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South Russia: Don Cossack Republic

October, 1918

South Russia 1a  

South Russia Scott #6
  South Russia Scott #6 xxx

Perforated 14 x 14½ and imperforate, wove paper, no watermark, typographed.
Printed by Pryazovskii Krai, a newspaper in Rostov-on-Don.

Rostov issues. Surcharge on Russian stamps of 1909 -17
Description # issued Scott #
Imperforate. October, 1918
25 kopecks on 1 kopeck orange
 1,400,000 6
25 kopecks on 2 kopecks gray green
 10,000 7
25 kopecks on 3 kopecks red
 20,000 8
Perforated 14 x 14½. November, 1918
25 kopecks on 1 kopeck orange yellow
 100,000 1
25 kopecks on 2 kopecks dull green
 250,000 2
25 kopecks on 3 kopecks carmine
 150,000 3
25 kopecks on 4 kopecks carmine
 200,000 4
50 kopecks on 7 kopecks blue
 50,000 5

All issue quantities are approximate.

First issue consisted of 25 (kopecks) surcharges on contemporary 1, 2 & 3 kopeck imperforate Arms stamps (various printings). The printing order is known to have been given on September 26, 1918; actual issue date is unknown.

The press' limitations necessitated surcharging office sheets of 100 stamps one pane (of 5 X 5 stamps) at a time, and that somewhat awkwardly. As a result, there is a wide range of impression characteristics, due to the uneven pressures it exerted.

A fair number of mint copies (with a few cancelled by favour) were taken back to Germany by soldiers returning from World War I; postally used examples of these, however, are scarce (# 1) to rare (#s 2 & 3).

When these were issued, the ordinary letter rate was 25 kopecks. But after a little over a month in use, (in January of 1919), the Don Republic was obliged to subordinate itself to the Special Conference Government of General Denikin, which set the rate at 35 kopecks, making these almost useless for anything but the payment of money order- and parcel card fees, exascerbating the scarcity today of examples which actually went through the postal system and survived.

As with most Russian Civil War material, forgeries (both of the stamps themselves and of postmarks on them) are not uncommon.

All information on this page was generously contributed by Bill Wagner (WSRP, BSRP). He, and he alone, deserves all credit. Any errors in the presentation are solely the responsibility of the webmaster.

Get an overview of the South Russia issues around 1918 - 1920.

FI ref: 472 Page credit: JA

Page created 19 Feb 2014 Page updated 04-Jul-2017