Lucknow: Letter writing is slowly being pushed into the pages of history but queues are building up for buying stamps.
People are lining up to buy the coffee-scented stamps that were released last month and are already out of stock in most post offices in Uttar Pradesh.
Printed at the India Security Press in Nasik, the stamps are priced at Rs 100 and, apparently, no one is buying to use them. Only two lakh stamps have been printed for sale through 81 philatelic bureaus in the country and most of the bureaus display an ‘out of stock’ notice.
“I have been coming to the General Post Office since the past ten days but the officials say that the coffee scented stamps are sold out. Stamp collecting has been my hobby and I want to add this to my collection,” said Ram Kumar Mehrotra, 62.
Rajesh Varma, in charge of the philately bureau in Allahabad, says that maximum demand is coming from smaller towns like Pratapgarh, Mirzapur, Jaunpur, Sultanpur and Kaushambhi.
“The philately bureau in Lucknow, Kanpur, Bareilly and Gorakhpur are also recording brisk sales and many have even run out of stock,” said a postal department official.
The postal department, apparently, wanted to cash in on the growing coffee culture in India when it decided to release the coffee scented stamps.
“Surprisingly the demand is greater from smaller cities and towns where the café culture has not caught on and majority of the population still drinks tea. Perhaps it is the novelty of these stamps that is bringing in buyers.” the official said. It is noteworthy that India had first introduced aromatic sandalwood stamps in 2006.
