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Stamps a prized possession, not just a hobby

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Enthusiasts call it a time machine. Hobbyists covet it. And investors hoard it. The humble stamp today is a prized possession. And the maiden stamp auction, Stamp World 2014, held over the weekend, which was organised by the Philatelic Society of Delhi proved that stamps today have gone beyond being just hobby materials to to serious art collectibles.

“Some look at stamps today as commercial investment; some who like to hoard, while some simply want to collect stamps as enthusiasts do,” says Rajesh Mittal, president of the Philatelic Society of Delhi. Formed last year by a group of serious hobbyists, the society aims to preserve the heritage of stamp-collecting and its furtherance as a serious hobby.

Held at Laxmi Nagar, the auction had about 512 stamps by 50 collectors covering 200 years of stamps and postal stationery, of those issued between 1816 and the 20th century.

“India was the first country in Asia to have a postal system, and in 1851 after Sind was annexed to British India, the first stamps, the famous ½ anna Schinde Dawks, were introduced. There were embossed wax stamps and hence, very brittle. There are three different types of Shinde Dawks -- white, red and blue, and were withdrawn in September 1852, and hence, are very rare and difficult to find,” said Kaizad F Todywala of the Mumbai-based Todywala Auction House. Estimates for the Dawks ranged from Rs 1.25 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.

India was the first country to introduce the mail flight, from Allahabad to Naini in 1911, a distance of 5 miles, carrying 6500 letters, and 40 autographed picture post cards of the pilot bearing the special postal cancellation in magenta ink. Some of these picture postcards, estimated to fetch Rs 3 lakh were part of the auction. Unbelievable as it might sound, India was also the first country to experiment with rocketmail in 1935 and a number of examples from this experimental postal system called Rocketgram are also on offer in the auction.

Apart from that, there were rare stamps from the first set of service stamps issued by the Nashik Governor General C Rajgopalchari, as only eleven covers of ½ anna stamps, five covers of 3 ½ anna stamps and three covers of 12 annas covers exist today. Estimates for these were upwards Rs 10 lakh. There was a 1825 pre-stamp cover of a rare oval dispatch Changernagore stamp of  in French India, estimated to sell for more than Rs 2 lakh. And a few 1977 stamps where ‘India Flowers’ was printed instead of ‘India’, which were estimated to sell for Rs 2 lakh.

The total estimate for the auction stood at Rs 2 crore, which featured a panel discussion by Markand Dave, India representative at the Royal Philatelic Society of London.

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