STAMP-MUDRA I referred my Lifcodictionary for the different meanings of the word STAMP. It has given threemeanings- FIRST one a mark impressed. SECOND one a small piece of printed-papershowing the amount of postage or duty. LAST one impress.
In my boyhood days Ihad a doubt- postage stamps and revenue stamps can be purchased from postoffices. Why court fee stamps are not given by post offices. It took years to understand- Stamp paper and court feestamp comes under state government. The stamp paper ofKerala is not valid in Tamilnadu for registration. The court fee stamppurchased in Kerala is not valid in Tamilnadu. Even I understood therevenue stamp in all states are same, to be frank, after my employment. Though we say theinstrument-affixing stamp as rubber stamp, it is really the stampinginstrument. The impression is called stamp. Stamp impression isnormally done using violet ink using a pad. But some offices use red and fewuse green also. Invariably the post office for cancelling stamps use black pad.The sub registrar office use black pad. A stamping could be for showing the authority also. RedLatex type impression is made by the Kerala University on those days in thedegree awarded. Butthe instrument is mechanical fully and not manual. The impression slightlybulges in the degree. Now degrees areawarded with lamination. But in manyoccasions the lamination on back side has to be removed for embassy stampingetc. While sendingvaluable items it is customary to have latex provision at specified points andimpression with a metal seal. Offices regularly sending such items used to havea metal sealing instrument for this purpose. Need not be through post office alone. If public had to sendinsured or registered parcel mostly they made the impression using a ringpressing which has some specified marks on hot latex. Mostly red latex was used. If not available black was used. But on all seals the impression has to bemade. I do recollect in1974’s post office arranged a special cancellation with Pathinettampati(Eighteen steps) for letters posted in Sabarimala during pilgrimage season. For the cancellation I posted a letter to mywife from Sabarimala during the year on my pilgrimage. Still the inland letter withspecial stamping of Pathinettampati is with me. The postal stamp hasa specified size other than special stamps issued. At one time it was rare tohave the special stamps in post offices. I recollect the postmaster with asmile intimating the arrival of special stamps to us during school days when wego to post offices and itwas a craze to have it. They will never be affixed and used, butkept in collection. At one time there wasstrict imposing by post office the stamps affixed should not be more innumber. For the value required to beaffixed THREE OR FOUR STAMPS had to be affixed at the maximum. If 15-00 rupeestamp has to be affixed one should not affix 15 numbers of 1-00 rupee stamps.Stamps had to be affixed only in normal position. Upside down affixing is not valid. State Governmentinstitutions had special stamps obtained from treasury called SERVICE stamp. Theyinstitutions like schools, universities used to affix the same. It was not soldthrough post office. When I joined thetelephones revenue stamp had to be affixed for any transactions above Rs25-00(Rupees twenty five!!). Now the limit is Rs 500-00 and above. LIC givesthe premium receipt affixing revenue stamp if the premium paid is above Rs500-00. If revenue stamp is not there, arubber stamp is provided stating at a later date the receipt can be taken toLIC office and stamp get affixed. But 99% keep the receipt like that. >From my boyhood,postal stamps had provision to tear and give from bigger >sheets alongperforation the required stamps. Also dry gum provision to affix >on thereverse. Just wetting the gum a little stamp could be affixed on cover. For givingapplication to Panchayats, municipality etc., we have to affix court fee stamp. Itis rectangular and printing in brown and three times the size of a normalpostal stamp. We can see helping staff remain near the premises of municipalityetc. with application forms, stamps etc. for less educated. Finally creating animpression- There aresome special people who can do it in all fields. They create a stampin the field. Those whosimply approve others are nick named “Rubber stamp”. For a change an iyerjoke- One day newspaper brought the news item-Postal tariff change after afortnight. Our iyer rushed to the postoffice and purchased a dozen covers and was happily returning. He wasinterrupted by another on the way seeing a dozen covers partly hiding andkeeping in hand. 2nd iyer enquired the requirement of a dozen covers- Anyfunction to send invitations? Our iyer replied- No function. Don’t you know after a fortnight Ihave to pay more for postal covers? What a gain by purchasing nowand smiled. Iyer was not aware,unless additional stamps are affixed to correct tariff on the posting day, itwill be DOUBLY collected from the receiving end as penalty. In Kerala the coconut filled with ghee taken to Sabarimalatemple is called Mudra. Measure of rice forpreparing Saisavam during Sasthapreethi is also called MUDRA. Of late forregistration in the post office, instrument stamping is done for the value andsimply computer receipt indicating the amount of registration given to thecustomer. As a recent scheme, the postmen bring postalcovers, stamps etc. as per our requirement and collect money. We need not rushto post office. Writer- R. Gopala Krishnan. Dated 23-4-2021. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1218529029.3848470.1619165542340%40mail.yahoo.com.
