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Preview of Stamps Catalogue: VOLUME 2

RUSSIA, Eagle issues, large sizes

Return To Catalogue - Russia overview - Eagle issues, small sizes

Note: on my website many of the pictures can not be seen! They are of course present in the catalogue;
contact me if you want to purchase the catalogue.

For various overprints on these issues, click here.

1889 Double headed eagle, larger size

Without thunderbolts below the eagle in the posthorns

3 R 50 black and grey


(Zoom-in of the posthorn part: no thunderbolts)

  3 R 50 black and grey
  7 R black and yellow

Value of the stamps

 
vc = very common
c  = common
*  = not so common
** = uncommon
 
*** = very uncommon
R   = rare
RR  = very rare
RRR = extremely rare
Value Unused Used Remarks
Watermark 'Wavy lines', perforated 13 1/2 (1884)
3 R 50 RR RR Horizontally or vertically laid paper
7 R RR RR Vertically laid paper only 
With thunderbolts below the eagle (the thunderbolts represent telegraphic usage)

7 R black and yellow

5 R blue and green, perforated
(Reduced size)


1 Ruble, perforated 11 1/2.

Perforated
  1 R brown and orange (1889) 
  3 R 50 k black and grey (1889)
  3 R 50 k brown and green (1917)
  5 R blue and green (1906)
  7 R black and yellow (1889)
  7 R green and red (1917)
  10 R red, yellow and grey (1906)

Value of the stamps

 
vc = very common
c  = common
*  = not so common
** = uncommon
 
*** = very uncommon
R   = rare
RR  = very rare
RRR = extremely rare
Value Unused Used Remarks
1 R ** c Perforated 13 1/2 or 11 1/2 (***)
Watermark wavy lines
Horizontally or vertically laid paper
1 R c c Perforated 13 1/2 or 12 1/2 (*), on paper with
varnished 'Lozenges' pattern on the front (1909)
3 R 50 black and grey * * Perforated 13 1/2
Horizontally or vertically laid paper
3 R 50 brown and green c c Perforated 13 1/2 or 12 1/2
5 R *** * Perforated 13 1/2 or 11 1/2 (RR)
7 R black and yellow * * Perforated 13 1/2
Vertically laid paper only
7 R green and red * * Two types: single or double outer line
Perforated 13 1/2 or 12 1/2.
10 R *** * Perforated 13 1/2

stamp of Finland

The stamps 1 R, 3 R 50 k black and grey and 7 R black and yellow with small circles added in the design were issued for Finland (see picture above). 

Imperforate (with thunderbolts, 1915)

10 R red, yellow and grey

  1 R brown and orange
  3 R 50 k brown and green
  5 R blue and green
  7 R green and red
  10 R red, yellow and grey

Value of the stamps

 
vc = very common
c  = common
*  = not so common
** = uncommon
 
*** = very uncommon
R   = rare
RR  = very rare
RRR = extremely rare
Value Unused Used Remarks
1 R c vc I've seen misplaced and inverted central parts
also misplaced background patterns
3 R 50 c *  
5 R c c  
7 R * *  
10 R *** ***  


The watermark as seen on part of a sheet of 1 R stamps

Errors, inverted centers:


Inverted centers

Forgeries: Fournier has made forgeries of the 3R50 and 7R without thunderbolt stamps. They are quite deceptive. He offers them for 4 Swiss Francs (both values) in his 1914 pricelist as first choice forgeries. Luckily, the cancels are always the same (even the date), this seems an easy way to detect these forgeries. Examples of Fournier forgeries:


(Fournier forgeries, reduced sizes)


(Reduced sizes)

Above, some of the cancels used by Fournier are shown. The following cancels seem to exist:
St.Petersburg 21 May 1888
St.Petersburg 12 June 1889
Noworadomsk 12 June 1886
Kovno 8 June 1886
Lubni 7 November 1887
Moscow 14 December 1888
Riga 1 June 1888


(A Fournier forgery with inverted eagle center part? Not listed anywhere, but it has the 'St.Petersburg 21 May 1888' cancel)

According to 'The forged Stamps of all Countries' by J.Dorn two plates were used to make these forgeries. Some distinguishing characteristics:



Senf made a forgery of the imperforate 1 R value. This forgery was distributed with stamp journal the 'Illustrierten Briefmarken Journal', No 13 (6 July 1889, thus long before the imperforate stamps of 1915 were issued) as an 'art supplement' or 'Kunstbeigabe':


Senf forgery of the 1 R, I've been told that the 7 R is also a Senf forgery.

The thunderbolt stamps have sometimes been overpainted to pretend to be stamps without thunderbolts. However, they can be detected by the fact that the posthorns are smaller in the stamps with thunderbolt (sorry, no picture of such a forgery yet).


Postal forgery of the 3R50 value, used in Warsaw (also known to have been used in Litzmannstadt). This forgery was printed on margins of sheets of the 1 R value (on the left part of the left forgery, a genuine 1 R can still be seen); therefore the left, upper and lower perforation are genuine, the right perforation was added (the perforation is not straight in the right forgery). Only about 20 of such forgeries are known (left stamp reduced size)


Another postal forgery, is this the same as the above one?

According to the 'Russian post in the Empire, Turkey, China and the post in the kingdom of Poland' by S.V.Prigara postal forgeries of the perforated 3R50 exist (thunderbolts issue), some with a Lodz cancel (see image above).

The following large stamp was issued in 1863 to be used in the Russian post offices in the Turkish empire:

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer