Monday, November 30, 2009

The Stories Behind The Stamps Are Important

India's Hindu reports, "While we all may know that stamps are a repositories of information, veteran philatelist Sita Bhateja will tell you that the Indian stamps released after Independence alone carry enough information to fill 10 volumes."

Citing one such case in the article by reporter Hemant GaiRola, Bhateja (shown above) describes coming across a postal cover, which had cut marks made by a blade. Intrigued, she traced its history and discovered that the letter had passed through a region which was then affected by plague, and all the letters were cut and smoked to kill germs to prevent spread of infection.

According to Bhateja, "...preparing exhibits require people to carefully think and decide which stamp to include and why." She gave the example of a man who had exhibited 'some very ordinary postcards' in a contest but had won it because of the extraordinary information he had dug out about them and had woven it all around a common theme.

To read the entire article click here.
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posted by Don Schilling at 12:01 AM