The 3rd issue of Armenia’s postage stamps. Small monogram.
Ongoing inflation in Armenia required an increase in the postal and telegraph tariff. On October 15, 1919, a report by the Central Committee of postal and telegraph employees demanded a 100% increase in the existing rates for postal and telegraph correspondence. The new tariff, however, was introduced much later, and the payment standards were raised not by 100% but by 800–1000%. The third issue of Armenia’s 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 assortment increased significantly due to the purchase of postage stamps from private individuals on terms favorable to the postal administration.
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. During this time, there was no stable central authority across most of the country; many regions became independent, and amid devastation and war there was substantial inflation. Frequent tariff changes and the inability to supply the postal network with stamps of the required denominations led to periodic revaluations of existing stocks in accordance with instructions from the People’s Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs of the RSFSR, which did not provide for any overprints. However, in some localities certain postal offices still applied overprints to the revalued stamps being sold, or simply wrote the new values by hand. All these stamps are characterized by an extremely simple overprint technique.
In the Russian Empire, savings stamps were used from 1890.
On January 1, 1900, the third issue of Russian savings stamps took place. These were accumulation-purpose stamps of three denominations: 1, 5, and 10 kopecks.
The stamps were intended to be affixed to special accumulation 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 cancelled, most often by rolling a roller cancel of intersecting lines. Cancelled cards were destroyed after the установленный time period had elapsed. The introduction of such stamps gave low-income people the opportunity to save without visiting the bank offices and to buy stamps at any time and in different places.
In 1915, the use of savings stamps for their intended purpose was discontinued.
In 1918, due to a shortage of low-denomination postage stamps and the complete cessation of deposits into savings banks because of the outbreak of the Civil War, savings stamps denominated 1, 5, and 10 kopecks began to be used as postage stamps. The circulation of these stamps soon ceased on its own, since, as a result of the rapid depreciation of paper money, the postal tariff kept increasing, and low-denomination stamps for postage payment fell out of use.
This continued until March 1920, when, for the payment of postal items, due to the continuing падение of the value of money, stamps almost exclusively in ruble denominations became necessary.