Category: India
India’s Struggle for Freedom Series
Different sources on the Internet provide varied information about this series on India’s Struggle for Freedom. One source talks about the series starting in 1983 with the ambition of issuing 4-6 stamps each year until 1997, marking the 50th year of India’s Independence.
The Philacent India catalog lists seven series from 1983 to 1989 with 44 stamps as India’s Struggle for Freedom series, with similar design of tricolor on the edges commemorating a freedom fighter personality. Post 1989, there have been a few stamps with tricolor being used in the stamp sometimes on the edge, sometimes in another way, but none like the design of tricolor on both edges. Also the catalog doesn’t list the other issues as part of the Struggle for Freedom series.
The official India Post website run by the Department of Posts (Ministry of Communication, Govt. of India) lists only the first three stamps in the series as INDIA’S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM. The other stamps are listed as commemorating specific personalities.
Here’s my exhibit for India’s Struggle for Freedom series.
Stamp on Stamp
Gutter Pairs
The philatelic ue of the word gutter is the space left between postage stamps which allows them to be separated or perforated. When stamps are printed on large sheets of paper that will be guillotined into smaller sheets along the gutter it will not exist on the finished sheet of stamps. Some sheets are specifically designed where two panes of stamps are separated by a gutter still in the finished sheet and gutters may, or may not, have some printing in the gutter. Since perforation of a particular width of stamps is normal, the gutter between the stamps is often the same size as the postage stamp.
I have always wanted to have gutter pairs in my collection when I was young. Finally I acquired my first gutter pair only recently when I restarted my hobby.
And more recently acquired gutter pairs of these beautiful 1980 Great Britain commemorative stamps.
Maybe some day I’ll get gutter block also in my collection.
My next goal is to acquire Tête-bêche. More about that when I get those in my collection.
Aero India 2003
Blocks of Used Stamps
Clean Postmarks
India Struggle for Freedom Series (1983 – 89)
Series
|
Stamp
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Date of Issue
|
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1.
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India’s Struggle for Freedom – 1st Series – 1983
|
09 August 1983
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2.
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09 August 1983
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3.
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09 August 1983
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4.
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18 October 1983
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5.
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15 November 1983
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6.
|
28 December 1983
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7.
|
India’s Struggle for Freedom – 2nd Series – 1984
|
21 February 1984
|
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8.
|
23 April 1984
|
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9.
|
10 May 1984
|
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10.
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10 May 1984
|
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11.
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10 May 1984
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12.
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10 May 1984
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13.
|
India’s Struggle for Freedom – 3rd Series – 1985
|
10 January 1985
|
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14.
|
21 July 1985
|
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15.
|
22 July 1985
|
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16.
|
02 December 1985
|
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17.
|
23 December 1985
|
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18.
|
24 December 1985
|
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19.
|
India’s Struggle for Freedom – 4th Series – 1986
|
14 August 1986
|
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20.
|
26 December 1986
|
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21.
|
29 December 1986
|
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22.
|
30 December 1986
|
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23.
|
India’s Struggle for Freedom – 5th Series – 1987
|
13 February 1987
|
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24.
|
18 March 1987
|
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25.
|
21 March 1987
|
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26.
|
25 April 1987
|
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27.
|
17 June 1987
|
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28.
|
22 August 1987
|
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29.
|
31 December 1987
|
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30.
|
India’s Struggle for Freedom – 6th Series – 1988
|
02 February 1988
|
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31.
|
04 February 1988
|
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32.
|
27 February 1988
|
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33.
|
07 March 1988
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34.
|
18 June 1988
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35.
|
19 June 1988
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36.
|
28 June 1988
|
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37.
|
06 September 1988
|
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38.
|
06 October 1988
|
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39.
|
05 December 1988
|
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40.
|
India’s Struggle for Freedom – 7th Series – 1989
|
02 January 1989
|
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41.
|
08 March 1989
|
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42.
|
13 April 1989
|
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43.
|
13 April 1989
|
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44.
|
11 May 1989
|
‘My Stamp’ from Govt. of India
The Dept of Posts website, http://postagestamps.gov.in/MyStamp.aspx, explains My Stamp as
‘My Stamp’ is the brand name for personalized sheets of Postage Stamps of India Post. The personalization is achieved by printing a thumb nail photograph of the customer images and logos of institutions, or images of artwork, heritage buildings, famous tourist places, historical cities, wildlife, other animals and birds etc., alongside the selected Commemorative Postage Stamp.
‘My Stamp’ was first introduced in India during the World Philatelic Exhibition, ‘INDIPEX-2011’. There was considerable demand for it during the exhibition and many requests to resume its printing have since been received. This enthusiasm from stamp lovers prompted India Post to extend the ‘My Stamp’ scheme to cover all Postal Circles. This scheme is available in selected Philatelic Bureaux and counters /Important Post offices/Post Offices situated at tourist places. Selected themes are available at selected My Stamp Counters.
I asked for thoughts from experienced philatelists about what they feel about it. Would you collect these stamps? Are these considered proper stamps or do they come under the category of Cinderella stamps?
Peter Leevers, Secretary at The India Study Circle for Philately, writes
Commercialisation of postal stationery has been around for over a century and gives the collector insight into social issues and fashions. What’s really changed the game, in my view, is the ease by which modern digital printing methods make litho colour so cheap. Design for the old methods of intaglio, embossing and letterpress (typo. In the catalog) needed careful preparation. But stamps were produced with, quite literally, a depth that, by its very nature, offset litho never can.
19 Jun 2016 update: Ravinder Kumar commented:
My stamp is purely a commercial venture to make more money for the postal department.
When I went to a PO at Chennai the clerk said that they have some cricket stickers for sale. She showed me the sheet of New Zealand cricket stamps. Honestly she never knew they were stamps. All so called reputed commonwealth nations have also started commercialising their philately by printing in bulk and offering it at much below postal value! Will Australia or New Zealand sell their $1 or other currencies to other governments for 40 cents or 50 cents? But the stamps with denomination of upto $2 are just printed in quantities in sheets like children’s stickers sold in a stationery shop and sold to ‘Big’ reputed dealers and governments to fool and slay the ‘ innocent goat( the novice collector who buys these excessively printed stamps at lower than their postal value from dealers and think that they had a deal by buying it).
Is it possible for the collectors who had spent a few Lakhs in st. Vincent and other islets exotically called manamagua etc who have printed Diana, cricketers, sports cars in quantities to even recover their hard earned money after even 10 years?
Unfortunately many philatelists in India and rest of the world are being taken for a costly ride by Stamp Printers and Big Stamp Dealers and their distributors and retail dealers throughout the world !
😢 come when we think about these innocent philatelic Goats!🐐🐐🐐