| Scinde Dawk | |
|---|---|
 1852 redsealing wafer Scinde Dawk stamp | |
| Country of production | Sindh |
| Location of production | Die produced by De La Rue,London |
| Date of production | 1852 (1852) |
| Nature of rarity | Very rare |
| No. in existence | Less than 100 |
| Face value | one-halfanna |
Scinde Dawk (Sindhi:سندي ڊاڪ) was apostal system of runners that served theIndus Valley ofSindh, an area of present-dayPakistan. The term also refers to the first adhesivepostage stamps inAsia,[1] theforerunners of the adhesive stamps used throughoutIndia,Burma, theStraits Settlements and other areas controlled by theBritish East India Company.[2] The name derives from the words "Scinde", the British spelling of the name of the province of Sindh, and "Dawk", the anglicised spelling of theHindustani word "Dak" or Post.
The Dawk, or Dak, was a very old[when?] postal system of runners. The runners were paid according to their distance of travel and the weight of their letters. This was a local Indus Valley system, inefficient and inadequate for the military and commercial needs of theBritish East India Company after their conquest of Sindh in February, 1843, following theBattle of Miani.
Sir Bartle Frere of the East India Company became the Chief Commissioner of Sindh in 1850.[3] Following the English example set byRowland Hill, Frere improved upon the postal system of Sindh by introducing a cheap and uniform rate for postage, independent of distance travelled. In 1851 the runners were replaced with an efficient system using horses and camels, following routes through Scinde province, generally along the valley of theIndus River. The mail was carried quickly and efficiently, connecting government offices and post offices fromKarachi throughKotri andHyderabad up toSukkur in the north.
Stamps were required for theprepayment of postage, a basic feature of the new system. These stamps, first issued on 1 July 1852,[4] bore theMerchants' Mark of the British East India Company[5] in a designembossed on wafers of redsealing wax impressed on paper. Because they cracked and disintegrated, they were soon replaced by acolourless design embossed on white paper which was hard to see in a dim light. The last stamps were a blue embossing on white paper.[6] All of these had a value of only one-halfanna each, but today they rank among the rare classics ofphilately.[7]
Forgeries of these rare stamps are plentiful. The most easily detected fakes are not embossed on paper. Other crude fakes show a misalignment of the second letter 'A' of ANNA with the 'K' of DAWK; and in other fakes the '1/2' is not separated from the central heartshaped emblem.
After the Scinde Dawk, Colonel Forbes of theCalcutta Mint came up with an essay for a postage stamp depicting a lion andpalm tree. This, and several other essays, were never printed because Forbes could not ensure an adequate supply with the limited machinery at hand.[8] Soon after, new,lithographed stamps printed by the Survey Office appeared in several denominations valid for use throughoutBritish India as part of sweeping postal reforms.[9]
The British East India Company's posts are important, because the "Great Company" held sway over so much of the world's commerce in those days, extending across Asia andEast Africa. It had its own armies, coinage, and postal service; constructed railways and public works; and acted like an imperial force long before theEmpire was established.
