Old, new, rare postage stamps attract enthusiasts

Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 13

Several stamp lovers and collectors were delighted, as a horde of postage stamps — old, new and rare on different themes and subjects— were exhibited during the two-day Lumex Philately Exhibition which started at the Head Post Office here today.

The themes for postage stamps varied from animals such as birds, dogs, butterflies and elephants to gastronomy, unusual stamps, first-day covers, etc.

Several stamp collections were based on owls and cartoon characters. Various stamps, painstakingly collected and preserved by several philatelists, were on display.

Some of the themes on display were:

Princely States

Several envelopes and postage cards of the collection of the erstwhile princely states were exhibited. The collection belonged to Narinder Pal Singh. He said the British government had allowed the princely states to mark their postage on the envelopes. The envelopes of the postage stamps of princely states of Nabha, Patiala, Jind, and Bagrian were on display. The 1956 postage stamp of the princely state of Patiala was in Gurmukhi, whereas that of the Jind state in 1927 had ‘Khanda’ printed on it.

Braille:Several postage stamps in Braille were on display at the exhibition. Philatelist Mukesh Malhotra said several countries had brought out postage stamps to commemorate centenary year of Louis Braille’s birth. Most of the stamps and the information sheets were printed in 2007 in the Braille script. The postage stamps were also printed by Kolkata Blind School.

Astronomy: Several postage stamps related to astronomy, landmark achievements in the space technology, and astronauts were exhibited. The 1981 silver postage stamps, commemorating the launch of a space shuttle from the Kennedy Space Centre were on display.

Collections of postage stamps on royal families, including that of Queen Elizabeth and Lady Diana, were on display.

Unusual postage stamps: Several unusual postage stamps, including the ones with Swarovski crystals from Hungary, postage stamp to be viewed with 3D glasses, 1973- audio-video record stamp CD’s from Bhutan, metal stamps, ones to be viewed in the UV light, perfumed floral stamps, were a part of the collection of Akash Shori, a student.

Award-winning collection:Mukesh Malhotra, a member of the Philatelic Congress of India, representing the Northern constituency (Punjab, Haryana, J&K and HP), exhibited his daughter Muskan’s work. She had won a bronze medal in a philately exhibition held in Taipai. He said the collection had postage stamps having information about elephants, including their habitat, eating habits, species, etc.

Postcard advertisement decades-old tradition in India

Though the concept and terms of the direct marketing came up in 1960s, Indian merchants had been using postcards as an advertisement tool since the period of British rule. Britishers had started the concept of advertisement through postcards, which allowed people to endorse their businesses to reach out to the prospective customers. Several such postcards of the pre-Independence era were exhibited during the Lupex Philately Exhibition. Narinder 

Pal Singh, who has been collecting such postcards, said merchants used these post cards to advertise their products and services - a 1941 postcard carried advertisement of Bangalore-based Gota merchants and a 1935 postcard had an advertisement of an opium merchant, Nand Kishore of Ajmer. The postage stamp on the card used was of King George V. However, the post-card advertisement was introduced by the Indian government post Independence. Post cards named 'Meghdoot' were introduced to shore up the revenue of the postal department. 

Even now, post cards are one of the cheapest ways to advertise -they cost only 25 paise. Manpreet Singh, collector of these post cards, said one of the first such post card used for the promotion of Rajnikant's film Baba 

in 2002. Post cards are used for advertisement purposes across India. He said the PAU had also used them for advertisement purposes. — TNS 

Business tycoon Raj Oswal's ever-growing passion 

For Raj Paul Oswal, Chairman of Oswal Spinning and Weaving Mills, passion for postage collection began around 40 years ago and grew over time. At 83, he still collects and proudly exhibits his rich stamp collections. He has been collecting rare and different kinds of stamps from different parts of the world during his business trips and also gets them especially imported. Not only has he been collecting postage stamps on gastronomy from around the world, but some of the postage stamps such as chocolate postage stamps (made of real chocolate), cheese stamps and more have been well-preserved for the past 30 years. These stamps need to be kept in refrigerator to prevent them from melting and getting spoilt. Several other postage stamps from Belgium, Switzerland, and other countries printed with chocolate were also exhibited. He has a special collection of postage stamps which are embroidered. These include postage stamps from Sierra Leone, Switzerland, Grenada and other countries.— TNS

Museum reopened 

Philately Museum here was reopened on Monday, after being closed for several years. Ludhiana Philatelic Club members were exhilarated at the re-opening of the museum. They had been holding meeting every month at the museum, despite the fact that the building was in a dilapidated shape due to lack of maintenance. The museum would open on weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm daily now, exhibitors said. Members of the club said they would ensure that schoolchildren visit the museum and acquire interest in philately.