Typographic overprint. Print run of 50 copies.
At first, the stamps were produced as actual need for them arose. Then, when collectors became interested in them—without hesitation to pay large sums for rare stamps—the production of these stamps gradually began to be tailored 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 comparatively small quantities—far below real need—so that the supply would quickly be exhausted 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 board chairman used such a “brilliant” device: he would order issues of stamps with some feature that set them apart from the rest of the order (an inverted numeral, a different color, no perforations, etc.), and moreover in limited quantities. He would then buy up these issues in full at face value for his personal ownership, and afterwards sell them at a high price.
Alongside this, even those issues of stamps that were ordered by the board for the needs of the zemstvo post were often produced with certain features to attract still greater attention from collectors.
Operations with stamps are conducted by the board chairman, P. P. Ganko, on an enormous scale. He has issued a stamp catalog in which some specimens (one kopeck) are priced at 40 rubles. A complete set of various examples of zemstvo stamps, printed with all kinds of artificial combinations—inverted seals, lack of perforations, color changes, 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 purchased 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 parcels of the Poltava zemstvo board.”
Citing a whole series of characteristic examples of the activity of the “collector-monopolist” P. P. Ganko, the audit commission says that the atmosphere in the zemstvo has become intolerable, having a demoralizing effect on the zemstvo staff.
One of the members of the audit commission of the Poltava county zemstvo, Mr. Bykov, learned about Mr. Ganko’s trade by chance while abroad. It turns out that among foreign collectors, the modest name of the chairman of the Poltava county zemstvo board enjoys wide renown. Russian major collectors are also well acquainted with Mr. Ganko’s “trade.”
The audit commission’s report provoked heated debate.
Summoned to account, Mr. Ganko denied any self-serving aims in his trade.
“I was a collector, like many others,” he declared.
The audit commission proposed that the assembly recognize P. P. Ganko’s actions as not befitting the dignity of the board chairman. The assembly adopted this resolution by secret ballot.
The “Ardatov type” stamp is the philatelic name for the fifth design type used by EZGB for issuing zemstvo postage stamps from 1902 onward. According to published sources, the name was assigned after Ardatov Uyezd, for whose stamp printing it was used for the first time. Third edition.
March 1, 1903 — the zemstvo post of Poltava Uyezd (Poltava Governorate) was opened. Mail 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/service, 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 circular, oval, and rectangular handstamps.