Diagonal handstamped overprint. Print run: 1,560 copies.
At first, the stamps were produced only as actual need arose. Later, when collectors—willing to pay large sums for rare stamps—became interested in them, 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 business grew up around zemstvo stamps, 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—so that stocks would quickly be exhausted and they would become scarce.
The price of such rare stamps rose to fabulous figures: for a 3-kopeck stamp, enthusiasts paid 100 rubles. Sometimes the board chairman used a truly “genius” method: he ordered stamp issues with some exceptional feature differing from the rest of the order (an inverted numeral, a different color, imperforate, etc.), and in limited quantity. He then bought these issues in full at face value into his personal ownership and later sold them at a high price.
Along with this, even those stamp issues ordered by the board for the needs of the zemstvo post were often produced with certain special features to attract even greater attention from collectors.
Stamp operations were conducted by the board chairman, P.P. Ganko, on an enormous scale. He published a stamp catalog in which some items (of one kopeck) were priced at 40 rubles. A complete set of various examples of zemstvo stamps printed with all sorts of artificial combinations—inverted (upside-down) cancellations, absence of perforations, color changes, etc.—is sold by him, except for those already the rarest and valued at hundreds of rubles apiece, for 476 rubles 10 kopecks, whereas he himself bought these stamps from his own board for 5 rubles 75 kopecks.
Among other things, in one foreign magazine these operations are advertised with an image of the “seal for parcels of the Poltava zemstvo board.”
Citing a number of characteristic examples of the activities of the “collector-monopolist” P.P. Ganko, the audit commission says that an intolerable atmosphere has developed in the zemstvo, one that has a demoralizing effect on the zemstvo clerical staff.
One of the members of the audit commission of the Poltava district zemstvo, Mr. Bykov, learned about Mr. Ganko’s business 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 “business.”
The audit commission’s report provoked heated debate.
Summoned to answer, Mr. Ganko denied selfish motives in his enterprise.
“I was a collector, like many others,” he declared.
The audit commission proposed that the assembly recognize that P.P. Ganko’s actions were not in keeping with the dignity of the board chairman. The assembly adopted this resolution by secret ballot.
Monuments Series. The first commemorative issue of zemstvo stamps was released in Poltava District in 1909. It was dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the defeat of the Swedes at Poltava and consisted of 7 stamps.
The stamps were printed at one of the best printing houses of the time, Golike and Vilborg in St. Petersburg, and enjoyed great success. Their format, the theme of the design, and the design itself were unusual for that era.
On 5 of them, several monuments erected in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava are shown in a picturesque frame. On the 1- and 2-kopeck stamps, the monuments installed on the battlefield in 1909 are depicted. The third stamp (3 kopecks) features the “Monument of Glory” located in Poltava; the fourth (5 kopecks) reproduces a monument honoring the commandant of the Poltava garrison. The 6-kopeck stamp shows a monument erected in 1849 on the spot where Peter I rested after the battle. The 10-kopeck stamp depicts the burial site of Russian soldiers who died in the Battle of Poltava. The last stamp in the series (15 kopecks) bears a portrait of Peter I.
On March 1, 1903, the zemstvo post of Poltava District (Poltava Governorate) was opened. Mail was dispatched twice a week from the district center, the city of Poltava, to 17 volosts of the district. 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.).
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.