Choonilal Devkaran Nanjee (1890–1948), also known as C. D. Desai, was a twentieth-century Indian

commodity trader A trader is a person, firm, or entity in finance who buys and sells financial instruments, such as forex, cryptocurrencies, stocks, bonds, commodities, derivatives, and mutual funds in the capacity of agent, hedger, arbitrageur, or speculator ...

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

, and

philatelist Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is pos ...

Financial career

Desai was a senior partner in the firm of Messrs. Devkaran Nanjee and Sons, stock, cotton, bullion and exchange

broker A broker is a person or firm who arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither role should be con ...

s. He was also the honorary Treasurer of the

Bombay Stock Exchange BSE Limited, also known as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is an Indian stock exchange. It is located on Dalal Street in Mumbai. Established in 1875 by cotton merchant Premchand Roychand, a Jain businessman, it is the oldest stock exchange i ...

and one of the founding directors of Devkaran Nanjee Banking Co. Ltd. (later renamed the

Dena Bank Dena Bank was a government-owned bank that in 2019 merged with Bank of Baroda. It was headquartered in Mumbai and had 1,874 branches. The bank was founded in 1938 as a privately owned Bank. In 1969 the Government of India nationalized ''Dena Ban ...

), on 26 May 1938, and other allied companies with his brother

Pranlal Devkaran Nanjee Pranlal Devkaran Nanjee (11 June 1894 – 27 July 1956) was a noted Indian banker, businessman and philanthropist from Bombay, India. Birth & family life He was born on 11 June 1894 at Porbandar, the second son of Seth Devkaran Nanjee. He was m ...

Philatelic career

He made many discoveries among the 1854

lithographed Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone ( lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German ...

stamps of India and formed an outstanding collection of these classic issues with the assistance of

Jal Cooper Jal Manekji Cooper FRGS (29 March 1905 – 2 August 1972) in Mumbai, was an Indian philatelist, and an expert and authenticator of the postage stamps and postal history of India. Cooper was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and ...

. Desai's collection included many items of extreme rarity. It featured the unique unused

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

of 14 of the white Scinde Dawk stamp. His collection included the finest known example of the famous 1854 Head Inverted Four Annas stamp, cut square and on cover, as well as a second cut square example of this rarity. As Jal Cooper noted, :"The late Mr. Desai had few equals in the realm of Indian philately. .... His helping hand was a constant source of solace to many Indian dealers and there was a regular pilgrimage to his home from dealers in other parts of India." Collaborating with Sir Eric Studd, he discovered the 1854 One Anna Red Die I "Substituted Transfer". He also found the typographed Two Annas yellowish grey-green of 1854 on a previously unknown paper

watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...

ed ''One Anna'', Later in year 2010, Markand Dave FRPSL had published a detail paper on this subject of "1854 Two Annas on ONE ANA Watermark" in London Philatelist (The journal of The Royal Philatelic Society London) with one N in ANA, where Mr.Desai has reported two N in ANNA. The Desai collection was offered for sale to the public in 917 lots by Messrs

Robson Lowe John Harry Robson Lowe (7 January 1905, London – 19 August 1997, Bournemouth) was an English professional philatelist, stamp dealer and stamp auctioneer. Life and career Lowe is regarded by philatelists as the father of postal history, ...

, philatelic auctioneers, on 25 and 26 May May 1949. The

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition e ...

included his collection of " Scinde Dawk" stamps and the 1854 issues of India. He was a Fellow of the

Royal Philatelic Society London The Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) is the oldest philatelic society in the world. It was founded on 10 April 1869 as ''The Philatelic Society, London''. The society runs a postal museum, the Spear Museum of Philatelic History, at its ...

Death

Desai died in Bombay in 1948. He was survived by his son, Lalitchandra C. D. Nanjee, who later became Chairman of

, Devkaran Nanjee Insurance Co. and Devkaran Nanjee Investment Co.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Desai, C. D. Indian bankers Businesspeople from Mumbai Indian philatelists 1890 births 1948 deaths Indian businesspeople in textiles Indian commodities traders