Surcharge on the twenty-first nationwide charity issue.
Postage-and-charity stamps for the benefit of soldiers and their families. Artist Rikhard Germanovich Zarrin (Zarrinsh) was the author of the design of almost all Russian banknotes of the early 20th century and the first Soviet postage stamp.
On September 2, 1914, the head of the Main Administration of Posts and Telegraphs (GUPiT), V. Pokhvisnev, submitted a report to the Minister of Internal Affairs in which he noted that the Imperial Women’s Patriotic Society had already issued during the war with Japan “patriotic postage stamps, the proceeds from which went to the benefit of orphans of the active army.” After listing the conditions under which they had been issued and certain changes of the present day, the head of GUPiT concluded: “…considering that the right to issue patriotic stamps had once already been granted to the Imperial Women’s Patriotic Society, I would deem it proper… to authorize the issue of the said stamps, granting this right to the Society now as well.” Minister N. Maklakov agreed with this proposal.
The stamp design was developed with the participation of the EZGB.
On September 18, 1914, the Main Administration of Posts and Telegraphs gave advance notice to the postal and postal-telegraph offices of the empire about the issue of “patriotic” stamps with denominations of 1, 3, 7, and 10 kopeks, and reported that:
- the selling price of the stamps was set with a surcharge over the face value of 1 kopek for each stamp;
- postal and telegraph fees which, under the rules then in force, were paid with stamps, could be paid with patriotic stamps, with their face value, not the selling price, taken into account for settlement;
- the purchase of patriotic stamps and the payment of postal items with them were not obligatory for anyone and were left to the discretion of senders.
The stamps of the Imperial Women’s Patriotic Society were officially used as postage stamps during 1914–1917. During this period, they could be used to pay for all types of postal correspondence.
The sale of patriotic stamps was ordered to be discontinued on November 19, 1917 (order of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs No. 62338 of August 19, 1917).
However, these stamps remained in postal circulation for quite a long time thereafter.