Two stamps commemorating the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi's return from South Africa were released in January 2015. A miniature sheet (souvenir sheet) containing both the stamps was also released. Now it appears there was another design with two additional features that did not make it to the final version. The other design contained an image of the Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad and a logo describing the 100 years (1915-2015). Apart from these two differences, two other important changes were the denomination of the second stamp that shows the landing scene with a ship in the background as well as the stamp description. Increasing denomination of some stamps to provide for foreign postage is an on-going trend with India Post. It needs another blog post to better understand how higher denomination stamps inflate the cost of stamp collecting. This Gandhi stamp could have reached a lot more collectors and sold better had the cost of the miniature been restricted to 10 rupees instead of twenty five.
Stamp description changed from Mahatma Gandhi's Return from South Africa to 100 Years of Mahatma Gandhi's Return.
Stamp description changed from Mahatma Gandhi's Return from South Africa to 100 Years of Mahatma Gandhi's Return.
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| Left: Image from India Perspectives (indiaperspectives.in) Right: Actual Miniature Sheet |