Pre-STAMP POSTMARKS
Stamps were introduced in India in the year 1854, the period from the beginning till the introduction of postage stamps is known as the Pre-stamp period. The various postamarks used by Cawnpore post office are illustrated here.
The Pre stamp Letter below was sent from Cawnpore on 5th April 1828. It is addressed to Woodbridge, a town in Suffolk, England. The inland postage from Cawnpore to Calcutta was 11 annas from May 1,1808 to April 10,1832 and the ship postage from July 10,1809 to April 10,1832 was 2 annas which included 1 anna Captain's bounty
Cawnpore was under the domain of Calcutta GPO till the creation of the NWP Circle in October 1839, and all outgoing mails were routed through Calcutta.
The Pre stamp Letter below was sent from Cawnpore on 5th April 1836. It is addressed to Portobello, a town in Edinburgh Scotland. The inland postage rate for single letter from Cawnpore to Calcutta was 10 annas and the ship postage was 3 annas from April 11,1832 to 1837. The addressee had to pay a total of 1 Shilling 7.5 pence in U.K.
Diamond of Dots
A half Anna (Die I) used on a letter from Cawnpore sent on 7th January 1855 to Nowgong. The letter is written by Greenway Brothers who had a banking Agency and were Wine and Beer Merchants in Cawnpore. Greenway Banking Agency had the contract of collecting tax from all boats travelling in Ganges river. Greenway brothers were buried in the Cawnpore Kutchery Cemetery and their tombs still exists.
Numeral CancellationS
In 1855, each post office under the British was given a number. It was done to improve the efficiency of the postal network. Many re-numberings were done for the North West Province and the numerals corresponding to each city were changed every time. The early postmarks of Cawnpore can be seen with a variety of dispatch numeral cancellations. The original numbering was done in 1855 and re-numberings were done in 1860, 1861, 1864, 1867, 1870, 1871 and so on.
Type 8 #60
In 1860, the post office numbering was modified to accommodate new post offices. Cawnpore was assigned numeral 60.
Red transit cancellation of Bombay dated 31st May 1860. Delivery cancellation of Southampton in black is also back
Type 8 cancellation of Cawnpore nu-meral 60 and a dispatch cancellation dated 24th May 1860 at the back.
Type 9 #60
In 1861, Post office numbering was updated third time. Cawnpore was allotted nu-meral 60. Type 9I cancellation was used with Block letters and fleuron. Third numbering was in use until 1863.
The duplex cancellation has a non Serif letter. The letter was dispatched from Cawnpore on 27th May 1862. The route of the letter from Cawnpore to Landour was via Meerut and Haridwar. The hexagonal Sorting mark dated 28th May 1862 in Red is back-stamped along with a delivery postmark of Landour in Red dated 29th May 1862.
Type 9 #62
Type 9 - 1865
According to post office numbering of 1865, Cawnpore was allotted number 62. The carries a Duplex type 9 can-cellation of Cawnpore. It was sent from Cawnpore on January 8, 1870. It travelled to Gwalior via Agra. Sorting cancellation of Agra in Black is back stamped. Delivery cancellation of Gwalior is also back stamped.
Bank of Bengal logo on the envelop flapCover was sent from Bank of Bengal, Cawnpore branch which was locat-ed near the Canwpore Cantonments. It was established in 1863. Bank of Calcutta (est. June 2, 1806), the first bank of India was rename Bank of Bengal on December 2, 1809.
Left - Letter sent from Cawnpore on Janu-ary 8, 1871 and delivered at Umrit-sar on January 10, 1871. Serif Lettering is seen in the duplex cancellation.
All India Series #A-9
All India Series - 1873
In 1873, a new type of cancellation was intro-duced all over India to distinguish each post office. Each postal circle was allotted an alpha-bet based on the initial letter of the circle head-quarter. Allahabad was made the headquarters of North Wester Provinces (NWP) circle and thus A was initial used in the cancellations for Cawnpore.
Reason for Renumbering
By early 1870s, different postal circles all over India were using large number of different type of cancellations which caused chaos and confu-sion in the Postal Administration.
All India Series #A-10
In 1877, the numbering of the new All India type of cancellations was changed to accom-modate the newly opened disbursing offices. From 1873 to 1876, Renouf Type 17d/ Cooper type 32 cancellations are seen with Cawnpore post office number 9, but in 1874 the numbering was shifted. From 1877 on-wards, Cawnpore post office number was changed to 10 .
Numeral at the bottom denotes the Sub PO number.
According to the numbering done in 1877, Cawnpore was a disbursing post office with office number 10.
Reason for a New Number:
In 1874 with the opening of Jaunpore post office under Bena-res, the numbering was shifted by one. From 1877 onwards, P.O. number was changed to 10 making slot for Jaunpore at 6.
