2nd issue of Armenia postage stamps. Type 1.
Russian stamps of the 1909–1917 issues, as well as stamps of the First issue of Armenia, were overprinted with a monogram. The overprint did not change the face value of the stamps; its purpose was to record the new state affiliation of Armenia’s stamps, to require the population to purchase stamps only through the post office counter, and—by excluding the possibility of paying for postal services with stamps obtained from speculators to the detriment of the post—fully to protect the financial interests of the postal administration.
A significant number of provisionals is connected with the Civil War of 1918–1922. At that time, across most of the country there was no stable central authority; many regions became independent, and due to devastation and war there was considerable 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 directives of the People’s Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs of the RSFSR, which did not provide for any overprints. However, locally, some post offices nevertheless applied overprints to the revalued stamps being sold, or simply wrote on them by hand. All these stamps are characterized by an extremely simple overprinting technique.