Transcaucasian Federation Revenue Stamps and Documents

I've always liked the general issue postage stamps and revenue stamps of the Transcaucasian Federation. It's relatively easy and inexpensive to build a specialised collection and there is no major Forgery problem to deal with. But one challenge is to find the stamps and revenue stamps used in Armenia - they constitute only a small percentage of the total available material.

Below are images of parts of two Revenue documents originating in Yerevan. I liked these when I saw them. They are neat, they are simple and they are entirely credible.

Click on Image to Magnify

Click on Image to Magnify

Both documents are the work of the same clerk, a person with neat handwriting and a consistent style. He or she has the habit of writing across the fiscal stamp, thus tying it to the document, a bonus for the collector.

The first 1923 document uses an unoverprinted Federation general revenue stamp, the top value 500 000. Then in 1924 (February) , the clerk is using the new currency overprinted version [Zakiyan # 8] which revalues the stamp to 1 rouble 25 kopecks in "Chervonets" [ gold currency] roubles. It's interesting that the Currency change has - in effect - left unchanged what it takes to frank the kind of documents this clerk was working on. This is one reason why they make a nice pair for display.