 19 Feb 1986 under the auspices of the Department of Posts in co-operation with the Philatelic Congress of India.  

Roosevelt with his stamp album 30.1.1983

The stamp shows Roosevelt with his stamp album.

It’s no secret that long before he held public office, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an avid stamp collector. What’s more surprising is how the man who would become America’s longest-serving president changed the nature of stamp collecting forever.

Roosevelt began collecting as an eight-year-old, when his mother introduced him to the hobby. Sara Delano Roosevelt had been a stamp collector as a child, her collection bolstered by her father’s frequent trips to the Far East.

“At the time, collecting was thought to be a child’s hobby,” says Anthony Musso, author of FDR and the Post Office, a historical account of Roosevelt’s devotion to stamps and the Post Office™ Department. “An adult would never waste his time collecting stamps.” FDR’s collection grew, and several years later, he received his mother’s collection, which was passed to him through the hands of her younger brother, Frederic.

Even then, Roosevelt used stamps as educational tools, putting one or two stamps on a single page of an album and annotating the rest of the page with notes about the history of the person or event depicted in the image. Historians point to this self-education as a key to Roosevelt’s political strength and success: It equipped him with expansive knowledge of geography and the international community.

Historians point to this self-education as a key to Roosevelt’s political strength and success.

What’s more, says Musso, “Roosevelt got great personal enjoyment and intellectual satisfaction from his stamps.” So great was the future president’s passion that in four separate personal letters, he credited stamp collecting with saving his life after his polio diagnosis in 1921, when Roosevelt was 39. “I owe my life to my hobbies — especially stamp collecting,” he famously said.

As Roosevelt’s political star rose, so did the hobby’s profile. “Roosevelt was so enthusiastic that he would chat with anyone about his collection, and naturally, if a hobby is good enough for the governor of New York, people figure it’s good enough for them,” Musso says. “He took stamp collecting to another level” — right into the White House.

Shortly after his inauguration in 1933, Roosevelt found out that his predecessor, Herbert Hoover, had been a collector, though less passionate than FDR. Hoover had established a routine with the Department of State that Roosevelt embraced: Whenever the department received communications from anywhere in the world, it would send the envelopes to the Oval Office so the President could have the stamps.

“Roosevelt once took the Secretary of State to task because he said the department’s employees weren’t sending over enough envelopes,” Musso says. If FDR didn’t need or want the stamps, he had his secretary collect them in packs and mail them to American children who wrote to the President. “He was like the Ambassador of Stamp Collecting.”

The Fourth India National Exhibition, INPEX-82 30.12.1982

The Fourth India National Exhibition, INPEX-82 was held in New Delhi from 30th December 1982 to 5th January 1983 by the P & T Department, in co-operation with the Philatelic Congress of India, is an ambitious venture. It is being held in the prestigious landmark of New Delhi, the Indraprastha Stadium, which ranks among the world's first three covered stadia. The response has been overwhelming. A total of 409 collectors will display their exhibits spread over 1500 frames, the largest ever put up in any national exhibition.

The 50 P. denomination stamp shows a vintage composite rail coach comprising Railway Mail Service Van in the middle with passenger sections on either side. An early steam engine of Indian Railway is shown in silhouette. 

The 200 P. denomination stamp, depicts the first India Postage stamp, the blue Half Anna 18564, Lithograph bearing Queen Victoria's effigy, and the 3,1/2 Anna stamp carrying India's national flag, one of the set of three stamps issued in 1947 to commemorate India's Independence. The first day cover, depicts a royal procession in Mughal Delhi. The first day special cancellation shows a sketch of Indraprastha Stadium, the venue of the exhibition.  

The Third India International Philatelic Exhibition (INDIA 80) 25.1.1980

The Third India International Philatelic Exhibition (INDIA 80) was held in ‘Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, from 25^th January 1980 to 3^rd February 1980.  The Posts and Telegraphs Department (now India Post) had issued a set of 10 Commemorating Special stamps on India International Stamp Exhibition (INDIA 80). The first two stamps in the series are INDIA-80 logo and the Centenary of Postcard issued on 2^nd July, 1979.  The next set of 4 stamps, Air Mail 1979 issued on 15-10-1979, shows carriage of mails by air depicts the De Havilland Puss Moth in flight, Chetak helicopter against a background of snow-capped peaks, mail being loaded into a Boeing–737 jet aircraft, Boeing–747 aircraft of the Air India cruising high above the mountains.  The next set of 4 stamps issued on 25th January, 1980, on Inaugural Day  of the Exhibition, which includes Army Postal Service, Money order, Copper Ticket and Sir Rowland Hill. First Day cover illustration of inaugural Day was Han-Driven Transfer Press, Type of Litho Press used forprinting of first Indian Postage Stamps in 1854 under the supervision of Henry Thuillier(Inset) then Deputy Surveyor General of India at Calcutta. First Booklet on stamps, pictorial post cards, and postal stationery are also released during the exhibition. One Army Postal Service cover and three different designs of Special covers issued the entire ten days of Exhibition.  Cover illustrations are Camel Post somewhere in Rajasthan desert, India used Abroad: A collage of stamps and cancellations, Mail Runner (Circa 1933) somewhere in the Himalayan Region. Each day was marked as a special Day with marking with special cancellations.

(30P) The stamp depicts a Field Post Office in tents with its flag. The cancellations featured in the design are of Meywar Field Force (1833), Field Post Office in Persia (1857) and Army Post Office (1979). The first day cover illustration is an artist’s impression of the hand-operated transfer press, the type of hand-operated transfer press, the type of litho-printing machine used for striking the first postage stamps in 1854 under the guidance of Captain later General Sir Henry L. Thuillier (inset). The design is based on photographs by courtesy of the Surveyor-General of India. The design of the First Day Cancellation depicts a line drawing of the Hall of Nations, the main venue of the exhibition along with the logo of INDIA-80.

(50P) The stamp features a part of the 1879 record (courtesy: National Archives of India) dealing with the transfer of the service from the Indian Finance & Commerce Department to the Post Office along with some Indian Coins used during the latter half of the last century.

(Re1.00) The stamp shows the obverse and the reverse of a copperticket of 1774 (courtesy: G.B. Pai).

(Rs2.00) The stamp depicts the house at No. 96. Blackwell Street, Kidderminster, where Rowland Hill (inset) was born.(courtesy: National Postal Museum, London).

Air Mail 15.10.1979

Speed is of essence in transmission of messages. In the past man had trained pigeons to carry messages speedily over inhospitable terrain and long distances. Today man has lofted sophisticated satellites in space to transmit messages ultra-sonically all over the world. Earth bound man broke his shackles in 1903 when the Wright Brothers made the first powered flight. The history was created on February 18, 1911 when Henri Piquret took off in a Humber biplan from the right bank of the Yamuna Allahabad, crossed over to the left bank and dropped a mail bag containing 6500 letters and postcards at the Naini Railway Station. This arrangement by the Indian Post & Telegraphs marked the very first instance in the world when mail was carried by air. After a short lived service run by the Government in 1921, the first regular airmail service started in India in 1929.

The State owned Indian State Air Service started operating an inland airmail service that year between Delhi and Karachi to connect the Imperial Airway’s Empire Airmail Service to England. From January 1932 Delhi Flying Club operated the service on this sector. On October 15, 1932 the first Indian aviator J.R.D. Tata flying a single-engined De Havilland Puss Moth, made the maiden via Ahmedabad, Bombay and Bellary. Shortly after Independence, on January 30, 1949 the Government of India launched the Night Airmail Service linking the metropolitan cities of Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and Madras through Nagpur in central India. The archetict of this scheme was late Shri Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, then India?s Minister of Communications. The Night Airmail Service on an average carried every month about 2,200 Kgs. Of mail with airmail surcharge. Less than three month later, late Shri Kidwai introduced the “All-Up Mail Scheme”under which all first class domestic mail is air-lifted without any surcharge.

Today India’s nationalized domestic air-carrier, INDIAN AIRLINES carries more than 1,200 tonnes of mail over its domestic network every month. India’s international flag carrier, the AIR INDIA carries the bulk of country’s foreign airmail. In peace and war INDIAN AIR FORCE have been ferrying mail for and from the forces. During the last three decades the pilots of the IAF transport fleet have made maiden flights into the uncharted regions of the Himalayas and the lesser ranges. Beginning with DC-3 Dakota aircraft in 1947, the Air force now used high-flying jets to fly the mail. Of late a new breed of intrepid helicopter pilots have taken over the hazardous task of carrying the mail to remote out-posts. Weaving intricate patterns through snow-capped peaks and narrow valleys they land at tiny helipads to deliver their eagerly awaited cargo.

Posts and Telegraphs Department honours all those who have been and are associates with carriage of mails by air by issuing a set of four stamps on AIRMAIL. This set is a part of the series of 10 special stamps commemorating the India International Stamp Exhibition (INDIA-80) to be held at New Delhi from January 25 to February 3, 1980. The first two stamps in the series, on INDIA-80 and the Centenary of Postcard, were issued on July 2, 1979. The remaining 4 stamps will issue on January 25, 1980.

Brief description of the stamps of the Airmail series are as given below:-

30p. stamp depicts the De Havilland Puss Moth in flight. This aircraft was flown by J.R.D. Tata on the maiden scheduled airmail service between Karachi and Madras on October 15, 1932.

50p. stamp shows CHETAK helicopter against a background of snow-capped peaks. This general purpose helicopter of Indian manufacture is extensively used by the Indian Air Force for carriage of mails in the forward areas.

100p. stamp depicts mail being loaded into a BOEING-737 jet aircraft of the Indian Airlines. The inroduction of this jet aircraft has helped in speeding up of mail transportation inside the country.

200p. stamp shows BOEING-747 aircraft of the AR INDIA cruising high above the mountains. Cruising at a height of 14,000 metres, the 747 jumbo-jet can fly at a speed of 580 Kms. per hour upto an operating range of 8,000 Kms.

Centenary of the Post Card 2.7.1979

The year 1980 would also mark another important phase in Indian Postal History. The post card service in India would be 100 years old.  

‘INDIA-80’, An International Stamp Exhibition at New Delhi from 25th January 1980 to 3rd February 1980 - 1st issue 2.7.1979

The year 1980 would mark a pinnacle in the history of postal service in India would be 100 years old. The year also marks the 125th anniversary of the first Indian postage stamp. As a fitting culmination to the celebrations connected with these epoch making events, the Indian P & T Department, in collaboration with the Philatelic Congress of India, will be hosting ‘INDIA-80’, An international Stamp Exhibition at New Delhi from 25th January 1980 to 3rd February 1980. This will be the first International Stamp Exhibition to be held in Asia under the patronage of the Federation Internationale de Phelatelie.

To herald the announcement of this prestigious Exhibition, the P & T Department brought out a commemorative stamp depicting the logo of INDIA-80 Exhibition. The logo depicts a lotus in bloom, which is the national flower of India. The Indian P & T Department extends a cordial welcome to the stamp lovers of the world to visit India and participate in INDIA-80.