The East India Company set up the first post office in Bombay in the year 1688. Very soon, the Company went on to open up post offices in other major cities such as Calcutta and Madras to improve the official means of communication. More postal services were introduced by Lord Clive in 1766. It was in the year 1774, that these postal services were offered to common people of India by Warren Hastings, charging a fee of two Annas per 100 miles. On 31st March 1774, the East India Company established the Post Office Department at Calcutta. Similar departments were opened in Madras and Bombay in the year 1778 and 1792, respectively. During this period, services were handled by Zamindars and runners who delivered posts. The Post Office Act XVII was introduced in 1837 and the Governor-General of India in Council was given the responsibility to manage postage services in India. When certain officials started taking undue advantage of the free postage services, people started opposing and the Indian Post Office was established on 1st October 1837. After the introduction of prepaid postal services, the very first British India stamps called Scinde Dawk adhesive stamps were released on 1st July 1852 within Sindh district. These circular rare British India Stamps were embossed on paper or wax wafer. British East India Company’s logo was featured at the centre which was surrounded by the text "SCINDE DISTRICT DAWK". Different types of definitive stamps of British India were issued. The blue coloured stamps were printed using a die on paper while the red ones were embossed on wax wafer. All these old British India stamps bore the denomination 1/2 Anna. The production and circulation of these rare British India stamps came to a halt in October 1854.
British India stamps featuring a portrait of Queen Victoria were released for the first time in October 1854. They bore different denominations such as 1/2 Anna, 1 Anna, 2 Annas, and 4 Annas and were printed in Calcutta without perforation or gum. The green coloured 2 Annas definitive stamps of British India were manufactured using typography, while the remaining denominations were produced by lithography. The 4 Annas east India company stamp was the world's second multi-coloured stamp after the Basel Dove stamp which was released by the Swiss canton of Basel on 1st July 1845. Newly designed Queen Victoria stamps were introduced in 1855 and were used till 1858. Post office stamps issued from 1865 featured a watermark of an elephant’s head.
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