2nd issue of Armenia postage stamps. Type 2.
Russian stamps of the 1909β1917 issues, as well as the stamps of the First issue of Armenia, were overprinted with a monogram. The overprint did not change the face value of the stamps; its purpose was to record the new state affiliation of Armeniaβs stamps, to require the population to purchase stamps only at the post-office counter, andβby eliminating the possibility of paying for postal services with stamps bought from speculators at the expense of the post officeβto fully protect the financial interests of the postal administration.
A significant number of provisional issues are associated with the Civil War of 1918β1922. At that time, there was no stable central authority across most of the country; many regions became independent, and, due to devastation and war, there was substantial inflation. Frequent tariff changes and the inability to supply the postal network with stamps of the required denominations led to periodic revaluations of existing stock in accordance with instructions from the Peopleβs Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs of the RSFSR, which did not provide for any overprints. However, in some localities, certain post offices still applied overprints to the revalued stamps being sold, or simply wrote on them by hand. All these stamps are characterized by an extremely simple overprinting technique.