Typographic overprint. Type 2. Print run: 136 copies.
At first, the stamps were produced only as they were actually needed. 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 adapted not to the needs of the zemstvo, 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 the eyes of collectors, the stamps were produced in relatively small quantities—far below the real need for them—with the aim that the supply 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 up to 100 rubles. Sometimes the chairman of the board used such a brilliant technique: he ordered issues of stamps with some exceptional feature distinguishing them from the rest of the order (an inverted numeral, a different color, imperforate, etc.), and in a limited quantity. He bought such issues in their entirety at face value into his personal ownership, and then sold them at a high price.
Along with this, even those issues of stamps that were ordered by the board for the needs of the zemstvo post were often produced with some special features to attract still greater attention from collectors.
Stamp dealings were conducted by the chairman of the board, P.P. Ganko, on an enormous scale. He published a stamp catalog in which some specimens (of one kopeck) are priced at 40 rubles. A complete set of various examples of zemstvo stamps printed with all kinds of artificial combinations—stamps inverted upside down, lack of perforation, change 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 purchased 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 activities of the "collector-monopolist" P.P. Ganko, the audit commission says that the atmosphere in the zemstvo has become unbearable, having a demoralizing effect on the zemstvo service staff.
One of the members of the audit commission of the Poltava county zemstvo, Mr. Bykov, learned about Mr. Ganko's trade by chance while abroad. It turns out that among foreign collectors the modest name of the chairman of the Poltava county zemstvo board is widely known. Russian major collectors are also well acquainted with Mr. Ganko's "trade."
The audit commission's report caused heated debate.
Summoned to account, 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 the actions of P.P. Ganko as not befitting the dignity of the chairman of the board. The assembly adopted this resolution by secret ballot.
The "Ardatov type" stamp is the philatelic name for the fifth design type used by EZGB for issuing zemstvo postage stamps from 1902. According to published sources, the name was assigned after Ardatovsky Uyezd, for whose stamp printing 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 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 highly 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 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 cancelled with round, oval, and rectangular handstamps.