2017-01-20 Fri

A piece of paper when attached with the stamp can become a legal document or a bill to pay revenue. Postage stamp as we Know today was used to collect revenue in the princely state of British India.

Revenue stamps are closely related to the postage stamps but these revenue stamps are used to denote some sort of government fee. During crown’s rule, the post office of India entered into Postal Conventions with the few native state.

According to this agreement, the existing stamps and postal stationery of the British India were overprinted with the name of the state and used within this convention states. One such convention state was the princely state of Patiala of Phulkian state. This convention was signed in 1884 and later modified in 1900.

In 1872 a telegraph line was established in Ambala, Patiala by the British at the expense of the state. The maintenance was done by collecting revenue from telephone service overprint stamp. This overprint stamp of King Edward - VII is a good example of fee collection of a telegraph line.

To know more about revenue stampsClick here