Identifying international postage stamps can sometimes be a daunting experience, especially when they stamp’s country of origin does not use the Latin alphabet. There is one country that has an exotic alphabet, but at the same time, has stamps that are easy-to-identify. Although the official language of India is Hindi, which uses an exotic alphabet, it is a simple matter to identify Indian postage stamps.

The reason why it is easy to identify Indian postage stamps is because the first national post office in India was established by the British. Before that, India used a system of independent running couriers. This means the first Indian postage stamps were printed in English. Even after India was granted its independence, they continued to use English on Indian postage stamps alongside Hindi. The word “India” is printed on all Indian postage stamps in English.

As if the country’s name written in English is not enough, Indian postage stamps printed before 1957 printed the denomination of the stamp in the anna with the symbol AS, or some variation thereof. After 1957, India began using a decimal currency system and no longer printed a monetary symbol.

The oldest Indian postage stamps date back 1852. This is the height of the British colonization of the country. The first stamp is known as the Scinde Dawk. It is a red, circular stamp with a value of ½ anna. In actuality, this stamp was not considered an official Indian postage stamp. It was a type of semi-postal. Even so, a mint Scinde Dawk can fetch £65000 at auction.

The next series of Indian postage stamps featured Queen Victoria. The display a profile image of the Queen and were actually printed in England. As a matter of trivia, the 1854 Queen Victoria Indian postage stamp is one of the first bi-colored stamps in history.

The next landmark Indian postage stamps came when India gained independence in 1947. The first independent Indian postage stamps read “India Postage” in English and feature the Indian flag. This was an international stamp. The first domestic Indian postage stamp after independence features the national emblem.