Diagonal handstamp overprint. Print run: 3,060 copies.
At first, the stamps were produced only as they were actually needed. Then, when collectors became interested—without hesitating to pay large sums for rare stamps—the issues 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, monopolized by 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, they were produced in relatively small quantities—far below real demand—so that supplies would run out quickly and the stamps would become rare.
The value of such rare stamps rose to fabulous amounts: for a 3-kopeck stamp, enthusiasts paid as much as 100 rubles. Sometimes the board chairman used a “brilliant” method: he ordered stamp issues with some exceptional feature differing from the rest of the order (an inverted numeral, a different color, imperforate, etc.), and in limited quantity. He then bought the entire issue at face value into his personal ownership and sold it afterward at a high price.
Along with this, even those stamp issues ordered by the board for the needs of the zemstvo post were often produced with certain peculiarities to attract even greater attention from collectors.
Stamp dealings were conducted by the board chairman P.P. Ganko on a huge scale. He issued a stamp catalog in which some items (a 1-kopeck stamp) are priced at 40 rubles. A complete set of various specimens of zemstvo stamps printed with every sort of artificial combination—inverted upside-down postmarks, lack of perforations, color changes, etc.—is sold by him, excluding the rarest ones already 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 journal 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 activity of the “collector-monopolist” P.P. Ganko, the audit commission states that the atmosphere in the zemstvo had become unbearable, having a demoralizing effect on the zemstvo service staff.
One of the members of the audit commission of the Poltava uyezd zemstvo, Mr. Bykov, learned about Mr. Ganko’s trade abroad by chance. 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 “business.”
The audit commission’s report caused stormy debate.
Summoned to answer, Mr. Ganko denied selfish motives 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 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 the 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 theme of the design, and the design itself were unusual for that era.
On five of them, several monuments erected in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava are shown in a picturesque frame. On the 1- and 2-kopeck stamps are images 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 shows a monument erected in 1849 on the spot where Peter I rested after the battle. The 10-kopeck stamp depicts the burial site of Russian soldiers who died in the Battle of Poltava. The last stamp in the series (15 kopecks) bears a portrait of Peter I.
On March 1, 1903, the zemstvo post of the 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 correspondence, 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 canceled with circular, oval, and rectangular handstamps.