2017-04-20 Thu

Education is the root for various developments in human history; in the age of new renaissance, the educational sector was opened to common folks and the trend of exchanging messages started among people. This led to several problems like money and irregular services. Sir Rowland Hill proposed the idea of a Postal System to the British Government which led in printing postage stamps. After England, many other commonwealths like Sri Lanka also started the Postal services.

The first postal stamp of Sri Lanka or ‘Ceylon’ as it was called during the British Raj was issued on 1st April 1857. The stamps with a face value of six pence featured a portrait of Queen Victoria with different colour combinations of brown, green, blue, etc. These stamps were used to send letters from Ceylon to England. Five more stamps were issued later on in the same year.

Subsequently, stamps were issued with the portrait of King Edward VII, King George V and VI. In 1872 the denominations of the price of these stamps changed from Pence and Shilling to Cent and Rupee.

To celebrate the 160th anniversary of the first postal stamp the Sri Lankan post had issued a miniature sheet in 2017 with a cancellation of 1st April 1857.

Here are a few interesting facts about these stamps :
• The stamp with dark pink colour was known as ‘Dull Rose’.
• Sri Lanka’s stamp depicts three languages Sinhala, Tamil, and English.