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Sixteen days: the Gandhi memorial issue of 1948
How India produced a four-value mourning issue within weeks of the assassination, and why the ten-rupee value is the one collectors chase.
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948. On 15 February the Posts and Telegraphs Department released four stamps in his memory. Sixteen days from event to issue remains one of the fastest commemoratives in postal history.
Four values, one portrait
The set was printed by Courvoisier in Switzerland, which explains the photogravure quality that Indian presses of the period could not match. All four values share K. S. Bhatt's portrait against a dark ground:
| Value | Colour | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 1½ annas | brown | inland letter |
| 3½ annas | violet | airmail |
| 12 annas | grey-green | registered mail |
| 10 rupees | purple-brown | parcels and high-value registration |
Why the ten rupees is different
Ten rupees was a great deal of money in 1948, so the top value saw little postal use and survives mostly mint. That inverts the usual pattern: for this stamp a genuinely used copy with a clear, dated cancel is scarcer than an unmounted mint one, though the market still prices mint higher. Forgeries exist and full original gum is the phrase to look for in any description.
The collection holds both a 3½ anna used copy and a mint 10 rupee with expertised gum.
A note on the "Service" overprints
One hundred copies of the 10 rupee value were overprinted SERVICE for the Governor-General's office. They are among the rarest stamps of independent India and are not something a private collection of this size aspires to.