The 3rd issue of Armenian postage stamps. Small monogram.
Ongoing inflation in Armenia required an increase in the postal and telegraph rate. On October 15, 1919, a report by the Central Committee of postal and telegraph employees stated a demand to raise the existing pricing of postal and telegraph correspondence by 100%. The new rate, however, was introduced much later, and the payment norms were increased not by 100% but by 800–1000%. The third issue of Armenian postage stamps consisted of an overprint of the second monogram and a new value in rubles on Russian stamps of the 1909–1917 issues, whose stock and range had increased significantly due to the purchase of postage stamps from private individuals on terms favorable to the postal administration.
The stamps of the third issue were in postal circulation from March 1920 through June 1921 inclusive.
A significant number of provisionals is associated with the Civil War of 1918–1922. At that time, there was no stable central authority in most of the country, many regions became independent, and due to devastation and war there was substantial inflation. Frequent changes in rates and the inability to supply the postal network with stamps of the required denominations led to periodic revaluations of available stocks in accordance with directives of the People’s Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs of the RSFSR, which did not provide for any overprints. However, in some places, certain post offices still applied overprints to the revalued stamps being sold or simply wrote on them by hand. All of these stamps are characterized by an extremely simple overprint technique.
In the Russian Empire, savings stamps were used starting in 1890.
On January 1, 1900, the third issue of Russian savings stamps took place. These were savings-purpose stamps in three denominations: 1, 5, and 10 kopecks.
The stamps were intended to be affixed to special savings forms issued free of charge at savings banks. The forms were designed to be filled with stamps of a single denomination. After the form was filled, it was submitted to the savings bank and the corresponding amount was credited to the depositor’s account. The stamps affixed to the card were canceled, most often by rolling a roller cancel of intersecting lines. Canceled cards were destroyed after the установленный period. The introduction of such stamps gave low-income people the opportunity to save without visiting the bank and to buy stamps at any time and in different places.
In 1915, the use of savings stamps for their direct purpose was discontinued.
In 1918, due to a shortage of low-denomination postage stamps and the complete cessation of deposits in savings banks because of the civil war that had begun, savings stamps in denominations of 1, 5, and 10 kopecks began to be used as postage. The circulation of these stamps soon ceased on its own, since, due to the rapid падение of the value of paper money, the postal rate kept rising, and low-denomination postage stamps fell out of use.
This continued until March 1920, when, to pay for postal items, due to the ongoing decline in the value of money, stamps almost exclusively of ruble denominations were required.