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India Post; printed by Hélio Courvoisier, Switzerland, Mahatma Gandhi, 1½ annas
India Post, Government of India, via Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0 / Government Open Data Licence – India · File page

India Post; printed by Hélio Courvoisier, Switzerland

Mahatma Gandhi, 1½ annas

15 August 1948 · Photogravure on paper

The first Indian on an Indian stamp.

Artist
India Post; printed by Hélio Courvoisier, Switzerland
Date
15 August 1948
Medium
Photogravure on paper

Gandhi in a soft brown portrait, smiling, in round spectacles and a white shawl. Above, the word Bapu in Hindi at left and Urdu at right; below, his dates and INDIA POSTAGE. This is the lowest of four values, 1½ annas.

The set was planned for January 1948 and was to be printed at the India Security Press in Nashik. Gandhi was killed before it appeared. The government decided to issue the stamps as a memorial and to print them by photogravure, which Nashik could not yet do, so the work went to Courvoisier in Switzerland, whose name is at the foot of the stamp. They went on sale on 15 August 1948, the first anniversary of independence, and made Gandhi the first Indian shown on a stamp of India.

The highest value, 10 rupees, was also overprinted SERVICE in a run of one hundred for the Governor-General’s office. Most of those are in public archives.