Postal cover to commemorate Teresa canonisation

In a first-of-its-kind move, India Post, the country’s official postal service, is set to release a special postal and numismatics cover to commemorate the canonisation of Mother Teresa.

The special postal cover India Post is slated to unveil and release on September 1 will be made entirely of silk, said deputy assistant director (Philately) Polly Sarkar from the General Post Office (GPO) in Kolkata.

“Such a silk postal cover has never been released in India. When we received the proposal, we thought it was a nice way to commemorate the historic occasion,” she said.
The postal cover will be released at the GPO in Kolkata to accommodate a large number of people who are expected to attend the ceremony, Sarkar said.

Renowned philatelist Alok K Goyal, who designed the postal cover, told reporters that the cover will have an image of Mother Teresa along with a child.

“The cover will also have Kolkata skyline in the background to remind everybody of the city to which she dedicated her life and from where she started the Missionaries of Charity in 1950,” he said.

The limited edition postal cover, only 1,200 of which are being produced, has been made using high quality silk paper which was procured from Germany and each piece will have a face value of Rs 250.

Postal department officials said that online retailer eBay has already started selling a ‘First Day Cover’, which was launched in Washington DC in September 2010.
The ‘First Day Cover’ is in the form of an envelope with a stamp, with the envelope’s artwork featuring a portrait of Mother Teresa with the caption, ‘Peace begins with a smile – Mother Teresa’.

Unlike the India Post postal cover, the one on sale at eBay for $21.95 is only Mother Teresa’s picture printed on silk with an embossed gold border. “While silk postal covers are common in China, India Post is attempting something like this for the first time,” Goyal said.

“Our postal cover will also carry the Rs 5 commemorative coin Indian government issued in 2010 to mark Mother Teresa’s birth centenary. This will be special since it combines the stamp and the coin, both as collectibles,” he added.