Diagonal handstamp overprint. Print run: 140 copies.
At first, the stamps were produced as actual need arose. Later, when collectors began to take an interest in them—people not reluctant to pay large sums for rare stamps—the issuance of these stamps gradually began to be tailored not to the zemstvo’s needs, 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 collectors’ eyes, the stamps were produced in comparatively small quantities—far below the real need for them—so that the stock would quickly run out and they would become scarce.
The price of such rare stamps rose to fabulous figures: for a 3-kopeck stamp, enthusiasts paid as much as 100 rubles. Sometimes the board chairman used a truly brilliant trick: he would order stamp issues with some feature unique within the overall order (an inverted numeral, a different color, without perforations, etc.), and moreover in limited quantity. He would buy such issues in full at face value into his personal ownership, and then sell them at a high price.
Alongside this, even those stamp issues ordered by the board for the needs of the zemstvo post were often produced with some special features to attract still greater attention from collectors.
Stamp operations are carried out by the board chairman P.P. Ganko on an enormous scale. He has published a stamp catalog in which some specimens (1 kopeck) are priced at 40 rubles. A complete set of various types of zemstvo stamps, printed with every kind of artificial combination—inverted upside-down cancels, 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 each, 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 illustration of the “seal for parcels of the Poltava zemstvo board.”
Citing a whole series of characteristic examples of the activities 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 zemstvo staff.
One of the members of the audit commission of the Poltava uyezd zemstvo, Mr. Bykov, learned of Mr. Ganko’s trade by chance while abroad. It turns out that among foreign collectors, the modest name of the chairman of the Poltava uyezd zemstvo board is widely known. Russian major collectors are also well acquainted with Mr. Ganko’s “trade.”
The audit commission’s report provoked heated debate.
Summoned to answer, Mr. Ganko denied selfish aims in his trade.
“I was a collector, like many others,” he stated.
The audit commission proposed that the assembly recognize P.P. Ganko’s actions as inconsistent with the dignity of the board chairman. The assembly adopted this resolution by secret ballot.
Monuments series. The first commemorative issue of zemstvo stamps was released in Poltava Uyezd in 1909. It was dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the defeat of the Swedes at Poltava and consisted of 7 stamps.
The stamps were printed at one of the best printing houses of the time, Golike and Vilborg in St. Petersburg, and enjoyed great success. Their format, the subject matter of the design, and the design itself were unusual for that era.
Five of them, in a picturesque frame, show several monuments erected in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava. On the 1- and 2-kopeck stamps are depictions of monuments installed on the battlefield in 1909. The third stamp (3 kopecks) bears an image of the “Monument of Glory” located in Poltava; the fourth (5 kopecks) reproduces a monument honoring the commandant of the Poltava garrison. The 6-kopeck stamp depicts a monument erected in 1849 on the spot where Peter I rested after the battle. The 10-kopeck stamp shows the burial site of Russian soldiers killed in the Battle of Poltava. The last stamp in the series (15 kopecks) features a portrait of Peter I.
On 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, for ordinary and registered wrappers, money remittances, etc.).
Many issues depict the uyezd coat of arms. The stamps were printed in private printing houses; from 1905, at EZGB.
Imperforate stamps are of unofficial origin and were intended for collectors. The stamps were cancelled with circular, oval, and rectangular handstamps.