Post office · Bombay Presidency
SuratPostal Covers & Pre-1854 Postal History
Surat postal covers and handstruck postal markings of pre-1854 British India, recorded in an open census: 4 Surat handstamps recorded between 1810 and 1857, Bombay Presidency, with 19 Surat covers traced to them.
- Handstamps
- 4
- Recorded
- 1810–1857
Surat, headquarters of Surat District, Bombay Presidency, and former seat of a Presidency under the East India Company, situated 21°12' N and 75°50' E, on the southern bank of the Tapti River. Once the chief commercial city of India.
Surat has 4 pre-1854 hand-struck postal markings dated 1810–1857 recorded in this census. Each figure links to its covers, rarity and provenance.
Surat handstamp summary
All recorded markings at a glance — click any row for full details and covers.
Surat— postal history & markings
Surat carries a distinguished history: it was once the seat of a Presidency under the East India Company, the Company's earliest foothold in western India, before Bombay eclipsed it. Its four handstamps, from 1810 to 1855, are worked evenly in black and red and are all in common use. The postal record is modest — a run of ordinary district marks — but it belongs to a town of the first importance in the story of British India. For the collector, Surat's value lies in that pedigree: a working office at a place where Company rule on the western coast began.
Frequently asked — Surat postal history
- What are the pre stamp covers of Surat?
- Pre stamp (pre philatelic) covers of Surat are folded letters and envelopes that passed through the Surat post office before India's first adhesive stamp of 1854, so postage was shown entirely by hand-struck postal markings and manuscript rates. Surat was a post office of the Bombay Presidency, British India, and this census records 4 distinct postal markings used there, dated between 1810 and 1857.
- How many handstamps are recorded for Surat?
- 4 hand-struck postal markings are recorded for Surat in this census. Each mark carries its Hammond Giles catalogue figure number, colour, date range, evidence-based rarity grade, and links to every surviving cover recorded with it.
- How do I identify a Surat postmark or cover?
- Compare your cover against the reference impressions on this page — each figure shows the mark's design, ink colour and recorded date range. If your Surat cover bears a mark that matches a figure, open that figure's page to see every recorded example with provenance. If it matches none, it may be unrecorded: submit photographs through the form on this page and the editors will review it for inclusion in the census.
For background on the material itself, see the guides to the handstruck stamps of India, the pre covers of India and the pre stamp covers of India, which explain how marks like those recorded at Surat were struck, catalogued and graded for rarity.
Also searched as: Surat, Soorat, Surat HG 1, Surat handstruck stamps, Surat pre stamp covers, Surat postal history.
How to cite
“Surat, Bombay Presidency — pre-1854 handstruck stamps & covers,” Hand Struck Stamps, https://handstruckstampsindia.com/bombay/surat (accessed 24 September 2026).
Updated: 24 Sept 2026
An unrecorded mark from Surat?
If you hold a cover or strike from Surat that does not match any figure above, submit it below. Approved additions appear here as new entries in the census — every submission is reviewed first.
Same presidency
Other post offices in the Bombay Presidency
Explore the pre-1854 postal history of other Bombay Presidency post offices — each page lists its recorded handstruck markings, dates and surviving covers.