People check out stamps at Wheeler Senate House, Patna University, on Friday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Feb. 10: Philately is the king of hobbies and hobby of kings. With these words Governor Devanand Konwar today inaugurated the 11th Bihar Philatelic Exhibition or Bihar Stamp Expo-2012 at Wheeler Senate House, Patna University.

The four-day-long expo aims at presenting a tale-tell of the history of postal stamps. Based on the theme — Celebrating Bihar — the event highlighted the glory and heritage of the state.

The exhibits include rarest of the rare stamps, including the Penny Black, the world’s first adhesive pre-paid stamp, Patna Copper Ticket, India’s first metallic stamp, Inverted Head (QueenVictoria), and Gandhi Service Over Print among others.

“Inverted Head Stamp is one of the most expensive and rarest stamps in India. Issued in October 18, 1854, it was the first bi-colour, as well as first octagonal-shaped stamp printed in the denominations of half anna, one anne and four anne (25paise). The extraordinary story behind this stamp is that in the process of printing, the head of Queen Victoria was printed inverted in relation to the frame. However, the error was discovered only after 20 years, in 1874. This error has distinction, hence it become rare and costly. At present, there can be around 30 such stamps in the market and one of them is with me,” said S.C. Sukhani, a noted philatelist from Calcutta.

Apart from the stamps, the rare exhibits also included the original copy of typewritten and signed letter by Mahatma Gandhi from Camp Bardoli dated May 26, 1931.

Speaking at the event, Konwar praised the initiative of the postal department to issue personalised stamps.

“It was a common perception among people that stamps are mostly printed with the faces of eminent people like Mahatma Gandhi. However, the recent initiative of the postal department of issuing personalised stamps, which allows people to get stamps printed with their own face has completely democratised postal stamps in the biggest democratic country and the second most populous democracy after China.”