page_title: Postage stamps and postal history of India
section_title: The Scinde District Dawk
hierarchical_section_title: Postage stamps and postal history of India / Postal history of India / The Scinde District Dawk
caption_attribution_description: English: 1/2 (half anna) Scinde District Dawk, or Sindh Post, embossed red sealing wax wafer stamp Русский: «Красный Синд» — первая почтовая марка Азии
context_page_description: This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of India.
  Indian postal systems for efficient military and governmental communications had developed long before the arrival of Europeans. When the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Danish and British displaced The Marathas who had already defeated the Mughals, their postal systems existed alongside those of many somewhat independent states. The British East India Company gradually displaced other powers and brought into existence a British administrative system over most of India, with a need to establish and maintain both official and commercial mail systems.
  Although the Indian Post Office was established in 1837, Asia's first adhesive stamp, the Scinde Dawk, was introduced in 1852 by Sir Bartle Frere, the British East India Company's administrator of the province of Sind. The Indian postal system developed into an extensive, dependable and robust network providing connectivity to almost all parts of India, Burma, the Straits Settlements and other areas controlled by the British East India Company.
context_section_description: The use of the Scinde Dawk adhesive stamps to signify the prepayment of postage began on 1 July 1852 in the Scinde/Sindh district, as part of a comprehensive reform of the district's postal system. A year earlier Sir Bartle Frere had replaced the postal runners with a network of horses and camels, improving communications in the Indus river valley to serve the military and commercial needs of the British East India Company.
  The new stamps were embossed individually onto paper or a wax wafer. The shape was circular, with "SCINDE DISTRICT DAWK" around the rim and the British East India Company's Merchant's Mark as the central emblem. The paper was either white or greyish white. The blue stamp was printed onto the paper by the die during the embossing, while the wax version was embossed on a red sealing wax wafer on paper; but all had the same value of 1/2 anna. They were used until October 1854, and then officially suppressed. These are quite scarce today, with valuations from US$700 to $10,000 for postally used examples. The unused red stamp was previously valued at £65,000.00 by Stanley Gibbons (basis 2006); however, it now appears that no unused examples have survived.
caption: 1852 red sealing wafer Scinde Dawk, Asia's first adhesive stamp.
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