Type 3 of applying a surcharge marking with the value increased 100-fold, on the overprint “Trident Ukraine” on a 1917 Russian Empire stamp.
After the coup d’etat of 29–30 April 1918 and the coming to power of Hetman P. Skoropadskyi, the People’s Republic was abolished, and Ukraine was proclaimed the Ukrainian State. The Ukrainian postal administration had substantial stocks of such stamps. To use them and to prevent identical stamps from other regions from entering circulation, which would have harmed the Ukrainian treasury, on 20 August 1918 the Hetmanate Ministry of Posts decided to overprint all available stocks of Russian stamps with the Ukrainian state emblem—the Trident of Saint Volodymyr.
It was impossible to do this centrally under the conditions of the Civil War. Therefore, the overprints were applied by local authorities simultaneously across all postal districts, using the technical means available, often by hand. This resulted in great diversity in the types and graphic execution of the overprints.
Research identified 52 main trident types, 68 variants, and 13 printing errors—a total of 133 principal varieties. The overprints were made in six postal districts: Kyiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Katerynoslav, Odesa, and Podillia.
Ukrainian provisional postage stamps began to be forged as early as late 1918 in Southern Ukraine, and later counterfeits were produced by speculators abroad. They forged overprints and postal cancellations and even created non-existent denominations, the so-called “fantasy” issues. The Union of Philatelists of Ukraine in Germany successfully identified these counterfeits.
Money was losing value, and there arose a need to increase postal rates. A decree of the Council of People’s Commissars, signed by V. I. Lenin on 5 March 1920, provided that “postage stamps with denominations of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 14, 15 and 20 kopecks are to have their value increased, for sale and for payment of correspondence, by 100 times.” However, the public held a significant quantity of stamps previously purchased at the old price, as well as stamps from the stocks of post offices that had been looted during changes of власть in the years of the Civil War.
In the markets, rag-and-bone dealers sold stamps to the public in sheets for household needs (pasting windows, etc.), and we, then beginning collectors, used them as stickers. They were of no philatelic interest at that time.
In a telegram from the head of the provincial postal administration of Kharkiv Governorate dated 16 February 1920, addressed to the heads of postal-telegraph and postal institutions of Kharkiv Governorate, it was proposed to immediately cease selling to the public low-denomination postage stamps from one to 20 kopecks inclusive, and to store the stamps themselves until further instructions. Stamps in the hands of the public were to be accepted without hindrance in payment for correspondence.
A subsequent telegram ordered that all the specified low-denomination postage stamps be sent to the Kharkiv post office for the application of a surcharge marking reflecting the value increased 100-fold, and, if necessary, to request from the post office the dispatch of stamps already bearing the applied surcharge. It further indicated the withdrawal from sale of 1, 5, 7, and 10 ruble stamps and the cancellation of paying for correspondence in cash from the moment the institutions were supplied with postage payment signs.