2004 - 150 Years of Telecommunication - UNC Set

This Post gives the details of UNC Set. For Proof Set refer to the Previous Post

In the Year 2004, to commemorate 150 Years of Telecommunication, a Proof set and UNC Set was released.
The Rs 2 Coin was never released for Circulation and is available only as part of Mint Sets.

The details are;

Telecommunication in a broad sense is communication over distance and has a very interesting history. Credit for the invention of the electric telephone is frequently disputed, and new controversies over the issue have arisen from time-to-time. Charles Bourseul, Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, Alexander Graham Bell, and Elisha Gray, amongst others, have all been credited with the telephone's invention. The early history of the telephone became and still remains a confusing morass of claims and counter claims, which were not clarified by the huge mass of lawsuits to resolve the patent claims of many individuals and commercial competitors. The Bell and Edison patents, however, were commercially decisive, because they dominated telephone technology and were upheld by court decisions.

The Indian postal and telecom sectors saw a slow and uneasy start. In 1850, the first experimental electric telegraph line was started between Kolkata and Diamond Harbor. In 1851, it was opened for the use of the British East India Company. The Posts and Telegraphs department occupied a small corner of the Public Works Department.

Subsequently, the construction of 6,400 of telegraph lines connecting Kolkata (then Calcutta) and Peshawar in the north along with Agra, Mumbai (then Bombay) through Sindwa Ghats, and Chennai (then Madras) in the south, as well as Ootacamund and Bangalore was started in November 1853. Dr.William O'Shaughnessy, who pioneered the telegraph and telephone in India, belonged to the Public Works Department, and worked towards the development of telecom throughout this period.

A separate department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities were opened to the public. From then to today we have come a very long way.


Proof Set:
Coins of Rs 100 and Rs 2
See Previous Post


UNC Set:
Coins of Rs 100 and Rs 2

The Coins of Rs 100 & Rs 2.

UNC Set: Re-Strike
Coins of Rs 100 and Rs 2

The Re-Strike has R-2010 written on Inside Cover and Obverse Image. Apart from this, everything else is same.