Scinde Dawk

Sir Bartle Frere, the commissioner of Sindh in 1850, was entrusted with bringing postal reforms to his province. With the help of Mr Edward Lees Coffey, the postmaster of Karachi post office, he issued the first postal stamps of the Indian subcontinent on July 1st, 1852, known as the Scinde Dawk.

The design was done by De La Rue & Company Ltd, England and were prepared probably locally, using the embossing method. The Red dawks were prepared first, individually embossed on round vermilion wafers. However, they turned out to be very brittle; hence, white and blue dawks were later issued on sheets of paper and cut as needed. The white dawk was embossed on white to bluish woven paper while the blue was on white and grey paper.

The dawks had a design that was the merchant’s mark of the East India Company. It consisted of a heart divided into three segments, each with E, I, and C (East India Company) in the centre. Above the heart was a ‘4’ with the perpendicular line lengthened to form one of the partitions of the heart. This ‘4’ came from an early Christian symbol that represented a cross. At the bottom was written 1/2 anna, separate from the central design. The entire design was enclosed in a circular belt forming a border. The belt carried the inscription SCINDE DISTRICT DAWK. The belt was further enclosed in two outer rings.

The Scinde Dawks had a brief stint. As soon as the blue dawks were issued, new stamps arrived from Calcutta and the dawks were withdrawn on 30th September 1854. Unused stocks were destroyed.