Moradabad pre-1854 postal-mark census updated with new rarity picture for recorded handstamps

A specialist census documenting India's pre-1854 hand-struck postal markings was updated on 31 August 2026 with refreshed evidence for several marks used at Moradabad in the former North-Western Provinces. The Hand Struck Stamps research project now provides current surviving-cover counts and reference information for multiple Moradabad markings, giving collectors a clearer evidence-based picture of their relative scarcity.

Among the recorded markings, Moradabad HG 1 is listed in black and dated to 1815–1819, with five surviving covers currently represented in the census. The HG 3 marking is recorded in black and associated with 1837, but the census states that no surviving cover bearing the mark has yet been documented. HG 6, recorded in red and associated with 1854, currently has a single surviving cover in the census. Other Moradabad markings listed by the project include HG 2, HG 4 and HG 5.

This distinction between a catalogue listing and an actual census of surviving postal history is important. A handstamp may be known from reference literature while surviving complete covers remain exceptionally difficult to locate. Recording individual covers, images, dates and provenance can therefore help collectors assess scarcity more realistically and can reveal when an apparently known marking is represented by only a handful of documented examples.

Moradabad material belongs to the wider field of Indian pre-adhesive postal history, when postal charges and routing information were conveyed through manuscript endorsements and hand-struck markings rather than adhesive postage stamps. Such covers can preserve evidence about postal routes, rates, offices and administrative practices immediately before India's first adhesive stamps appeared in 1854.

Collectors possessing Moradabad pre-stamp covers can compare their material with the updated reference records. The absence of a currently recorded HG 3 cover is particularly noteworthy: a genuine surviving example supported by appropriate postal characteristics and provenance could materially change the known census. Any newly identified cover would require careful specialist examination before conclusions about rarity or classification are drawn.