Russia Revenues: Imperial Moscow Police residence permit stamps, first issue

St Petersburg and Moscow police departments began using adhesive stamps to record payment of residence permit fees in the 1860s. Most St Petersburg stamps are common, though one is a great rarity, but Moscow’s are not common even though they remained in use until at least 1881 when new stamps prepared by the State Printing Works were issued.

Nothing about the first Moscow issue suggests it was printed by those State works. The gum, the variable paper, the wide variation in colour, the deterioration of the printing plate, the lack of alignment of individual stamp clichés – all this is well below the standard achieved by the State works. The stamps look like a job which might have been done in-house by the Police department itself. To me, the stamps look as if printed by lithography, the plates retained over a long period and the quality of the print greatly deteriorating.

It is quite difficult to study the issue for four reasons. First, the scarcity of large mint multiples for plating purposes. Second, the impossibility of dating the use of stamps which have been taken off document, where they were always cancelled by a simple pen cross. Third, and connectedly, the difficulty in distinguishing printings when there appears to be wide variation within printings and not just between them. Fourth, the scarcity of stamps used even on a fragment of a document. In addition, lacking access to the relevant sources I do not know what the fee structure was or how it changed.

On the pages illustrated below I have assembled over 100 Moscow stamps now in my possession. About half of them have pencil notes on the reverse which indicate that they are from Agathon Faberge’s collection. These notes are dated between 1900 and 1907, though some notes do not give a date. It is my belief that Faberge annotated stamps that he bought individually but that, in addition, he bought bundleware or kiloware of these stamps for research purposes and only annotated those where he noticed something unusual. My guess is that in the 1900 – 1914 period Faberge owned and studied many hundreds of these stamps, now dispersed across many collections.

My assembly does not include two varieties listed in the John Barefoot catalogue: an error of colour on the 5 kopeck printed in blue instead of the correct green; and a perforated version of the 5 kopeck green. I have never seen either and would be pleased to illustrate them here if anyone has either of them. Added: John McMahon has kindly provided the following scan of his error of colour stamp. This appears to be the only recorded copy,from the Marcovitch collection. However, to my eye, the blue would be more convincing if it could be matched to the same blue appearing on a 3 kop stamp (the 3 kop stamps were printed in blue). 

I can show two varieties identified by A Faberge: bisects on the 2 kopek and manuscript revaluation of a 2 kopek stamp to 3 kopeks.

On my very provisional pages, I have copied back-of-stamp A Faberge’s notes and written them underneath the stamps on which they are found. Any notes above the stamps are mine. Click on Images to Magnify.

Moscow Fiscals of the 1860s - a rival to Zemstvos?

Click on Image to Magnify

You could probably find 9 copies of Russia #1 faster than you could find 9 examples of the Moscow Town Police revenue stamps shown above. These revenue stamps date from the 1860s. Their design and printing is much inferior to that of Russia #1 - so if you like "primitive" Zemstvo stamps you might like these too.

It is obvious that there is great variation in colour - in Row 2, for example,  the first stamp is almost black but the second stamp is chestnut brown (this second stamp was acquired by Agathon Fabergé in 1906 - pencil note on reverse). The printing plate -which I guess is lithographic - also deteriorated. The stamps in the right hand column are from worn plates. Look at the ornaments in the four corners to get an idea of what happens as the plate is used: the detail and shading disappear.

Because these stamps were used and used up before philately got really established - or began to take an interest in revenue stamps - it is very unusual to find multiples or mint stamps. Agathon Fabergé occasionally had mint stamps with full gum in his collection but for these 1860s issues they are rare. Sometimes these stamps were not cancelled so it looks as if they are mint - like the chestnut brown stamp above - but in fact they have no gum and simply lack a pen cross cancel.

It's cold and snowing here in Brighton today so I am spending the morning preparing more auction lots for www.filateliapalvelu.com 

These Moscow fiscals should appear in that auction later in 2013.