The Scinde Dawks stamps were first issued on 1st July 1852 and were
suppressed on 30th September 1854 and the remainder were ordered to be
destroyed in October 1854. In spite of several thousand stamps being used,
during the period 1852-1854 they have become very scarce - the red rarely
comes across uncracked, being on a brittle wafer, and the unused white and
blue specimen are rarely used.
Postal reforms of Sind were announced on 15th October 1851 and the stamp
was issued on 1st July 1852. Providing necessary time for correspondence
with Bombay, hardly six months' time was left to get stamps printed from
England. The evidence suggests that the embossing device, if not
manufactured indigenously might have been brought from England from M/s De
La & Co, but the stamps were embossed in India only.
The red Scinde Dawks only appear with a diamond of 64 dots and that
implies that it had been used at one post office only - probably Karachi.
From a very close study of the designs of the stamps it is apparent
that white and red are of one design and the blue of some other. As M/s De
La Rue made their own die they differ from the white in thicker lettering
and the outer ring. This belief is strengthened by the fact that the Post
Master of Sind confirmed through his letter dated 25th September 1852 to Sir
Frere about the receipt of some 10000 stamps from England and subsequent
references of having ordered fresh supplies from England. So, it appears
that white and red wee indigenous while blue was from England.
Disclaimer
Extracted from "The Silver Key to The Golden Treasure of Indian
Philately" by Manik Jain and S.B. Kothari.
Formatted and edited for content by webmaster.
All images are from the book except the color images which are taken from
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