Typographic overprint. Print run of 25 copies.
At first, the stamps were produced as the actual need for them arose. Then, when collectors became interested—people not reluctant to pay large sums for rare stamps—the issue of these stamps gradually began to be adjusted not to the zemstvo’s need for them, but to collectors’ demand. As a result, an entire trade in zemstvo stamps emerged, the monopolist of which was the brother of the former chairman P. P. Ganko, who did not abandon this profitable occupation even after he himself took the chairman’s seat.
To give zemstvo stamps special value in the eyes of collectors, the stamps were produced in relatively small quantities—far below the real need for them—with the aim that the supply would quickly run out and they would become a rarity.
The price of such rare stamps rose to fabulous figures: for a 3-kopeck stamp, enthusiasts paid 100 rubles. Sometimes the chairman of the board used a “brilliant” method: he would order issues of stamps with some distinctive feature compared with the rest of the order (an inverted numeral, a different color, without perforations, etc.), and in a limited quantity. He would buy up such issues in full at face value for his personal possession and then sell them at a high price.
Along with this, even those issues of stamps that were ordered by the board for the needs of the zemstvo post were often produced with certain special features in order to attract even greater attention from collectors.
Operations with stamps are conducted by the chairman of the board, P. P. Ganko, on an enormous scale. He has issued a stamp catalog in which some items (of one kopeck) are priced at 40 rubles. A complete set of various examples of zemstvo stamps, printed with all kinds of artificial combinations—upside-down cancels, absence of perforations, changes of color, etc.—is sold by him, excluding those that have already become the rarest and are valued at hundreds of rubles apiece, for 476 rubles 10 kopecks, whereas he himself acquired these stamps from his own board for 5 rubles 75 kopecks.
Among other things, in one foreign magazine these operations are advertised with an image of the “seal for packets of the Poltava zemstvo board.”
Citing a number of characteristic examples of the activity of the “collector-monopolist” P. P. Ganko, the audit commission says that an intolerable atmosphere has developed in the zemstvo, demoralizing the zemstvo service staff.
One of the members of the audit commission of the Poltava district zemstvo, Mr. Bykov, learned about Mr. Ganko’s trade by chance abroad. It turns out that among foreign collectors, the modest name of the chairman of the Poltava district zemstvo board enjoys wide renown. Russian major collectors are also well acquainted with Mr. Ganko’s “trade.”
The report of the audit commission provoked heated debate.
Called to account, Mr. Ganko denied selfish aims in his trade.
“I was a collector, like many others,” he declared.
The audit commission proposed that the assembly recognize the actions of P. P. Ganko as not corresponding to the dignity of the chairman of the board. The assembly adopted this resolution by secret ballot.
The “Ardatov type” stamp is the philatelic name of the fifth design type used by EZGB for the issue of zemstvo postage stamps from 1902. According to published sources, the name was assigned after Ardatov Uyezd, for whose stamp printing it was first used. 3rd edition.
March 1, 1903 — the zemstvo post of Poltava Uyezd (Poltava Governorate) was opened. Correspondence was dispatched twice a week from the uyezd center, the city of Poltava, to 17 volosts of the uyezd. Zemstvo postage stamps were used to pay for private correspondence: ordinary letters were paid with 3-kopeck stamps, and registered letters with 6-kopeck stamps. They are very diverse in printing method and purpose (official, for ordinary and registered wrappers, money correspondence, etc.).
In 1908, commemorative stamps were issued for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava.
Many issues depict the uyezd coat of arms. The stamps were printed in private printing houses, and from 1905 at EZGB.
Imperforate stamps are of unofficial origin and were intended for collectors. The stamps were canceled with round, oval, and rectangular postmarks.