Azerbaijan 1921 Pictorials - A Curious Discovery

Azerbaijan's 1921 Soviet pictorials were printed on large sheets of newsprint and normally cut up along gutters into smaller half sheets before distribution; remainder uncut sheets were sold off in the 1930s but usually cut up either by dealers or collectors - they are just too big! The printing was actually carried out to quite a high standard and the one major error - inverted clichés in the 3000 rouble sheets - appears not to have been philatelically motivated.

As most collectors know, the 5000 rouble top value exists in a variety where the middle of the stamp has an extra green colour wash. This is normally regarded as an unissued trial, for example by Dr Ceresa in his Handbook. The issued stamp does not have the extra wash and as a result is rather less attractive. Here are images of matched corner blocks (from blocks of 36), the "trial" shown second for a reason soon to become clear:

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Now the 5000 rouble top value was widely used just like all top values in periods of high inflation. Mint multiples like my block of 36 are scarce, maybe even very scarce. There were few remainders of this stamp. In contrast, the stamp with the extra colour wash is common in mint multiples - it was sold off with the remainders of the issued stamps. But why wasn't it issued? If stocks of the 5000 r were running short, why weren't the large quantities of this "trial" pressed into use? I think I have an answer.

Look at the issued stamp. At the corners of the stamps you can see printer's guidelines which have not been cleaned off the lithographic plate. In my block of 36 it is only in the top two rows that these guidelines can be seen - in the rest of the block they have been cleaned off or weren't used.

Now look at the unissued stamp.There are some traces of guidelines under the darker wash but basically they have gone. They have been partially removed, cleaned off. For example, look at the top right corner stamp and look underneatth the "5000" and the "pyb" on both blocks.

This is strange - if the Trial was printed first, it would surely have the guidelines at least as clear as on the later printing.

I conclude: the so-called "Trial" was a second, later printing of the 5000 rouble made when stocks of that top value stamp were running out. The appearance was improved by adding the second colour wash. But then for some reason, the new printing was not put into use. Maybe it was made obsolete by the issues of the Transcaucasian Federation of 1923 or maybe the printers ran out of green ink before a useable quantity could be printed. Certainly, it was not issued and was sold off as remainder stock in the 1930s.

Michel mentions the unissued variety; Gibbons does not. 

Any Comments?

Postscript 15 February 2015: Just to complicate matters, I remembered I have the stamp below. No gum, no hinges, no signatures. I have only this one copy. It may be that rare thing for this issue - a Trial: 

Russia 1917 - 1923 : Non-Speculative Stamp Issues

Very early on in postage stamp history, control over some stamp issues fell into the hands of people hoping to make a profit from sales to collectors rather than wanting to prepare stamps to meet a genuine postal need. Surprisingly, there are quite a few issues from former Imperial Russia during the 1917 - 23 period which were not speculative in this sense.

How to distinguish? Here are some of the criteria for what I would call a genuine stamp issue:

• control over the issue is in the hands of a postal authority 
• the printers have at least some features of what we would now call "security printers", securing the production process to prevent unauthorised printings by workers; disposing of printers' waste; keeping account of the number of stamps produced; not producing deliberate errors and varieties; and so on
• the issued stamps are widely distributed to functioning post offices in the territory controlled by the postal authority
• the stamps can be freely bought over the counter
• more stamps are used non-philatelically than are stuck on philatelic covers or cancelled to order for collectors and dealers
• the quantity of essays, proofs, trials, is reasonable in relation to what is required by the production process. If a committee of 20 has to decide on colours, then of course the printer will produce at least 20 sets of the possibilities on offer. But not 2 000. (In practice, a colour trial is produced by printing off at least one sheet so the minimum number of copies which can be produced corresponds to the sheet size)
• no one value in a set is selected for production in artificially limited numbers and excluded from general distribution

And so on. Most or all of these criteria are met by:

• the first issue (the "Flowers") of Estonia
• the first general issue of Ukraine
• the Don and Kuban overprints
• the "One Russia" stamps of General Denikin
• the first Musavat issue of Azerbaijan (though the short life of the Musavat regime limited actual postal use)
• the 1921 "Chita" issue stamps of Siberia
• the 1923 "Yerevan" pictorial set of Armenia
• the 1923 pictorial issue of the Transcaucasian Federation - probably the most tightly controlled of all these issues

There are others: Podillia Tridents are a surprising example of good security printing: all those handstamps but no variation in ink colours and hardly any inverted overprints.

Anyway, all the above stamps have low catalogue values. They were definitive stamps (Dauermarken) intended for regular use and, in general, were actually used quite widely. So in each case - except Azerbaijan  - it is possible to make a collection, at fairly reasonable cost, not only of the basic mint stamps but of cancellations, covers - and, very occasionally and more expensively, errors and varieties; proofs and trials. (For some of these issues, trial and proof material does not appear to exist. In most cases, there was extensive remainder material later sold off - often by the Soviet Philatelic Association - to the stamp trade.)

St Petersburg Numeral Cancellations - Relative Scarcity

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One of my oldest and most loyal clients, M Jacques Vigneron, collects the Numeral Cancellations of St Petersburg. As a researcher, interested in all aspects of the use of the Numeral Cancellations, he buys nearly everything that he finds so that his collection probably gives a very good idea of relative scarcity. At the last count, he had 1556 items in his collection, and with his kind permission I reproduce below the breakdown by Numeral, but ordered from most common to least common:

# 1     536 items    = 34.4%

# 4     148    = 9.5%
# 9     148    = 9.5%
# 6     136    = 8.7%

# 7     109    = 7.0%
# XI   109    = 7.0%

# 5        87    = 5.6%
# 8        84    = 5.4%
# 3        83    = 5.3%

# 14      54    = 3.5%

# 2         31    = 2.0%
# 13       22    = 1.4%

# 15         7    = 0.4%

# 31         2    = 0.1%

# 16         0    = 0%
# 17         0    = 0%

A notable feature of the Numeral Cancellations is that though they are found on letters, cards and banderoles, their use is confined almost entirely to cancelling low value stamps so that a numeral cancel on a stamp above 20 kopecks in face value is really very uncommon.

Added 31 January 2015: Kaj Hellman kindly contributes the following Comments from Helsinki:

It is  very interesting to see these statistics about SPB numeral postmarks !  Most probably nobody has ever done it before.

I had a collection of these already when in secondary school  (that is a long time ago !) .  Then I even exhibited them in the AMPHILEX 1967 youth class.  I had never found the highest numbers , but my dad found the number 16 on a fragment in an antiquarian shop -  that was a lucky day !  This number 16 is perhaps the rarest.  I believe that Oleg Fabergé did not have it. To see in these statistics  that #14 is in scarcity so close to #3 ,  #5  and  #8  is a bit astonishing.  I was always thinking that I can always find the numbers between 1 - XI ,  even in quantities, but that  2, 13, 14 and 15  are the difficult ones .   And the highest numbers  16,  17 and 31 are rarities .  

There was plenty of mail between  St.Petersburg and Finland .  Therefore these numbers can still easily be found here on cards and covers.  Also they have been a very popular field of collecting among Finnish collectors -  especially because there are so many different types.

By the way,  Numbers 16 and 31 I will have in my big March Auction in Helsinki!

Kaj Hellman

 
               

Armenia: Imperial "Erivan" cancellations

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Stefan Berger (ArGe Russland), Edward Klempka (British Society of Russian Philately) and I are making a study of Imperial Erivan cancellations which continued in use after 1917. In particular, we are interested in the common and much-forged ERIVAN "d" shown above in an early state. I will add to this Blog any examples, genuine or forged, which readers send me to trevor@trevorpateman.co.uk

We are particularly interested in 1917 -1925 uses. As with other Imperial cancellations of this period ( for example, for Baku), the date uses a style in which there is a dot (punkt) after the month but not after the day, so in the above example 24 4. 15  Forgeries do not always get this feature right. However, it may be that for a short period , the dot after the month is missing (maybe it fell out). We would like to see examples that may show this variety. The cancellation is normally found in black or grey-black. However, for a short period a violet or violet-black ink pad was used and we would like to see examples of this use. Thank you! 

Added 2 February 2015: Here is an unusual philatelic cover, cancelled with ERIVAN "d" on 21 4. 20. At this time, favour cancellations on framed Z stamps were often made with this canceller using a fairly intense black ink, though one which is probably diluted in comparison to the 1915 ink. The name  ERIVAN prints crisply but the two stars *  * at the bottom of the cancellation are no longer sharply defined as in the 1915 cancel above and nor is the "d". The dot after the month is  clearly visible. Because of the date similarities between the 1915 and 1920 cancellations, it can also be seen that the same numerals are in use - look at the first closed "2" and the open "4" of the month:

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The cover is interesting because made by a British visitor to Erivan. Commander Luke also visited Baku and at one time I owned a similar cover, which I bought from Eric Peel, similarly self-addressed, but franked with a set of Musavat stamps. I forget who bought it from me but I would welcome a scan of it in order to confirm Commander Luke's handwriting. Interestingly, none of the framed Z overprints on this cover are in violet and none are values which one associates with Serebrakian's activities at this time - for example, 7 and 10 kop stamps. So Peter Ashford may be right in his suggestion that Commander Luke simply bought what was available at the counter. Maybe he used up the money in his pocket to arrive at a franking of 56 roubles 34 kopecks

Armenia 1920 Chassepot Issue: Why Do Collectors Prefer Chicory to Coffee?

In the just-ended Internet auction at filateliapalvelu.com, I consigned twenty or so Lots of Armenia. As usual, I described all the material as Genuine, Reprint or Forged - and the Genuine material came with good signatures like Romeko, good provenance like Ashford, or new Stefan Berger Opinions. I have studied Armenian stamps for over 20 years but I like to have a Second Opinion.

Some of the Genuine material sold, but there was very little competition and some collectors got some very nice items very cheap. All the Reprints and all the Forged material sold, and there was a lot of competition - the material was sold at three or four times the Start prices.

For the 1920 Chassepot issue - so-called after the Paris printers who produced it - I only sent Reprint material to the auction. The genuine Original stamps do not sell - I have tried and the results are disappointing. It's a bit of a puzzle why buyers prefer the Reprints - including the Makulatur varieties which are common: imperforates, missing centres, inverted centres and so on. You don't usually expect people to prefer Chicory to Coffee, Ersatz to Original.

I remember twenty years ago visiting Dr Ceresa. He produced a box. It had come from a Swiss auction and had originally weighed 12 kilos. Dr Ceresa had taken out what he wanted for reference and offered me the remainders, all of it Chassepot reprint material. I paid a penny a stamp. I think Dr Ceresa made a profit. I made a profit too because I soon found someone who wanted to buy thousands from me, at 3 pennies a stamp. But that was in the days before the Internet.

Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, I can get more than 3 pennies a stamp and for the Makulatur Inverted Centres and Missing Centres, a lot more. Other people have made the same discovery.

Here for example from a current auction in Germany - a leading auction house - is a sheet of the 70 rouble Spinner, imperforate with Inverted Centre. The Start price is 2500 euro. Of course, it's  Reprint material - even the small picture allows you to see this but if you want to see more clearly what Reprint material looks like, I show a half sheet of the same Inverted Centre stamp which I happen to have lying around the office. Like the sheet in the auction, my half sheet is gummed:

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In contrast, I can only show you a block of 4 of the same variety from the Original printing. Probably nothing bigger than a block of 4 exists. This one came from the Robert H Cunliffe collection of Inverted Centres of the World. I paid over 1000 euros for it. It's most unlikely that I will ever get my money back. But I will cover the loss with profits on the sale of Chicory.

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And here is a matching block of four from the Original printing, but with the centre the right way up:

And here is a block of Reprints with the centre inverted so that you can see the coarse printing, especially of the centre:  

REPRINTS were made from a re-set plate with wider spacing between stamps. The printing method was changed, the printing is coarse, the inks different in colour, the paper and the gum different. As Reprints go, they are very, very easy to distinguish.

John Bulat on the First General Issue of Ukraine 1918

An article by Roman Procyk in the latest Ukrainian Philatelist (# 112, "Shahivky and Perforations: 50 Years after Ian Baillie's Pioneering study") reminded me of one of the stupidest remarks I have ever read in a stamp catalogue.

In his much-used book of Ukrainian Philately,John Bulat lists the First General Issue of Ukraine, including what he regards as the officially perforated varieties (which command a premium on the imperforates) and then adds, "Privately rouletted perforations and rough perforations have also been reported but these command no premium" (p 3).

Really? Since when have postmaster provisional perforations or perforations made privately for use in the mail rooms of large companies not had a philatelic interest? And when you come across them - which in the case of the First General Issue of Ukraine is rarely -  do you sell them to your chums at "no premium"?

I don't think I have seen the "Official" perforations postally used on cover, but at some point I acquired a stock of Cancelled to Order multiples of the 50 Shahiv, all cancelled KIEV 23 10 18, as on the block of 4 with full gum shown below, which may provide reliable information about when and where they were issued:

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Perforations or roulettes ordered up by local postmasters are, at this period, likely to show up on Money Transfer Forms or Parcel Cards. I forget where they came from, but I once had quite a stock of 20 Shahiv stamps crudely perforated - sometimes only vertically - and clearly used on formular cards in vertical strips. They were all cancelled TROSTYANETS and in the case of those that remain with me they are dated 27 10 18. The stamps had been soaked from the formular cards after those had been pierced with punch holes: see the two strips below where the punch hole damage is visible on the reverse. Curiously, other values do not appear to have been perforated at Trostyanets, or at least that is true of this multiple cancelled 11 10 18:

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In 1918, Ukraine's economy was more active than Russia's and it would have made sense for banks or other businesses with busy mailing rooms to perforate imperforate stamps. There was already a precedent: the Imperial Arms imperforates of Russia issued from 1917 on had already been subject to private perforating, most frequently on the 5 kopeck. But I cannot show a cover which would link a perforation to a particular company. As loose stamps, like the one below, private perforations cannot be fully assessed. But note that once again it has an October 1918 date:

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The Zelonka collection contained quite a number of private perforations and roulettes on the Shahiv stamps, some of which were in Lot 50 at the 2011 Corinphila sale (Start 3000 CHF; sold 6000 CHF)

Get past John Bulat's stupid remark and a specialised but rewarding area of collecting opens up, as Roman Procyk illustrates in his interesting article

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

August Augustovich Revest

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Collectors of Transcaucasia 1917 - 1923 will occasionally find the handstamp A.REVEST on the backs of stamps. From Googling, I found only that A. Revest was a member of Rossica in the 1950s and living in France. He had stamps of Transcaucasia for sale.

I bought the above cover as a nice example of a 10 rouble Registered franking from 1920. Sent from Kharkiv to Baku in June 1920, it has a pair of perforated 3r50 stamps used at face value and an imperforate 3 kopeck (with Kharkiv type 1 Trident) revalued x 100.

I looked at the front and noticed the name "Revest" at the bottom and I translate the first name and patronymic as "August Augustovich". If I am right, then this is most likely to be the A.REVEST of the handstamps, living in Baku in 1920.

Does anyone have more information?

Added 5 Feb 2015: Here is A. REVEST's signature on the back of a (genuine) Armenian stamp: