Description – PM type 32 (JC) type 17 (MN) duplex left side circular with date (often without year), on right-side square of thick horizontal bars with letter dash numeral inset. Known as the ‘circular letters’. Most are common 

Introduced India-wide between 1873-84, with 14 letters equating to fourteen postal sub-regions – some covering huge geographical areas:

A – North-west Provinces (NWP) HQ Allahabad (38 sub-districts distributing offices)

B – Bombay HQ Bombay (23 sub-district distributing offices including Aden)

C – Calcutta HQ Calcutta (54 sub-district distributing offices) (Sub-section G Assam)

D – Bihar HQ Dinapore (From 1877 13 sub-district distributing offices including Nepal)**  

E – East Bengal HQ Dacca (From Sept 1878 6 sub-district distributing offices)** 

G – Assam HQ Gauhatty (see S -10 sub-district distributing offices from March 1875)

I – Central India HQ Indore (1879-80 4 sub-district distributing offices)**

J – Rajpootana HQ Mount Abu (1873 series 4 sub-districts – 1878 3 sub-districts) 

K – Sind HQ Karachi (6 sub-district distributing offices inc Muscat, Bushire, Bagdad)

L – Punjab HQ Lahore (22 sub-district distributing offices Sind absorbed in 1st November 1879 – Aug 1880)

M – Madras HQ Madras (25 sub-district distributing offices – 3 reorganised mid 1875)

N – Central Provinces HQ Nagpur (From 1876 Three series up to 10 sub-district distributing offices few unknown) 

O – Oudh HQ Lucknow (12 sub-district distributing offices only 6 identified)

R – Burma HQ Rangoon (16 sub-district distributing offices) 

RMS – Railway Mail Service 

S – Assam HQ Shillong (see G - 10 sub-district distributing offices from Aug 1876) 

T – Travelling Post Office (TPO) 

** In the type 32 series D, E, I, are not found because Bihar, Central India, and East Bengal were opened just prior to the introduction of superseding types 34 & 35, so very short lived and probably not used?

PM subtype 32a-b - (JC) type 17a – c – d (RF-MN) duplex the same as type 32 with an additional numeral inset above or below - indicating subordinate office to sub-district distributing or head office. Sub-numbers are not well studied. Common 

PM subtype 32c - (JC) type 17b (RF-MN) this variation has a more complex subdividing further in to branch offices numeral below. Considered mostly common few scarce.

PM subtype 32d – (JC) this variation type with letters above – seem to indicate location in city, according to Renouf. i.e. WC west central – C-1 Calcutta – 21 below is sub=post office. Considered rare.