A Miniature Sheet consisting of 2 nos of commemorative postage stamps on the XIX Commonwealth Games : Queen’s Baton Relay, a relay around the world held prior to beginning of the Commonwealth Games :

Issued by India

Issued on Jun 25, 2010

Issued for : To commemorate the historic event India Post is happy to issue a set of two commemorative postage stamps to mark the baton’s entry into India as a herald to the Commonwealth Games 2010, one depicting the baton and the second, a proud Shera holding it with Delhi‘s India Gate in the background.

Credits :
Stamp & FDC : Kamleshwar Singh
Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Miniature Sheet, Mint condition

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 2000 & 500 Paise

Stamps Printed : 0.8 Million

Miniature Sheet : 0.4 Million

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nashik

About : 

• The Queen’s Baton Relay is one of the greatest traditions of the Commonwealth Games, in having been the curtain-raiser to every Games since Cardiff in 1958. The relay symbolises the gathering of people from across the Commonwealth at the four-yearly festival of sport and culture.
  
• Over the years, the Queen’s Baton Relay has evolved into a powerful symbol of the unity and diversity of the Commonwealth of Nations. With each Games, the tradition grows in scale and significance – including more nations, involving more participants and generating more excitement than ever before, but the Delhi 2010 Baton’s journey is planned to be the biggest yet. It is set to be the longest and most technologically advanced of the Baton Relays to date.
  
• The baton has been designed by Michael Foley, a graduate of the National Institute of Design. It is a triangular section of aluminium twisted into a helix shape and then coated with coloured soils collected from all regions of India. The coloured soils are a first for the styling of a Queen’s Baton. A jewel-encrusted box has been used to house the Queen’s message, which was laser-engraved onto a miniature 18 carat gold leaf-representative of the ancient Indian patras. The Queen’s baton is economically contoured for ease of use. It is 664 millimetres high, 34 millimetres wide at the base, and 86 millimetres wide at the top and weighs 1900 grams.
  
• The Queen’s baton has a number of technological features including :
  • The ability to capture images and sound,
  • Global positioning system (GPS) technology so the baton’s location can be tracked,
  • Embedded light emitting diodes (LEDs) which will change into the colours of a country’s flag whilst in that country,
  • A text messaging capability so that people can send messages of congratulations and encouragement to the Baton bearers throughout rely.
    
• The Queen’s Baton was launched on 29^th October 2009 at Buckingham Palace in London, with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II handing the Baton to Her Excellency the President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil. Abhinav Bindra, the Olympic air rifle champion, began the Baton’s journey with a relay around the Queen Victoria Monument.
  
• The Queen’s Baton has travelled through all the Commonwealth countries and landed in India on 25^th June 2010 where it will spend 100 days touring the country.
  
• Text : Material downloaded from the Internet.

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