Zemstvos which did not issue stamps but did run postal services

In recent years, Zemstvo collectors have become interested in those Zemstvos which did not issue stamps but which did run postal services, the evidence for which is found in cachets and cancellations. This is not an easy interest to pursue. First, as far as I know, there is no Directory of Zemstvos which did run postal services - and some of them, presumably, for only a short period of time. Second, forgers have been quick to spot an opportunity in this recent area of collecting interest - they add cachets and cancels of their own making to boring items of mail with vaguely relevant despatch or arrival points. Like most forgers, these Zemstvo forgers make fairly obvious mistakes.

Money Letters are things I usually avoid - collectors hate them because of the wax seals which break up and leave trails of red or balck  flakes and so on. But recently I bought an old and unstudied accumulation which looked interesting. In the end, it wasn't very interesting apart from a few items including the one below. In order to avoid re-typing I have scanned my write up so you have to go to the end to see what it is all about ....

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Zemstvo Stamps on Postcards Three examples from Ustsysolsk

In recent years, Forgers have spent many many hours going through boxes of cheap Russian postcards circa 1900 – 1917 looking for ones which could be “improved” by the addition of Zemstvo stamps – or even Zemstvo stamps combined with new Imperial stamps applied to replace the ones which unthinking collectors had removed in the distant past.

Some of these forgeries are childish but still fool collectors and the editors of serious philatelic journals: look at those below, two of many promoted to the pages of specialist Journals by the late George Werbizky. They hardly need comment. If you can’t see that they are Forgeries, you shouldn’t be collecting Zemstvos.

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But some forgeries are much better and, as a result, all late use of Zemstvo stamps on postcards must be treated with suspicion. But sometimes doing the necessary Forensics is not so difficult. Look at the two cards below, for example:

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The first card – a typical Easter greetings card - was posted in Moscow and cancelled there on 1 4 14 with one strike on the stamp (paying the correct Tariff) and a standard second strike to the left. In any of the world’s flea markets it would cost very little.

The Ustsysolsk Zemstvo stamp adds a lot of value, even though the basic stamp here is a common one. It has a cancellation which appears to be one employed in Ustsysolsk Zemstvo, but weakly struck. A perfect strike can be seen on a cover in the Faberge sale (Lot 2548) where it can be seen to read USTSYSOLSKAYAR ZEMSKAYAR POCHTA. 

But on this card, and unlike the two Moscow cancels, it does not come through as a raised impression on the front of the card. So could it be a fake?

You can safely conclude that the answer is “No” without elaborate Forensic examination of the cancellation. This is because the address is very helpful:

In the first line, partly obscured by the Zemstvo stamp you can work out that the card is addressed to Ustsysolsk in Vologda guberniya. That is the kind of address Forgers love to find. But what comes next in the second line is what decides the question: the sender has written the words “Zemstvo Post” and further specified what seems to be an address in the Zemstvo which is underlined in red (probably by a Zemstvo postal official).

Anyway, the address leaves me in no doubt that this is a genuine Imperial + Zemstvo combination card.

It also helps me with another card, the third one illustrated above, apparently locally sent within the Zemstvo. 

This is a New Year greetings card dated 24 XII 1912. On the romantic front of the card is the name “Maria” surrounded by flowers and the card is being sent to a woman called Maria.  In fact, it’s the same Maria at the same address as on the previous card. So I reckon that if the previous card is an entirely genuine item so is this card.

In conclusion, here is a third card sent to Ustsysolsk from Vologda in 1912. Same stamp, same Zemstvo Post cancellation, and genuine. And the condition is much more like that you should expect than that of the Forgeries which George Werbizky liked to show.

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Crude Zemstvo Fakes in a Serious Collector Journal

Back on 16 August 2010 I complained about serious collector journals allowing contributors to show off fake material as if it is genuine. Of course, they believe their material is genuine, they just haven't looked at it carefully enough.

Here's another example from the British Journal of Russian Philately #101, just published. Full of excellent material by deeply knowledgeable collectors like Dr Raymond Casey (Ship Mail), Jack Moyes (Fiscals and Vignettes) Edward Klempka and Terry Page (Zemstvos), it also gives a page to the crude fakes shown above.

I do not have the cards in front of me, so I cannot tell you if the NIKOLSK and NIKOLSK ZEMSTVO postmarks are digital forgeries or made with handstamps. But even in a black and white illustration it is possible to see that the ink of the NIKOLSK postmark is wrong for an Imperial postmark of this period.

The use of large format Currency Stamps and War Charity stamps make it possible for the forger to cover up what was originally on the postcards - the low value Imperial Arms stamp or stamps and associated postmarks. So a thorough forensic analysis of these cards would involve steaming off the stamps to see what is underneath.

Perhaps it is not even necessary. On the second card, look to the left of the "29" of the NIKOLSK VOLOG cancel and you can see what may be part of a postmark obscured by the two stamps. On the top card, look at the gap between the Nikolsk Zemstvo stamp and the first Currency Stamp. There is clearly something underneath...