The Story of Ceylon Stamps

The Story  of Ceylon Stamps – Vimal Dias

The first Ceylon stamp was issued on 1st April 1857 and is listed as SG # 1 in Staley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue. It was issued 17 years after Britain issued the first postage stamp in the world in 1840. SG 1 of Ceylon was a 6d stamp, whereas the first postage stamp of Britain was the Penny Black, 1d in value.  Why the Colonial Government of Ceylon decided to issue a 6d stamp as the first stamp is unknown. However, Ceylon got a One Penny 1d. a blue colored stamp a few months later in 1857.

A.            Stamps Issued During the Reign of Queen Victoria

Postage stamps issued during the reign of Queen Victoria spanned a period of 46 years, from 1857 to  1903. Postage stamps bearing Queen Victoria, basically fall in to 3 key categories. These are;

1.)           Stamps denominated in Pence and Shillings Issued in imperforated form, where individual stamps had to be cut from sheets using a pair of scissors. Stamps with clear margins on all 4 sides are quite rare and they usually carry a premium. The number of stamps issued during this period is limited and spans from SG 1 to SG 17.

2.)           In year 1858, Ceylon stamps denominated in Pence and Shillings were issued in perforated form which made it easier to tear off individual stamps from sheets. However, perforations of those days were very rough, because the number of perforations per inch were very low compared with modern stamps. Hence, stamps of this era often had missing perforations, because they  couldn’t be cleanly torn from a sheet. This is normal for stamps of this age.

3.)           The third era is characterized by stamps issued in Rupees and Cents. This era started in 1872 and continued until the death of Queen Victoria.   Stamps in this era starts from SG 121 to 264. Since a lot of stamps were printed and used during this period, many stamps from this period are still quite common and inexpensive compared to stamps issued during first and second eras.         

Stamps issued during the first and second eras (in Pence and Shillings) are extremely rare and very expensive, as these stamps are now well over 160 years old. Value of stamps like any other item depends on supply and demand. However, the supply of these stamps have dwindled considerably over time, due to destruction and loss of stamps over the years. Only a few currently remain among a handful of collectors and dealers who have taken the trouble to preserve these valuable stamps. Since most of the Ceylon stamps have been held in Sri Lanka under hot and humid conditions, it has also become very difficult to find stamps in good condition.      

It is also interesting to note that all stamps issued during era 1 and 2 were printed in a single color. Perhaps printing technology at that time didn’t support multiple color printing. However, in era 3 (Queen Victoria stamps issued in Rupees and Cents) stamps were printed in 2 colors, making them nicer but still  depicting the face of Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria stamps issued in era 3 were often overprinted to change the value of a stamp. Perhaps they were out of stock of given denomination and therefore stamps having high stock levels were overprinted in black with a new denomination. As per Stanley Gibbons Catalogue, they were overprinted locally at the Government Printers in Colombo. Some of these overprinted stamps are very rare, but one needs to be careful about fakes too.      

Stamps issued during the 19th century in Ceylon as well as in most other countries were definitive stamps. The practice of issuing commemorative stamps came later in Britain during the 20th century and much later to British Colonies. Definitive stamps were used for a much longer period of time and hence they usually became very common as large numbers were issued. On the other hand, commemorative stamps were issued to commemorate a specific event and lasted only for a short period and hence numbers issued were much smaller.  

Victorian stamps of Ceylon have to be carefully studied as there are many varieties of a given stamp based on the following key factors that influence its value.

-              Type of paper on which it is printed. eg. On normal, bluish, yellowish or on chalky paper etc. All these variations are listed in the SG catalogue.  

-              Water mark. eg. No water mark, inverted water mark & sideways etc.

-              Imperforated or perforated. It was very common for a given stamp to come with different perforation counts, making some very rare. Hence, it pays to always check the perforations of a given stamp using a perforation guide.     

-              Number of perforations per inch on the horizontal and vertical sides of the stamp.

-              Mint or used. Mint stamps in unhinged form is very difficult to find as almost all collectors up to around 40 years ago used hinges to stick stamps in their albums. Only later did stock books and mounts replace hinges. So finding unhinged mint stamps from these times would be very difficult.

-              Some stamps were printed using more than one die and hence stamps were printed using 2 or 3 dies. It may be that dies had to be changed after a while because they got worn off. However, the die 1 and die 2 were often not identical as there were slight differences. These differences are listed in the SG catalogue and are easy to identify once you know what they are. Prices quoted vary widely depending on the type of die.      

-              The color of the stamps. It is very common for a given stamp of this era to have been issued in many shades of the same color or in different colors. Correctly identifying the color of a stamp using the Stanley Gibbons Color Guide is therefore most important, as prices could vary so much based on its color.      

As you can see, collecting Ceylon stamps of this era would be quite interesting and also challenging in many ways. If you are going to invest in good stamps, you really need to know what you are buying. Buying stamps in good condition at a discounted catalogue price would be a challenge. For this, the best place to buy these stamps would be in US where the demand for Ceylon stamps would be rather low and it will also be easier to find stamps in good condition due to favorable climatic conditions.    

B.            Stamps Issued During the Reign of King Edward the 7th

The reign of Edward the 7th was relatively short lived, starting from 1903 to 1911, a period of only 8 years. Some of the stamps issued during this era were printed in 2 colors.

C.            Stamps Issued During the Reign of King George the 5th

This period spanned from 1912 to 1935. Early issues of this period mostly depicted the face of King George the 5th , printed in a single color or in 2 colors. There was no significant change in the way stamps were designed and printed compared to the 3rd era of Queen Victoria. However, in 1935 there was a great departure from this tradition of portraying only the head of the king or queen. For the first time, common and key scenic views of the country were portrayed in the form of pictorial stamps in 2 colors. They had the face of the king printed on the top right hand side of these pictorial stamps. This was a refreshing change and these stamps are very beautiful and say a lot about the life and times in Ceylon at that time. In fact, not much of the scenes depicted in here have changed even today.       

D.            Stamps Issued During the Reign of King George the 6th

This period spanned from 1935 to 1948.There were no significant changes worth mentioning in the design and printing of Ceylon stamps during this time. The pictorial stamps of Ceylon issued during the reign of King George the 5th were more or less used with the head of King George the 6th replacing that of KG the 5th.   However, the design and colors of some stamps were changed, notably the addition of the tea plucker on 6c stamp and a change of color on the 5c stamps depicted palm trees and the sea. The reign of King George the 6 suddenly ended in 1952, while his daughter the present Queen of Britain was on safari at Tree Tops in Kenya. He was rather a weak king and a sickling. 

E.            Stamps Issued During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the 2nd

Queen Elizabeth the 2nd became the Queen of England in 1952. So we didn’t have any stamps under her rule as Ceylon became independent in 1948.

F. Stamps Issued During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the 2nd

After independence, the Government of Ceylon started issuing postage stamps both definitive and commemoratives under the name of Ceylon. However, from 1972 onwards, the name of the nation was changed from Ceylon to Sri Lanka and this change was reflected in stamps as well. During this time, the frequency of issuing stamps increased and stamps were issued to honor many local hearos. A stamp Bureau was also established under the Post Office to serve local and foreign philatelists. Due to the high rate of issuing stamps during this era, it is rather difficult to maintain a complete collection of stamps of this period. Hence, it would be better to focus on the early issues of Ceylon under the British period.