Estonia

Friday, November 22, 1918

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	Estonia, Scott #1	xxx

Imperforate, no watermark, lithography.
Printed by G. Bolau in Nomme.

Date	Description	# printed	Scott #	SG#	Mi#	Y&T#
November 22, 1918	5 kopek pale red	1,941,427	1	1
November 30, 1918	15 kopek bright blue	3,592,866	2	2

About 3,000 of #2, the 15 kopek, were issued perf 11½, mostly taken from printers waste, resulting in paper folds, smudgy prints and other printing flaws. This was a trial run for perforated stamps.
Quite often perforated examples of #1 are found, too. Several postmasters had these sent out to be privately perforated for ease in separating in their own post offices.
Some sources have the issue date as the 24^th - but since that was a Sunday, we chose the more plausible date of Friday 22^th.
These stamps were valid until July 1, 1926.

5 kopek printings
Date	Description	# printed	Scott #
November 22 - 28, 1918	5 kopek, first printing	514,000	1
December 11 - 17, 1918	5 kopek, second printing	509,000	1
March 5 - 6, 1919	5 kopek, third printing	304,000	1
April 2 - 5, 1919	5 kopek, fourth printing	614,000	1

The first printing is distinguishable by the fact that it shows through to the back quite clearly. If you look closely you'll notice that the printing is backwards.

15 kopek printings
Date	Description	# printed	Scott #
November 30 - December 5, 1918	15 kopek, first printing	504,000	2
December 19 - 23, 1918	15 kopek, second printing	508,000	2
March 10 - 14, 1919	15 kopek, third printing	509,000	2
April 10 - 17, 1919	15 kopek, fourth printing	1,025,000	2
June 21 - July 3, 1919	15 kopek, fifth printing	1,052,000	2

All issue quantities are approximate.
The individual printing numbers appears to be rounded, if the total numbers are correct.

Summarising Gibbons [1], Estonia was acquired from Sweden by Russia in 1721 by Peter the Great, following the Great Northern War. Estonia declared independence on 24th Feb 1918 following the Russian Revolution.

Changes of Administration

Europe

36a


Dorpat (Tartu) Occupation	German Occupation	Independence
1918 Sc-N1 SG1	1941 Sc-N3 SG3	1991 Sc200 SG161

Estonia was occupied by Germany during both the First and Second World Wars. In the First, stamps of the Eastern Command were used with a specific issue for Dorpat (Tartu), SC-N1 & N2. For the second, there were specific stamps, Sc-N3 - N5.
Russia occupied Estonia in June 1940 and it was incorporated into the Soviet Union that August.
Estonia became independent on 20th Aug 1991.

Link: Breakup of the USSR

Sources: ScC, SGP10 [1].

Images from David Olson, ebay.

FI ref: 477, 745

Page credit: NB

Page created 19 Feb 2014

Page updated 26 JUn 2014

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