India 

In 1948, when the first stamps on Mahatma Gandhi were being planned as part of the official celebration of his 80th birthday, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru took a personal interest in it. It was on his suggestion that the word Bapu, (Father) in Hindi and Urdu, was incorporated in the design of the proposed set of four stamps. But eight months before his 80th birthday, Mahatma Gandhi lost his life to an assassin on January 30, 1948, so what were meant to be celebratory stamps, now were dedicated to the Mahatma’s memory.

The stamps were released on the first anniversary of our independence, on August 15, 1948. Ironically for the man who swore by swadeshi (indigenous) all his life, these stamps were printed in Switzerland. They remain till date the only Indian stamps to be printed abroad since 1925, the year India Security Press was established in Nashik to print postage stamps and currency notes.

Since 1866, India’s Department of Post provides separate series of stamps specially printed for use by all departments and offices of the Government of India. So, when the then Governor-General of India,  Mr. C. Rajagopalachari, expressed his wish to use the Gandhi stamps for his official needs, the word ‘Service’ (short for ‘On India Government Service’) was overprinted on these stamps to distinguish them from the regular issue. The fourth stamp in this series, with the face value of Rs 10, is the world's least printed stamp, because only 100 stamps (two sheets of 50) were brought out. Today, this Gandhi ‘Service’ stamp is among one of India’s rarest stamps and commands a place of honor in the world of philatelists.