Hand Strucks and Franks

It is interesting to note that prior to the issue of postage stamps, postmark-like impressions or ‘franks’ were made on letters to indicate pre-payment of postage. In India they were called ‘hand-strucks’ or hand-struck stamps. Even today we have the service of postage-prepaid-in-cash for bulk mailers and a hand struck date-stamp as well as Franking Machines for the same.

The East India Company in India used hand-struck stamps in the three Presidencies of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras as way back as prior to and after 1837, the year when the Post Office Act came into effect, and rarities bearing these impressions are prized possessions of philatelists. Hand-strucks were also used by ex-territorial post offices of territories not coming under the domain of the East India Company or the Crown. Even today, various types of frank impressions of the world o postal mail are an item of philatelic delight.

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