Patna: Chief postmaster general (CPMG), Bihar, Anil Kumar on Thursday (Nov 21) released the my stump series based on the copper ticket, which was issued at a ‘prepaid token’ for postal deliveries on March 31, 1774.
The stamp, costing ₹5 each, comes with personalised picture and can be used for sending postal articles across the globe. Postmaster general, Bihar, Parimal Sinha, presented a set of my stamp series juxtaposing images of the copper ticket, to the CMPG at a function held at the Bihar postal circle office.
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Kumar said that the issuance of copper tickets about 250 years ago had revolutionised the history of communication. “The copper ticket or ‘prepaid token’ was issued by Azimabad, then Patna was known as, for conveyance of mails. The ticket was introduced by the East India Bengal Presidency during the administration of Warren Hastings, the governor general of India. At that time, Thomas Evans was the postmaster general at the Presidency and Charles Graeme was the deputy postmaster general,” said the CPMG.
The occasion also coincided with 107th foundation day of the Patna general post office (GPO), which was built in British revival Gothic architecture style after Bihar was carved out of Bengal in 1912 to serve Bihar and Orissa province on 22-acre land at 1.93 lakh square feet building area.
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“In 1915, Lord Charles Harding laid the foundation stone of the building, which was designed by British architect Joseph Philip Munning and inaugurated on July 1st, 1917 at the cost of ₹2.69 lakh. The building was given a facelift in 2000 at the cost of ₹1.25 crore, which included creation of five gardens, two murals and one majestic millennium gates and three porticos,” added Kumar.
My stamp on the copper ticket is the second theme of the Bihar region, which was approved by the government of India. The first series of my stamps was based on the Chhath festival.
Parimal Sinha, PMG (north), Muzaffarpur, Manoj Kumar, PMG (east), Bhagalpur, Pawan Kumar, director postal services were prominent among those present on the occasion.
