2016-10-22 Sat

On 22nd October 1929 the first Airmail (Avion) definitive stamps were issued in India with the portrait of King George V.

Printed in the security stamp press in Nasik, it produced a series of stamps to use on letter mail to England. This series of stamps were designed by R.Grant and it was typographed on a watermarked single-star paper of sheets using the same plate used by De La Rue in England. .

These stamps central design depicts the image of De-Haviland Hercules biplane flying over a lake with the palm trees on the left side of the bank of a lake. These were in total five stamps with 2,4,6,8 and 12 Anna denomination. The two Anna value was added in Dec 1929 when the airline was extended to Delhi.

One of the fascinating facts about these stamps is that the 8 Anna stamps with red-violet colour have two errors the first is a common error in the stamp is the second palm tree without the top and second is a scarce variety of error were “India’s” second ‘I’ consist a serif in it. .

These stamps were available in many shades and these two defects were noted and corrected by the Nasik press authorities later on. In 1926, the security press was relocated to Nasik in India from England and till 1928 it was well established.

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