Diagonal overprint made with a hand rubber stamp. Print run: 1,700 copies.
At first, the stamps were produced only as actual need arose. Then, when collectors began to take an interest in them—collectors who did not hesitate to pay large sums for rare stamps—the issuance of these stamps gradually began to be adjusted 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 relatively small quantities—far below the actual need for them—so that the stock 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 as much as 100 rubles. Sometimes the chairman of the board used the following ingenious method: he ordered stamp issues with some exclusive feature compared with the rest of the order (an inverted numeral, a different color, imperforate, etc.), and in a limited quantity. He bought these issues in their entirety at face value for his personal ownership, and then sold them at a high price.
At the same time, even those stamp issues ordered by the board for the needs of the zemstvo post were often produced with certain special features to attract still greater attention from collectors.
Operations with stamps are conducted by the chairman of the board, P. P. Ganko, on an enormous scale. He has issued a stamp catalog in which some items (a one-kopeck stamp) are priced at 40 rubles. A complete set of various specimens of zemstvo stamps, printed with all sorts of artificial combinations—stamps turned upside down, lack of perforations, changes of color, etc.—is sold by him, with the exception of those that have already become the rarest and are valued at hundreds of rubles apiece, for 476 rubles 10 kopecks, whereas he himself acquired these stamps from his own board for 5 rubles 75 kopecks.
Among other things, in a 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 activities of the “collector-monopolist” P. P. Ganko, the audit commission says that the atmosphere in the zemstvo has become unbearable, exerting a demoralizing effect on the zemstvo service staff.
One of the members of the audit commission of the Poltava district 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 district zemstvo board is widely known. Major Russian collectors are also well acquainted with Mr. Ganko’s “trade.”
The audit commission’s report caused heated 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 that the actions of P. P. Ganko did not correspond to the dignity of the chairman of the board. The assembly adopted this resolution by secret ballot.
“Ardatov type” stamp is the philatelic name for the fifth design type used by EZGB for issuing zemstvo postage stamps starting in 1902. According to published sources, the name was assigned after Ardatov Uyezd, for whose stamps 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 district 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.).
In 1908, commemorative stamps were issued for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava.
Many issues depict the district 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.