“H ow much is this one?” a customer points to a faded stamp with the face of a young Queen Victoria — the first edition of the stamp printed in India in 1854. “Rs. 10,000,” replies Markand Dave, a collector, researcher and representative of the Royal Philatelic Society London in India.
His stall — one among the over 40 that have been set up as part of the National Philatelic Exhibition, organised by the 60-year-old South India Philatelists’ Association (SIPA), at St. Bede’s School — also features stamps themed on Harry Potter (Kyrgyzstan), Superman (U.S.), Spider-Man (U.S.), James Bond (Turkmenistan), and even Pokemon Go (Central Africa).
“How much are these?” I ask, and a small coterie of serious collectors, searching for rare stamps of Edward VII, George V, and George VI, who ruled Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries, look up. Dave replies with a grin, “Rs. 100 each,” and soon feels virtuously obligated to tell me that they do not hold much value.
“These are like brand merchandise — similar to a Harry Potter keychain or cap,” explains Dave, who has done a 11-year study on the 1929 Airmail stamps of India. Instead he suggests, “We have stamps from the Indian Independence era, if you are interested.”
At the venue, 550 frames display stamps on cattle, cinema, birds, kayaking, snow bowling, gymnastics, and so on. Mahesh Parekh, a committee member of the 750-member-strong SIPA, adds to the overwhelming range: “Have you seen the Swiss stamp that looks like a chocolate bar and tastes like one? The football-themed stamp from Austria that is made of the same material as the ball? Or the lace stamps from Hungary, and that which plays the National Anthem of Bhutan?” A serious collector for the past eight years, and winner of the gold medal at the exhibition, Mahesh’s subject of research is “how stamps are made unfit for reuse; I call it ‘Early Indian Cancellations’. The way stamps were cancelled said a lot about the circle or zone (there were only three zones in the 1850s: Madras, Bombay and Calcutta) the posts were coming from. I have tracked the evolution of the technique of cancellation — from bars and strikes to those that include the town number and date of posting,” he says.
I walk past stamp auction houses, mounds of coins dating back to the period of Rajaraja Chola and postage stamps made of golden silk from Thailand, and halt at a stall where a customer scans a 2009 Sri Lankan note featuring the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
“It’s tough to find these now,” says Anjaneyulu, a stamp and currency dealer from Guntur and owner of the stall, who has been in the business for the past 50 years. “As a dealer, I know where to buy and where to sell,” he adds, with a sense of pride.
In the past, stamps released in other countries would take at least a couple of years to reach India. Dealers like Anjaneyulu would take orders from collectors here, and go to the respective countries to fetch them.
“Today, all international post offices release their catalogues online, and most of the sale happens on the web. Back then, we had to subscribe to newsletters and pen friendship magazines to stay updated,” he says.
The trick to start a collection is to buy stamps at face value when they are released. For example, in 2000, the Indian Post Office released just 50,000 stamps containing freedom fighter Raj Kumar Shukla’s portrait. It cost Rs. 3 each back then, and now it is Rs. 500 each.
Mitesh Mehta, who has been collecting stamps themed on cricketers since 1983, says the very rare ones (dating back to the Madras Presidency) could even be priced at a lakh rupees. At a recent auction by Mumbai-based auction house Todywalla, a full sheet of 1948 Gandhi stamps was sold for Rs. 15 lakh .
The older the stamps are, the better value they have in the market.
“Like the Red Scinde Dawk which was issued for the public for the first time in 1850s. I have that,” says G. Amarchand, vice-president of the South Indian Philatelists’ Association, and the only International Gold Medallist (2011) from Chennai. Red Scinde Dawk is only a seal. The British Government had authorised it then.
Later, they introduced the Blue Scinde Dawk, which is blue embossing on paper. It’s only after that that the first stamp featuring Queen Victoria was issued in 1854, he explains. “It was called a lithograph, and did not have any perforations. It was available for half, one, two, and four annas,” recalls the 75-year-old collector, who has shown his two collections — Indian Classics and Indian Postal History — at many international venues.
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From page 1
Spotted at the show: Stamp of music
In 2014, Guernsey Post released a set of stamps depicting the Channel Islands’ oldest musical instrument, the chifournie. Essentially the same as a modern-day hurdy-gurdy, the stringed instrument, which dates back to the 10th Century, had disappeared from Guernsey by the mid-19th Century. And it would have been entirely forgotten if not for the release. Now, distant melodies of the chifournie resonate throughout the world.
In fact, the instrument has become an integral part of N. Sridevi’s award-winning thematic stamp collection of musical instruments. The former administrative officer from Bangalore has over 800 framed stamps that comprise instruments young and old, string and skin, indigenous and foreign. Though her interest for philately started rather late, in 2013, she has managed to categorise them under various labels — string, wind, percussion; based on countries; the musicians who played them the best; the number of strings it has; the materials they’re made of and more. Name an instrument and she probably has a stamp for it.
While the chifournie is placed in one frame, its partner, the hurdy-gurdy is in another. One of Mongolia’s most important instruments, the morin khuur (or the horsehead fiddle) is also part of the collection. Some of the other, lesser-known representations include China’s huobosi, Iceland’s langspil, Japan’s erhu and sanshin, and various tribal and folk instruments from African nations such as Malawi. Popular string, wind and percussions seen in India, like the veena, sitar, nadaswaram, and tabla, take up a few frames as well. Another of Sridevi’s gems is the chowdike, a folk instrument seen among the Yellamma community of North Karnataka. Talking about why she took to philately, Sridevi says, “Around 45 years ago, I used to learn the veena, but had to give it up for various reasons. Since I never got a chance to complete my lessons then, I thought collecting stamps of musical instruments would be nice.”
ANANYA REVANNA
