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Scinde Dawk was a very old postal system
Mail

Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects, wherein written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages, are delivered to destinations around the world....
 of runners that served the Indus Valley of Sindh
Sindh

Sindh is one of the four Subdivisions of Pakistan of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. Different cultural and ethnic groups also reside in Sindh including Urdu-speaking Muslim refugees who migrated to Pakistan from India upon independence as well as the people migrated from other provinces after independence....
, an area of present-day Pakistan
Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
. The term also refers to the first postage stamp
Postage stamp

A postage stamp is adhesive paper evidence of a fee paid for Mail services. Usually a small rectangle attached to an envelope, the stamp signifies the person sending it has fully or partly paid for delivery....
s in Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, the forerunners
Forerunner (stamp)

In philately, a forerunner is a postage stamp used during the time period before a region or territory issues stamps of its own. Typically these will be stamps of the country administering a colony, but in some circumstances stamps of a previous regime have been pressed into service....
 of the adhesive stamps used throughout India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, Burma, the Straits Settlements
Straits Settlements

The Straits Settlements were a collection of territories of the British East India Company in Southeast Asia, which were given collective administration in 1826 as a crown colony, as distinct from the native princely states, some of which later formed the Federated Malay States....
 and other areas controlled by the British East India Company
British East India Company

The East India Company was an early England joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the Indies, but that ended up trading with the Indian subcontinent and China....
. The name derives from the words “Scinde”, the British spelling of the name of the province of Sindh, and “Dawk”, the anglicised spelling of the Hindustani
Hindustani language

Hindustani , also known as "Hindi-Urdu," is a term covering several closely related dialects in Pakistan and northern India, especially the vernacular form of the two national languages, Standard Hindi and Urdu language, also known as Khariboli, but also several nonstandard dialects of the Hindi languages....
 word “Dak” or Post.

Dawk, or Dak, was a very old postal system of runners.






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Scinde Dawk was a very old postal system
Mail

Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects, wherein written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages, are delivered to destinations around the world....
 of runners that served the Indus Valley of Sindh
Sindh

Sindh is one of the four Subdivisions of Pakistan of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. Different cultural and ethnic groups also reside in Sindh including Urdu-speaking Muslim refugees who migrated to Pakistan from India upon independence as well as the people migrated from other provinces after independence....
, an area of present-day Pakistan
Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
. The term also refers to the first postage stamp
Postage stamp

A postage stamp is adhesive paper evidence of a fee paid for Mail services. Usually a small rectangle attached to an envelope, the stamp signifies the person sending it has fully or partly paid for delivery....
s in Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, the forerunners
Forerunner (stamp)

In philately, a forerunner is a postage stamp used during the time period before a region or territory issues stamps of its own. Typically these will be stamps of the country administering a colony, but in some circumstances stamps of a previous regime have been pressed into service....
 of the adhesive stamps used throughout India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, Burma, the Straits Settlements
Straits Settlements

The Straits Settlements were a collection of territories of the British East India Company in Southeast Asia, which were given collective administration in 1826 as a crown colony, as distinct from the native princely states, some of which later formed the Federated Malay States....
 and other areas controlled by the British East India Company
British East India Company

The East India Company was an early England joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the Indies, but that ended up trading with the Indian subcontinent and China....
. The name derives from the words “Scinde”, the British spelling of the name of the province of Sindh, and “Dawk”, the anglicised spelling of the Hindustani
Hindustani language

Hindustani , also known as "Hindi-Urdu," is a term covering several closely related dialects in Pakistan and northern India, especially the vernacular form of the two national languages, Standard Hindi and Urdu language, also known as Khariboli, but also several nonstandard dialects of the Hindi languages....
 word “Dak” or Post.

Origins

The Dawk, or Dak, was a very old 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 the British East India Company
British East India Company

The East India Company was an early England joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the Indies, but that ended up trading with the Indian subcontinent and China....
 after their conquest of Sindh.

Reform of the postal system

Sir Bartle Frere
Henry Bartle Frere

Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, 1st Baronet, Order of the Bath, Order of the Star of India, was a British colonial administrator....
 of the East India Company became the Chief Commissioner of Sindh in 1850. Following the English example set by Rowland Hill
Rowland Hill (postal reformer)

Sir Rowland Hill Order of the Bath Fellow of the Royal Society was a United Kingdom teacher and reform movement. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post, and later served as a government postal official....
, 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 the Indus river
Indus River

File:Indian subcontinent CIA.pngThe Indus River is the longest river in Pakistan and the twenty-first largest river in the world, in terms of annual flow, on the Indian Subcontinent....
. The mail was carried quickly and efficiently, connecting government offices and post offices from Karachi
Karachi

is the largest city, seaport and the International financial centre of Pakistan. It is List of metropolitan areas by population in terms of metropolitan population, and is Pakistan's premier centre of banking, industry, and trade....
 through Kotri
Kotri

Kotri , a large town, is the headquarters station of the Kotri Taluka, or administrative district. It is situated on the right bank of the Indus River and since 1900 has been connected with Gudu Bander on the other side of the river by an iron bridge replacing the steam ferry which used to ply between these two places....
 and Hyderabad up to Shikkur in the north.

The stamps

Stamps were required for the prepayment of postage,
Rowland Hill (postal reformer)

Sir Rowland Hill Order of the Bath Fellow of the Royal Society was a United Kingdom teacher and reform movement. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post, and later served as a government postal official....
 a basic feature of the new system. These stamps bore the Merchants' Mark of the British East India Company in a design embossed
Embossing

Embossing is the process of creating a three-dimensional image or design in paper and other ductile materials. It is typically accomplished with a combination of heat and pressure on the paper....
 on wafers of red sealing wax
Sealing wax

Sealing wax is a material which, after melting, quickly hardens forming a bond that cannot be separated without noticeable tampering. Wax is used to verify something such as a document is unopened, to verify the sender's identity, for example with a Seal , and as decoration....
 impressed on paper. Because they cracked and disintegrated, they were soon replaced by a colourless
Color

Color or colour is the visual perception property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others....
 design embossed on white paper which was hard to see in a dim light. The last stamps were a blue embossing on white paper. All of these had a value of only one-half anna
Indian anna

An Anna was a currency unit formerly used in India, equal to 1/16 rupee. It was subdivided into 4 paisa or 12 Pie . The term belonged to the Muslim monetary system....
 each, but today they rank among the rare classics of philately
Philately

Philately is the study of revenue stamp and postage stamp stamps. This includes the design, production and uses of stamps after they are authorized for issue, usually by government officials such as Postal Authorities....
.

Forgeries

Forgeries
Philatelic fakes and forgeries

In general philatelic fakes and forgeries refers to labels that look like postage stamps but aren't. Most have been produced to deceive or defraud....
 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.

Later Developments


After the Scinde Dawk, Colonel Forbes of Calcutta Mint came up with an essay for a postage stamp depicting a lion
Lion

The lion is a member of the family Felidae and one of four big cats in the genus Panthera. With exceptionally large males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger....
 and palm tree
Arecaceae

Palm or Palmae or Panamea , the palm family, is a family of flowering plants belonging to the Monocotyledon order, Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known Genus with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropics, subtropics, and warm temperate climates....
. This, and several other essays, were never printed because Forbes could not ensure an adequate supply with the limited machinery at hand. Soon after, new, lithographed
Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface. By contrast, in intaglio a plate is engraving, etching or mezzotint to make cavities to contain the printing ink, and in woodblock printing and letterpress ink is applied to the raised surfaces of letters or images....
 stamps printed by the Survey Office appeared in several denominations valid for use throughout British India
British Raj

British Raj primarily refers to the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule....
 as part of sweeping postal reforms.

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 and East Africa
East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN subregion, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
. It had its own armies, coinage and postal service
Mail

Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects, wherein written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages, are delivered to destinations around the world....
; constructed railways and public works; and acted like an imperial force long before the Empire
British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, and other Dependent territory ruled or administered by the United Kingdom , that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries....
 was established.

Literature

  • Robson Lowe
    Robson Lowe

    'John Harry Robson Lowe' , 'Robbie' to his friends, was a professional Philately, stamp dealer and stamp auctioneer. He is regarded by philatelists as the father of postal history, having published many definitive works on the subject and having introduced the term in his first major book Handstruck Postage Stamps of the Empire 1680-1900'...
    , Encyclopaedia of British Empire Postage Stamps, v.III, 1951: The Sind District Dawk, pp. 149-152.
  • H.D.S. Haverbeck, "The Sind District Dawk," The Collectors Club Philatelist v. 44 no. 2 (March, 1965) pp. 79-85.
  • Mohini Lal Mazumdar, The Imperial Post Offices of British India. Calcutta, Phila Publications, 1990.
  • B. B. Misra, "Postal Communications in India, 1773-1834," reprinted from The Central Administration of the East India Company 1773-1834, pp. 415-449. Robson Lowe, Manchester University Press, 1939.


See also

  • List of notable postage stamps
  • Postage stamps and postal history of India
    Postage stamps and postal history of India

    This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of India.The Postage systems in India existed in various forms from before the Christian era....