Queen Victoria First Perforates

After using the locally designed and printed lithographs for more than a year, India finally got the properly perforated stamps from England in November 1855. Designed by De La Rue & Co., all stamps were perforated 14 and of the size 22 1/2 mm x 18 3/4 mm, made intentionally smaller than the British counterparts.

All designs were engraved on steel to create dies. They all had uniform designs, with the Queen’s head in an oval frame within a square outer frame of the stamp. A single master die was created for the head while the rest of the design was created separately for different values.

The printing was done by typography on bluish paper. A sheet contained 4 panes, each pane having 80 stamps (10×8), a total of 320 stamps on a sheet. The horizontal margins were watermarked as “GOVERNMENT OF INDIA” at the top and “EAST INDIA POSTAGE” at the bottom and in between panes. Some earlier sheets had the inscription “Printed by Thomas De La Rue & Co., London”.

The stamps were printed in two denominations – 4 annas and 8 annas. The 4 anna stamp was black printed on bluish paper and the 8 annas were of carmine colour printed again on bluish paper.