A blog reader asked my about my opinion regarding this item currently offered at Raritan.
This looks like a typical official document. The Etchmiadzin cancel shows a date stamp reading (most likely) 4.8.22. I am always skeptical when seeing these bureaucratic documents with a non fiscal stamp.
The scan is not really good. Too low res. There is potential for improvement. If I ask a buyer to spend 400 bucks upwards for an item – and we all know forgeries are not rare in the world of Armenian postal items – I would certainly see it as my duty to provide a good scan. Let us say at least 600 DPI.
My conclusion (from the bad scan): stamp and narrow “2” overprint are genuine. Cancel is fake and stamp added to the document at a later time.
If Raritan or the buyer can provide a better scan I offer to recheck this item for free!
Additional thoughts
The time stamp of the cancel reads 4.8.22. This falls in the period of the gold kopeck issues. Postal rate at that time was – according to Ahsford/Tchilinghirian – from May to August 1922 at 3 to 4 Kopecks for a letter. The overprint itself (2 on 500 rubles) belongs to the third gold kopeck issue, which was produced in and used from January 1923. Again this leads to the conclusion that the stamp was added later.
I can read Armenian. The text is about a meeting that took place in Ashtarak town ladies committee. I wonder why they would send the wire from Etchmidzin if Yerevan much more closer. Also the written text has lots of elementary grammatical and vocabulary errors it could be due to the education level of the person who wrote it.
On the right corner there is a rubber stamp which is not complete. looks like something was pilled out.
Actually it is sent from Ashtarak to Echmiadzin via Yerevan. So I take my words back.
Stefan made a nice study on this faked postal item. Erivan postmark is fake and the stamp was added to the geniune document just in recent years. Fortunately the “forgery master” did not study the Armenian postal history and used a postage stamp with the overprint (2 on 500 rubles) which belongs to the third gold kopeck issue. Actually this issue was introduced and used from late November 1922. During the recent years we meet many faked postal items based on genuine official documents with this sort of manipulation. Some of them are well done imitations.