A limited edition of the personalised postage stamps has been launched by the department of post for Valentine's Day.
"The initiative aims to connect the youth with the department. 'My Stamps' and scented postage stamps are already available, separately, but this is for the first time that they are coming together. The theme of the stamp would be red rose," Jagdeep Gupta, Director, Postal Services (HQ), told The Tribune.
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Though Gupta feels that this initiative will connect the youth to the postal department, others share a different view. 'These rose-scented stamps with personalised photo will be considered unique by philatelists, but as far as the youth are concerned, they will call up their beloved to wish them or meet with them instead of sending out letters with stamps," Ramesh Prabhu, a professor of Journalism at Commits told International Business Times, India.
'My Stamp' is a brand name for personalized sheets of postage stamps of India Post which was first introduced during the World Philatelic Exhibition, 'INDIPEX-2011. This special edition stamps will be available in the General post office. Twelve pieces of the rose-fragranced postage stamps will cost Rs 500, while the same number of non-scented stamps will cost Rs 300.
"The sheet of 12 stamps has six rose stamps on the left hand column and six stamps to print a personalised photo on the right hand side. The printing of the person's photo will take up to ten minutes and is available at the General Post Office," Thirumala Chary, Assistant Director of Bangalore Post Office told IBTimes, India.
Reportedly, the ink being used to print is imported from Germany and doesn't fade. The smell will also remain intact upto five years.
But this is not the first time that India has issued rose scented stamps. On February 7, 2007, the Department of Posts had issued a set of four stamps with pictures of four varieties of roses—Bhim, Delhi Princess, Jawahar and Neelam—each of which bore the smell of the flowers.
