A New 1922 Postmaster Provisional from Kharkiv?

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How do you know when you have made a discovery?

Above are two halves of the back of a cover sent from KHARKIV 15 9 22 which transited MOSKVA on 18 9 22 and arrived in BERLIN 27 9 22.

Without overprint if 18 stamps of 5 kopeks were revalued x 100, then they would pay a 90 rubel Registered tariff, assuming no stamps on the front of the envelope. But in 1920, Kharkiv 5 kop stamps were revalued x 100 by means of black pyb overprints, which are very common. Maybe by September 1922, those overprints had been used up.

With the 0250 overprints shown here the stamps would pay a 4500 =  45 rubel ordinary letter tariff, assuming there were no stamps on the front of the envelope.

But is the 0250 overprint genuine? I have not seen it before.

In favour, there are two things. First, the overprints appear to be under the cancellations and the KHARKIV cancellation appears to be genuine. When an overprint is heavy and a cancel light, it is always hard to be sure, but under natural light and under magnification, every way I look, the cancels do look as if they are over the overprints. That is essential.

Second, I am told that another example of this overprint on 5 kop stamps with KHARKIV cancels is in a St Petersburg collection. In this case, the stamps are imperforate. The cancel is not the same one, which also helps support the idea that the KHARKIV cancel on this cover back is genuine: a forger would not waste time and money making two different cancels.

Against this is the simple thought: How come a Postmaster Provisional from a big city like Kharkiv has not been recorded sometime in the past 100 years? That is a serious question. The best answer is for one of my readers to produce another example of this overprint, ideally on a 5 kop stamp with a Kharkiv cancel – a heavy cancel would be nice!

Discussions are ongoing: I have discussed with Joseph Geyfman and he has discussed with Alexander Epstein ... We are still talking about probabilities rather than certainties so we really need some new evidence. See also now comments below from Ivo Steijn.

UPDATE 30 May 2018 Tobias Huylmans offered to look at the item using his specialist BPP equipment. He could not get a definite result. This is partly because the inks of the overprint and the canellation do not show the kinds of fluorescence which would enable him to get a contrast. So we still need new examples of this overprint before we can make any progress.

Added February 2020: Most of my Ukraine-related Blog posts are now available in full colour book form. To find out more follow the link:

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Late Use of Ukraine Tridents (continued)

Latest known use of any stamp is problematic. Even if a stamp is officially invalidated, an individual who has a copy in a pocket book may use it – and get away with it. No one notices; no one imposes Postage Due. This is really of no great interest.

More interestingly, there are cases where a stamp is invalidated – and then, out of necessity, officially brought back into temporary, provisional use. For example, Imperial Russia’s 1913 Romanov stamps were invalidated in the RSFSR at the same time as kopeck value Imperial stamps were revalued x 100, in March 1920. However, some later uses of 20 / 14 kopeck Romanovs on official formular cards (Money Transfers, Parcel Cards) are known and these look like uses which some postal district or at least some local postmaster has authorised because of local stamp shortages (which were common in revolutionary Russia). See my Blog about this dated 10 February 2011

Similarly, with Ukraine Tridents it seems that they were invalidated sometime in 1921 (I still need an exact date). However, 1922 uses can be found in south Ukraine. This is an area which Alexander Epstein and Thomas Berger have identified as an area of stamp shortages at that time, leading to the use of technically invalidated stamps and to the local revaluation of stamps to useful denominations (rather than revaluation to officially designated values). Alexander Epstein has two article on these topics in Ukrainian Philatelist # 102 (2009); Thomas Berger and Alexander Epstein have an article in the Deutsche Zeitschrift für Russland Philatelie # 101 ( 2014)

So we find items like these:

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The above item was in the Robert Taylor collection and the images have been provided by Thomas Berger.

This is a Registered letter which does not look philatelic sent from ODESSA 12 5 22 to Berlin, with a Berlin receiver on the reverse. The forty Odessa type 2 Trident overprinted 1 kopeck stamps have been revalued, following the RSFSR scheme to 1 rouble each to yield a 40 rouble franking. It's possible that the sender supplied the stamps, but for a Registered letter they at least had to be accepted by a post office clerk - the clerk who cancelled them at the counter. And because these are one kopeck yellow stamps, there is no missing the Trident overprint.

Thomas Berger provides an earlier example:

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This is also a Registered letter from Odessa to Berlin and again looks non-philatelic. The stamps are cancelled ODESSA 8 8 21. But this time the Tridents are examples of Poltava type 1 - but they are rare stamps, Bulat # 987 catalogued $140 each. 

It's true that Poltava tridents were at some time in post offices in Podilia and can be found on official formular cards, so it's possible they were also in  Odessa post office. However, the use of rare stamps out of their district of origin does (to my mind) make it less likely that these stamps were being used up by Odessa post office. But the 1921 date on this letter makes it possible (likely, even) that they were used before any official invalidation of tridents.

Here is another example of 1922 use, sent to me by Alexander Epstein:

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This is an ordinary letter sent from Molochansk, a Mennonite community in Taurida, to Czecholsovakia routed through Moscow. The stamps are cancelled 6 or 7 9 22. Revalued x 100, they yield a correct 45 rouble franking. But note ... the three 10 kopeck stamps are overprinted with Kyiv type 2 Tridents, clearly not so visible as on one kopeck stamps and which could have been missed by a clerk. Nonetheless, the letter looks non-philatelic and is the latest recorded date for any use of Trident stamps on a travelled letter. It is a bit problematic that these are Kyiv tridents: those Tridents did find their way into Podilia stamp stocks and maybe into Kherson and Katerynoslav stocks.But you would expect Molochansk to have stocked Odessa or Katerynoslav tridents.

What we really need is examples of Tridents used in late 1921 and into 1922 on official formular cards. In my previous Blog on this topic, I could not find any such official use later than May 1921. (See  my Blog for 23 September 2011)

Added February 2020: Most of my Ukraine-related Blog posts are now available in full colour book form. To find out more follow the link:

http://www.armeniazemstvo.com/2020/02/just-published-trevor-pateman.html

Russia 1920 Stamp Revaluations - the example of Spassk

In Spring 1920, the Soviet People's Commissariat for Posts and Telegraphs (Sovnarkompochtel) told the post offices under its control to revalue all their kopeck stamps denominated between 1 and 20 kopecks into equivalent rouble stamps: in other words, a one hundred times revaluation. This was a cheap and efficient way of conserving stamps at a time of inflation by making better use of low value stamps - in fact, 100 times better use!

Most post offices revalued their stamps "silently" - there is nothing to show the stamps are now rouble stamps. A few post offices produced cachets to apply to Money Transfer forms and Parcel Cards indicating that the stamps had been revalued. Some post offices overprinted their kopeck stamps with something - either a "p" or a "pyb" - to indicate that these were now rouble value stamps.

All of this was done without any philatelic inspiration or manipulation, which is a main reason why for most surcharged revaluations mint copies are unknown or virtually unknown - a fact which forgers have generally ignored. Only in a few cases were mint remainder stocks returned at a later date to Moscow and passed to the Soviet Philatelic Association. What was passed to the SPhA in massive quantities were bundles of used Money Transfer Forms and Parcel Cards on which most of the revalued stamps had been used. Of course, maybe ninety nine percent of formulars in the bundles had no Postmaster Provisional overprints, so that a very large job of sorting out had to be done.But despite the labour-intensive work, it was from these bundles from the archives that the SPhA made early catalogue listings of which post offices had produced what surcharges.Very few Postmaster Provisionals were used on letters or postcards since in 1920 these could be sent free, unless Registered or overweight.

Many Postmaster Provisional overprints appear to have been used by a single post office but some were distributed from a main office to local or dependent offices. This was true in the case of Spassk in Kazan guberniya, where maybe a dozen offices made use of the stamps produced in the Spassk office. The images below show my holding for these Provisionals - and the images probably indicate that collecting such things is not for the faint-hearted or for those with a desire for the beautiful. As usual, Click on the Images to magnify them.

Romanovs in the Soviet Union

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I came across this Banderole in a dealer's box. It reminded me that there is an interesting collection to be made from the posthumous (post - 1917) use of the 1913 Romanov Tercentenary issue and its associated stationeries.

The item shown is of course a 1 kopeck Romanov newspaper wrapper. It has been used as a Blank in 1932 by the Soviet Philatelic Association sending a journal to Austria. This is a very late use but it continues a practice established by the S Ph A in the 1920s to use / use up Romanov postal stationery. 

The Romanov stamps themselves were invalidated in Bolshevik Russia at the time of the x 100 Revaluation in 1920 but even then some later, sanctioned (non-philatelic) uses can be found. In a previous Blog I showed the 20 / 14 kop Romanov being used at x 100 on Money Transfers in 1920 Siberia; it was almost certainly being used as some kind of Postmaster Provisional in the context of a stamp shortage.

It seems that the Soviets were reasonably relaxed about the Romanov stamps, except those portraying Nicholas II. Late uses of those stamps are rare and probably illustrate no more than a philatelist taking a risk. How big a risk, I don't know.

Russia and Ukraine 1917 - 23: Private and Postmaster Perforations

Local perforations are usually neglected. There are two main reasons, I think. First, they are usually rare - an exception would be local perforations on stamps of Estonia 1918 - 1920. Second, partly because of this, it is often difficult to establish whether a perforation was the work of a post office (a "Postmaster provisional perforation") or the work of a private company (which wanted to speed up work in its post room) or the work of an enterprising philatelist who saw the chance of creating a variety.

The perforated Denikin stamp shown on the Money Transfer Form above is likely to remain a puzzle. It is being used in the Soviet period, revalued x 100 times. It has a heavy strike of the postmark of VOZNESENSK - RUDNIK, EKAT [erinoslav] 8 6 20, tying it to the card in such a way that it rules out any kind of manipulation of the stamp after use.

It is being used in an area of Ukraine occupied by Denikin's forces, so is a stamp left behind and now used as a Trophy stamp. The card is addressed outside Ukraine to Ivan, Orlovsk where it did indeed arrive 15 6 20.

It is perforated 9.5 - 10, so not the gauge used for officially perforated rouble value Denikins.

So who did it? The postmaster in this small office? It seems unlikely. But who else?

The only way to begin to solve the puzzle is to find more examples of low value Denikins perforated like this and maybe cancelled from the same office. Out there, such stamps probably exist, since when you perforate stamps you perforate sheets of them.

(This Money Transfer Form was in the Robert Taylor collection)

Added February 2020: Most of my Ukraine-related Blog posts are now available in full colour book form. To find out more follow the link:

http://www.armeniazemstvo.com/2020/02/just-published-trevor-pateman.html

RSFSR 1920 Revaluations: a new Provisional?

I spent three hours today online following Cherrystone's sale of the AURORA collection of RSFSR material. I bid for two items and bought one. For the rest I was a spectator, though I was very tempted by Lot 2189 when I saw it selling so cheaply ...

Lot 2024 which you can find illustrated at www.cherrystoneauctions.com is a 1920 Parcel Card (without insured value) sent from Nizhne-Chulylmskoe in Tomsk Guberniya to Bogorodosk Moscow Guberniya - so this is Soviet Tomsk rather than White Tomsk.

The 78 rouble charges correspond exactly to the kopeck value stamps affixed, all revalued 100 times. There is a 1 kop, a 2 kop, a 15 kop - and three 20 / 14 kop Romanovs (Catherine).

Well, I was attracted by the fact that this is a very late use of Romanovs, and also revalued like ordinary kopeck stamps. (I am making a collection of 1920 revalued uses).

It then occurred to me (after I had bought it) that not only is 23 September 1920 a very late date for use of Romanovs, but that actually Romanov stamps had been invalidated earlier in the year at the same time as ordinary kopeck stamps were revalued upwards x 100.

Now, I thought, it would be a bold counter clerk who would use invalidated and politically suspect stamps, three of them, on the front of a card going to Moscow. Maybe he was given some authorisation to use these stamps.

The I had another thought: Tomsk Guberniya. It is from Tomsk that we get the most famous of the 1920 Postmaster Provisionals: the k.20 k. / 14 kopeck (regular stamp not Romanov) which appears to be a postal forgery pressed into service in 1920 presumably because of stamp shortages. I have a copy used in October 1920 as a single franking on a Money Transfer Form, the stamp revalued from 20 kopecks to 20 roubles to pay the 2% due on a transfer of 1000 roubles.

And then I began to wonder: Did the (head ) Postmaster at Tomsk tell the postmasters of other offices under his administration - or at least the postmaster in charge of Nizhne-Chulymskoe - that because of the stamp shortages they faced, they could use any stamps they had in stock - including invalidated Romanovs?

If anything like that is the case, then my late use Romanovs are not only revalued but also Postmaster Provisionals. In which case, I may have not spent far too much money on this item after all :)